Fortunate Son (John Fogerty) Guitar Lesson
Here’s a good old classic rock tune for today’s lesson: Fortunate Son. It’s got a great intro riff that will be instantly recognizable by anyone you play this for. Did I mention its also easy-peasy? Most of the riff is built on inverted third intervals (whew that’s a mouthful!). What I mean by that is the root note is on the B string, and they’re adding a third up from that root note (4 semitones), but dropping it an octave, thus inverting it (normally the lower note is the root, but in this case the lower is).
Take a look at the Em7 chord (barred, root on the 5th string -- 7th fret) and ignore the bar part. That is the first formation in the riff, right? The notes that are being played are B (4th string, 9th fret) and G (2nd string, 8th fret). The root note is the G, and we’re in the key of G. If you count up from G 4 semitones (G#, A, A#, B) you hit B. B is therefore a major third of G.
If you can figure out the theory behind this, you can start to see broader applications for the patterns that are being used in this riff (different keys, songs, etc). Let me know if you’d like to know more and maybe I’ll do a whole lesson on this topic.
You can also check out Blues Guitar Secrets as I know that course gets into the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of blues guitar, as opposed to just the ‘what’ which is pretty cool.
One other quick note. If you want to see the video larger, don’t forget you can click the button in the bottom right corner of the video player for full screen. You can also click on the HD for high definition (much better quality picture and sound).
Thus, without further ado, I’d like to present Fortunate Son (drum roll please….)
Leave a comment below and let me know what you think of this lesson. Do you like learning songs & riffs? Prefer something else? Have a favorite song you want to learn? Remember, GuitarTipsWeekly is very much a work in progress and I’m experimenting with different things to see what works best, but in order to do that I need to hear back from you as well.
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Hey I like the way you’ve added the fingerings for some of the chords. That helps!
I cant thank you enough for your lessons, they are helping be learn guitar so much better that going thru books, I am switching fron Bass to guitar and you are taking me along on a great path that has been easy and quick learning.
Thanks Tracy! I play bass about half the time myself as well – together they’re an excellent combination!
Jonathan, I’ve been trying to play acoustic for around a year now. I can play some songs with the most used chords including bass stroke and alternating bass. My problem is that when I change chords the neck of the guitar shifts around making it hard to change chords quickly and accurately. I remedy this by actually wrapping my strap around me and then sitting on it. It helps alot but I want to learn how to play in all postions, standing or sitting. I appreciate you videos. I watched the one on all the chords in the frets and really learned something useful. I think it will help when I try to learn to read music. Any advice on how to control the neck of my guitar?
Hi Wayne – that’s an interesting one to diagnose without being able to see how you play.
Here are a couple of ideas, hopefully one helps!
- Get a real grippy strap (ie, a leather one, or something with a grippy part). Some of the nylon ones are super slippery and make things worse.
- How hard are you gripping the neck? Your left hand shouldn’t be used to position the guitar very much – rather your hand should just be cradling the neck, not trying to hold it up.
- Try practicing with bar chords and move them up the neck, one or two frets at a time. For instance take an F major chord (barred) then play a G, then an A, and a B, C, D, E etc. Moving up the neck a little at a time will help you practice the movements.
That’s all that comes to me right now… but if you can describe it a little better I’ll try again =).
thanks for the lesson,good song choice
Thanks so much Jonathan your a real inspiration….I’m learning more every time i see your clips on line, one question do you honestly recommend “Learn and Master Guitar” i love the blues and will learn to play them clean and crisp someday …Dean
Thanks Dean!
In regards to the Learn and Master question – I just recently did a review on the course. You can read the entire thing here: Learn and Master Guitar Review
Everyone’s situation is different, and the guitar course that you choose to learn with should line up in some way with your goals. Learn and Master could be a good starting point to learn the guitar, from which you could get more specific towards blues… Most of the blues courses I’ve seen so far don’t deal with the guitar in general as much as they do the blues specifically – ie you already need to be at a certain level to take advantage of them.
Hope that helps!
Reminds me of my early bass guitar deays, as we used to say ( thats cool man.
Good lesson man. Playied an acoustic for a couple of years. You got me to by an electric. Now I practice two hours a day. peace.
Sweet! What kind of electric did you get?