Being Don Rich----> Play his licks

[Guran]

I haven't commented on this thread yet, as I've been too busy reading it. Awsome job lerb21, and thanks to getbent that got you started.

[Lerb21]

Originally Posted by getbent

hey lerb, tab out the main parts of 'made in japan' and I'll have a present for you.

Gettin' started right now. Hey at first glance it sounds a little like the Solo from "Lonesome Fugitive".

[Lerb21]

Ok Guys, here the intro and one of the first licks of "Made in Japan", I have my guitar tuned standard, but I think it might be easier if you tune down. Key of F.

-8-8-8\5--5-5-5\3--3-3-3--1--3b(5)-1-3b(5)r3---------
----------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------



-8-8-8\5--5-5-5-3-5-5/8-5-8----1---1b(3)r1-*--------------
---------------------------------3---3------------------------
----------------------------------------------------3b(5)r3---
---------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------

I don't know why, but on the bend marked by the * it is difficult for me to do. My guitar has pretty high action and I use thicker stings. Sometimes I just play the first fret, slide up to the third and then return.

Then here's that Japanese sounding lick


-3-3-1-3-3-1-3-3-5-3-1------------------------------------
---------------------------3---------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------


I'll be tabbing out some more here shortly (granted I can play them, Don was INSANE)

[guitarzan13]

Wow!! 16 years old!! Go Man Go!

[Twang]

This is officially my favorite Tdpri thread.

Ever.

[Lerb21]

Thanks guys. There is plenty of 16 year old guitarists out there, I'm just one of em'.

Here's the other major lick from "Made in Japan".

-------------------------------------------------------------
-1-h3-3-1-3\1-3-1-3\1-------------------------------------
------------------------2------------------------------------
--------------------------3----------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------

It's a very quiet background lick that Don play, the tab is a bit confusing but it mostly just deals with slides between the first and third fret on the b string then a little walk down to the F. The whole lick is play on an F chord. Or after the key change, F#.

[getbent]

lerb, I think you are on it.. but, I'm pretty sure they are double stops

[Lerb21]

Originally Posted by getbent

lerb, I think you are on it.. but, I'm pretty sure they are double stops

Aha! I think though they recorded two takes with Don playing melody and harmony. BRB!

[getbent]

could be, but, I'd bet that he just played two at the same time.. you can almost hear pick and fingers in unison...

[Lerb21]

Okay, now I think I've got something close, my ears are 'bad' as far as detecting harmony goes, but It's sound alright...?

-8-8-8\5--5-5-5\3--3-3-3--1--3b(5)-1-3b(5)r3----------
-6-6-6\3--3-3-3\1--1-1-1--1----------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------



-8-8-8\5--5-5-5-3-5-5/8-5-8----1---1b(3)r1---------------
-6-6-6\3--3-3-3-1-3-3/6-3-6--------3---3------------------
----------------------------------------------------3b(5)r3--
--------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------


Oh wait I'm an octave too low!

Okay got it now, tabbing.

[Lerb21]

Okay here we go!

-13-13-13\10--10-10-10\8--8-8-8--8--------------------------
-13-13-13\10--10-10-10\8--8-8-8--6--8b(10)-6-8b(10)r8-----
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Don then jump the harmony down an octave

-8-8-8\5--5-5-5-3-5/8-5-8----1---1--3v--1-----------
-6-6-6\3--3-3-3-1-3/6-3-6------3---------------------
----------------------------------------------------3b(5)r3--
--------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------

[getbent]

by jove, I think you've got it! excellent! I messed with my organ patches today to work on a backing track for it.

[Lerb21]

Originally Posted by getbent

by jove, I think you've got it! excellent! I messed with my organ patches today to work on a backing track for it.

Congrats on 10,000 getbent!

[rextasy]

Thanks, Lerb. I've already enjoyed your vids on youtube!

[geddins]

Excellent thread! Lerb, great job on diggin out the core of Don's stuff. He's the reason I ever even cared about pickin up a guitar.

Many thanks, your stuff sounds great.

[DaveG]

I did the whole song in Powertab a while back. Let me know if you have Powertab and I can send it, or how to attach it here and I'll do that.
I don't know how to format tab in these messages - it comes out all screwy for me. Is there a tool that makes it easy?

Dave G

[ut4ever8]

You're playing is impressive for a 16 year old but I've seen 16 year olds play well before. But I'm more impressed that a 16 year old is into playing Buck Owens/Don Rich type music. I thought I was a rarity for being into this stuff at 23. Great thread guys, and great work on all the tabs Lerb. Thanks for taking the time to do this. I just recently got in a bit of s slump where I'm bored with my playing, so although I've always been into country music, I am just know starting to expand my playing into that style and incorporate it into my playing. It looks like I can learn quite a bit here. Thanks again and keep up the good work bud.

[davidge1]

Originally Posted by ut4ever8

I'm more impressed that a 16 year old is into playing Buck Owens/Don Rich type music. I thought I was a rarity for being into this stuff at 23.

I was going to say the same thing after watching your videos on youtube yesterday. I was in my early 20s when I got really into Buck Ownes' music. My friends would look at me like I had just told them I was into Lawrence Welk... "the guy from heehaw?" ...of course that was 20 years ago. Things seem to have changed... all I can say is there's hope for the world yet!

Anyhow, this thread got me motivated to finally sit down and figure out the licks on Cadillac Lane (do you guys have this song?). It's got some of my favorite Don Rich playing...lots of funky/bluesy doublestop licks. I've got most of the guitar break down last night... as soon as Im finished I'll tab it out.

[Lerb21]

(Buck Owens when asked a question about Tom Brumley and Don Rich)

"Well, Tom, of course, was important. He played a great steel guitar and I loved working with Tom. He was with me through the '60s; a part of what many people [consider] the finest country band of its day. It included Don Rich, Tom Brumley, Doyle Holly playing the bass, Willie Cantu playing the drums. I played the guitar and whatever else. Many felt it was the finest five-piece country music band that had ever been put together. Don Rich was as much of the 'Buck Owens sound' as I was. I always felt as if I would have been a success, but Don Rich made it easy. He made it wonderful; it seemed like he could read what was in my head. It seemed like he could read whether I was going to sing a certain note in a certain way. I could write a whole book on Don Rich, his importance to music, his importance to the 'Buck Owens sound,' the 'Bakersfield sound.' Yes, how important were they? They were terribly, terribly important. Don Rich -- I don't know if I could express how important he was. I don't know if there are words to say that."

[Eliteubh]

Do you know "Think of Me, Open up your Heart, and Streets of Backersfield?"

[tele salivas]

Lerb, This is the best hijack ever, and with getbent cracking the whip, awesome! Thanks for making our practice so much easier, can't add anything except maybe some steel guitar tabs

[davidge1]

Here's my stab at the guitar break on Cadillac Lane (from the album Open Up Your Heart). I love the funky double stops Don Rich is doing on this song. He's actually uses a jazzy 7#9 chord sound (also known as the Hendrix chord) at the beginning of the lead (and in other parts of the song an octave lower). He's not playing the whole chord, just the two notes that give it the distinctive sound.

The single notes should mostly be played very stacatto. Note that I'm indicating a "T" for tremelo in two places. This refers to the mandolin technique of picking up and down very fast to get the effect of one long sustaining note... the first time going back and forth between two strings using the pick and one finger.

Also note that the lick that starts out my last line of tab. is almost identical to the lick I tabbed out in my previous post, only here it's done with single notes instead of double stops. It sounds cooler with the double stops, but Don Rich was obviously trying to vary it a little here, since it's (sort of) one of his signature licks.

Let me know what you guys think...

key of Ab (in A position with the guitar tuned down a half step)


----5-8-10-5--------5----------5-5--------------------5-5-----5
5-8---8-10-5-----------------------------------------------------
---------------7b9--------5-----5-7----5---7--5-7b9----7b9---
--------------------------7--7---------7---7---------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------


-8 (T)------------------------------------- 8--10b12 (T) --
--------------------5-7-5----------10------------------------
7b9(T)-9b7-5----5-7-5-----7/9-----9---------------------
------------------7---------7-------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------


--12b10-10-8-----------------------------------------------
-----------------------8/7-5-7-5-----------------------------
--------------------5-8/7-5-7-5/6(h)------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------

--5-4/5-5-8-7-5---5-7-5----------------------------------
--5-4/5-5--------7------------5-7-7-5/6--------5-7-7-5-
--------------------------------5-7-7-5/6(h)----5-7-7-5-
-----------------------------7-----------------7---------------
---------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------

[davidge1]

This lick follows the first line of vocals after the guitar break. This is the 7#9 sound again, an octave lower than in the guitar break.

------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------
---5-4/5-5-5-7-5---------------------------------
---5-4/5-5-5-7-5----5-7----------------------------
--------------------7---------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------

[Eliteubh]

If anyone has Cadillac Lane, could you send it to me please? I can't find it anywhere. viper_ao1@hotmail.com

Thanks

[davidge1]

eleteubh...you should get the whole album:

http://www.amazon.com/Open-Your-Hear...7422161&sr=8-1

One of Buck Owens best... the title cut features James Burton's blazing chicken pickin'.

[Leon Grizzard]

Lerbmeister - I'd like to hear your observations about Don Rich's practices over the IV and V chords, and how he approached keys other than A. (As long as you're not doing anything.)

[Lerb21]

Originally Posted by Leon Grizzard

Lerbmeister - I'd like to hear your observations about Don Rich's practices over the IV and V chords, and how he approached keys other than A. (As long as you're not doing anything.)

Let us start with our IV and V chords. These are a few licks I've disected in a few minutes by listening to Act Naturally form the Carnegie Hall Concert.

On the first bit, Buck stays on the first D chord in Act Naturally and of course, so does Don and the rest of the band. Play plays a few licks outta of this bending positon.

(This is how your fangers should be on that there fretboard)

----3---------------------------------------------------------
-123--------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------

allow me to elaborate. Put your first 3 fingers on the first three frets of the 'b' string and your pinkie on the 3rd fret of the 'e' string.

Don will periodically release his right and middle finger, giving you a C7th chord, but with just as quickly put them back on. That gives you that trade mark Buck Owens guitar sound.

Don will also bend up the 3rd fret on the 'b' string to a high 'e', simply listen to the live record and you'll hear what I'm talking about.



Also on 'D' chords, Don will pull out the Buckaroo lick... Dun Dun Dun....

-------0-2-3-2-0--------------------------------------------
-----3------------3------------------------------------------
---2---------------------------------------------------------
-0-----------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------

we all know how that one goes,


Over the 'E' (our V) chord Don's got a nice little lick we can all use.

-------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------
-2-0-2-5b-2-0----------------------------------------------
----------------3b-0----------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------

This time the 'b' indicates that you bend the note up a little bit, not really to a discernible note, but just bend it up.

Now and another (IV) D chord lick

-------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------
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--------------------3----------------------------------------
--5-5-5-3-5-5-3-5---5--------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------

Once again, Don loved to throw in those 7th's. Well they're not actually sevenths but if you played them in relation to the chord, then they'd be 7ths. Whatever. Don always went back to the good old "Play the root note, then the note a full step below, then the root note again."

Coming Soon: More Don Licks (*Including Different Keys!)

Preorder Now

[Lerb21]

Hey guys, just browsing throw my photoshop collection, and I noticed I had done this, and wanted to share it. It's from one of the Crystal Palace menu's. They had Don's Tele on there, and I decided to rip it out and save it. So here it is.

Don Guitar.jpg

[Lerb21]

Before we start tackling different keys, let's ponder Don for a little.

When Buck met Don, Don was a freshman at Centralia College studying to be a music teacher. That tells us a 2 main things.

-Don was obviously one hell of a fiddler before he even met Buck
-Don was well versed in music theory

Don later dropped out in June of 1960, married his high school sweetheart, and moved to Bakersfield where Buck hired him. I'm pretty darn sure Buck started teaching him guitar shortly thereafter.

Don with his already considerable musical talents and aptitude probably took to the Telecaster like a duck to water. Within two and a half years he played lead guitar on "Act Naturally".

Okay and what does this have to do with Don playing in keys other than 'A' (and 'Ab')?

Given Don's tremendous talent and aptitude, Don probably could switch the keys on his licks without even thinking. That necessarily doesn't mean that we can. This is just what I'm concluding after a little bit of time spent deducing and researching.

I still need to find some 'Tele Songs' Buck did that aren't in the key of A. 'Tiger by the Tail' and 'Made in Japan' come to mind.

In 'Tiger by the Tail' Don just plays some of his typical stuff down a string. I still need to analyze it a good bit more.

'Made in Japan' has Don doing the double stops discussed earlier and some typical Japanese sounding licks. Not much else.

I'll get back to you guys...

[Leon Grizzard]

I went out last weekend and bought the Rhino two volume greatest hits CDs. Now I need some darn free time in the woodshed to do justice these great posts.

[jsntg]

Not sure when Don gets serious about the guitar but by late 1961 he was a solid rhythm player weaving some sweet lines under Buck's vocals and alongside Tom Brumley's steel work. 'Close Up the Honky Tonks' is a great example of this.

Cut in either December of 1961 or June of 1962 this track features Don alternating between a boogie-woogie-like pentatonic bass walk and double stop. 3 chords. I, IV, V. Pretty formulaic but very Rich.

Attached is the notation. This includes Don's part as well as a loose transcription of the steel work.

Hugh

[davidge1]

Close Up the Honkytonks was recorded in 1961? I never knew what year most of these songs were recorded, but I always assumed the pre-Buckeroos songs with Ralph Mooney (Under The Influence of Love, Under Your Spell, Above and Beyond, etc.) were done in the early 60s. Then after that he the band that recorded the album On the Bandstand (Jay McDonald on steel, different bass player and drummer). Was any of that stuff actually from the late 50s?

[tele salivas]

Originally Posted by jsntg

Not sure when Don gets serious about the guitar but by late 1961 he was a solid rhythm player weaving some sweet lines under Buck's vocals and alongside Tom Brumley's steel work. 'Close Up the Honky Tonks' is a great example of this.

Cut in either December of 1961 or June of 1962 this track features Don alternating between a boogie-woogie-like pentatonic bass walk and double stop. 3 chords. I, IV, V. Pretty formulaic but very Rich.

Attached is the notation. This includes Don's part as well as a loose transcription of the steel work.

Hugh

thanks jsntg, just when I thoght things couldn't get any better, somebody lights anew fuse, bravo! great transcriptions,,,love tele salivas

[Simpleisgood]

This is a great thread. Just want to say thanks!

Vinnie

[jsntg]

...to the forum Vinnie!

[jhundt]

jsntg - I tried playing your transcription, but I can't figure out the fingering. Is there a capo involved? What key is the song in, and is your guitar tuned to a standard tuning? I would welcome any advice/suggestions about how you do left-hand fingering on the rhythm guitar parts. Unfortunately I don't have the Buck Owens recording, so I'm just trying to work it out from your tab (thanks very much for posting it, BTW).

[jsntg]

Originally Posted by jhundt

jsntg - I tried playing your transcription, but I can't figure out the fingering. Is there a capo involved? What key is the song in, and is your guitar tuned to a standard tuning? I would welcome any advice/suggestions about how you do left-hand fingering on the rhythm guitar parts. Unfortunately I don't have the Buck Owens recording, so I'm just trying to work it out from your tab (thanks very much for posting it, BTW).

Goede dag jhundt.

Tuning is standard. The key is C#. You can play it with or without a capo on the first fret. Since there are no open notes, I capo the first fret (easier on the hand). I've attached the fingering. 1=first finger, 2=middle, 3=ring, 4=pinky.

Here is a soundbite: It's the first 22 bars of the left channel which features the rhythm guitar.

In stereo and not mixed out, the rhythm guitar is subtle to the point of being inaudible as the bass guitar is matching the rhythm line in unison and harmony.

Hope this helps.

Hugh

[jhundt]

Thanks Hugh, that helps. I like the way you made the sound clip. Was that from the Amazing Slowdowner?

OK - now I get it! You transcribed the song in C#, played in standard tuning. And you did it very well... it's just difficult for me to play it this way.

But when I pulled out my official de-tuned Buck Owens Telecaster, I could play it quite easily in D, using all my old familiar cowboy chords.

[Leon Grizzard]

Originally Posted by Lerb21

Love's Gonna Live Here on the Buck Owens Ranch Show




The Tab is a little off, but pretty damn close...

---------------------------------------------3------------
------------------------------------1-3-3b(5)r3-1-------
----------0-2-0-2-0p-2--2-0-2--2----------------2-----
----------------------------------------------------------
--------0---------------0--------------------------------
-0-0-3---------------------------------------------------


------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------
--0----------------------------------------0-2h-0p---------
----2-0-------------------2-0-2-2-0-2-2-------------------
--------3-0-3-0-3-0--------------------------------3b-0---
----------------------3-0-----------------------------------

(I'm a little foggy on this bend)

-------3--1--3-------------------------------------------
--3b(5)-(hold)--(5)r3-1---7-7-8-7-5---------------------
---------------------------7-7-7-7-5---------------------
----------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------

The next bit is a very fine pentatonic run

--10-8-5------------------------------------------------
----------8----------5------------------------------------
-------------7b-5-5-------------------------------------
-----------------------7----2-0---------------------------
---------------------------------3--0----------------------
----------------------------------------------------------

Just in the interest of scholarship, I think I hear a B note on the G string lick at the end of the second line of tab:

-------------------
---4-2p-0p--------
--------------------
-------------------
-------------3b-0--
--------------------

and on the last line, aren't the E string notes double stops?

--10-8-5--
--10-8-5--

Not nitpicking, just trying to contribute.

[Lerb21]

Originally Posted by Leon Grizzard

Just in the interest of scholarship, I think I hear a B note on the G string lick at the end of the second line of tab:

-------------------
---4-2p-0p--------
--------------------
-------------------
-------------3b-0--
--------------------

and on the last line, aren't the E string notes double stops?

--10-8-5--
--10-8-5--

Not nitpicking, just trying to contribute.

I know you're not nitpicking, I'm trying to get his right too.

Your right about the notes (at the end) being double stops

I'll check out the other bit as well

Thanks!