- Hey everybody. Welcome back to Swift Guitar Lessons for another song tutorial. Today we're gonna be diggin'
into some classic blues as I break down my approach to playing "Nobody Knows You When
You're Down and Out." Now my arrangement is
going to draw inspiration from the Eric Clapton version, both the "Unplugged" and
also his live performances, including some of my own embellishments. Now I have a full tab and also a chord sheet for you at Patreon.com/Swiftlessons. There you can find extra resources for all my popular YouTube guitar lessons. Now let's get started with a full demonstration of the tune. I want you to study it and see what you can
figure out on your own. From there, I'm gonna break it down for you step by step. Let's get started. A one, two, three, four. ♪ Once I lived the life of a millionaire ♪ ♪ Spent all my money without a care ♪ ♪ Took all my friends out
for a mighty good time ♪ ♪ Bought bootleg liquor,
champagne, and wine ♪ ♪ And then I began to fall so low ♪ ♪ Lost all my good friends ♪ ♪ Had nowhere to go ♪ ♪ When I get my hands on a dollar again ♪ ♪ I'll hang on to it
'til that eagle grins ♪ ♪ Because nobody knows you ♪ ♪ When you're down and out ♪ ♪ In your pocket ♪ ♪ Not one penny ♪ ♪ And as for friends ♪ ♪ You ain't got any ♪ ♪ And when you get back
on your feet again ♪ ♪ Everybody wants to
be a long lost friend ♪ ♪ It's mighty strange ♪ ♪ Without a doubt ♪ ♪ Nobody knows you when
you're down and out ♪ ♪ 'Cause nobody knows you ♪ ♪ When you're down and out ♪ ♪ In your pocket ♪ ♪ Not one penny ♪ ♪ And as for friends ♪ ♪ You ain't got any ♪ ♪ And when you get back
on your feet again ♪ ♪ Everybody wants to
be a long lost friend ♪ ♪ It's mighty strange ♪ ♪ Without a doubt ♪ ♪ Nobody knows you ♪ ♪ Nobody knows you ♪ ♪ Nobody knows ya when
you're down and out ♪ Let's break that down. Okay, a close look at the prep board, gettin' started breaking down this classic blues song originally written by 1920s pianist
extraordinaire, Jimmy Cox, and made famous by the likes of Bessie Smith and Eric Clapton. So gettin' started with our intro section, we're in the key of C
and standard tune in. We're gonna be using finger style, kind of like a Travis style, finger pickin' technique, meanin' our thumb is goin' to control the base
notes E, A, and D string, and our index, middle, and ring fingers can be used to control the G, B, and high E strings. Okay, so let's get started learning how to play the chord progression, which is full of borrowed shapes. Actually, what the composer is using here is called secondary dominance. This is a technique that allows us to take chords that are typically minor within a diatonic key and turn them into dominant seven chords. Okay, so with that in mind, here is the underlying chord progression. You need to memorize this first. It's gonna be C major, one, two. E major, or E dominant 7. That leads us to the next chord, A dominant 7. That's the secondary dominant to D minor. Back to A7 and D minor, one, two, three, four. Next, a climb. F major 7. F sharp, diminished. To a C and A7. Next D dominant 7. To a G dominant 7 to finish it off. Put that together and we've got one, two, and three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four. F major 7, diminished. C, A7, D dominant 7. And G dominant 7. All right, now the one very unique thing that's gonna happen with this chord progression in terms of the rhythm, is each chord is going to come in a half beat early, meaning the thumb is going to strike the root note of each chord, one eighth note before the beginning of the next measure. Very, very cool. All right, now that you have the chord progression in mind and memorized, let's get down this intro with the finger pickin'. It's gonna look and sound like this at a slow pace. A one, two, three, four, and one, two, and three. And one. And fill. And then into the verse section you go. Okay, breaking that up into three lines of tablature, which again, you can print out at Patreon.com/Swiftlessons. Gettin' started with line number one. Again, it looks and sounds like this. Ending with the open D string, which would usher in the next chord, D minor and line number two. Okay, so that started
with the C major chord. We're gonna play the base note and then an upstroke using the middle finger on the B, G, and the D strings. All right, so one, two,
three, four, and one. All right, next we're
gonna slap the strings and take the E major chord
and transition to E7. And then the A chord comin'
in a half beat early. Okay, so I took my E major chord, I'm hittin' the base note. Next, I can just do a hammer on onto the G string first fret, but if I have the experience for it, I can play a little trill. Following that, we have
the open high E string, and then the third foot of the B string. The dominant 7 implying E dominant 7. So if we have and one, two. All right, next go to
the A dominant 7 chord frets two, two, two, three. All right, so then we're gonna have, very cool technique there. Remember we went to that
chord a half beat early, played the B in the G string. Next measure, base, base, highs, highs, slap, base, highs. All right, from there the open D string ends that measure and gets us into line number two. So far you have, you put all three, well really two measures together in line number one, and we have and one, two, and three, and four, and one, and two, and three, and four and. It's so important that you practice playing really slow and count as you go, so that way you can really lock into the rhythm. Okay, now gettin' into line number two. It's gonna sound like this. All right, and that last root note there is going to be for C major, gettin' us into line number three. Okay, so that began
with the D minor chord. Measure number three, get
it into your ear first. And that last D minor
chord is going to ring into the next measure. Okay, so that was up, up
with the middle finger. Next a triplet, one, two, three. That was a slap of the strings. The D string followed by an upstroke on the B and G strings. So far you have one, and two, and up. All right next, A7 back to D minor. We're gonna play. All right, so that was A, an upstroke on the B and G, then another upstroke including the high E before quickly jump
into the D minor chord. Put that measure together, we have one, and two, and
a three, and four and. All right, the next
measure, we're gonna play a walk up. We have the D minor chord ringing through. Next we play base up, up, followed by oh one, two, three. Put measures three and four together. It should sound like this. A one and two, and a three and four, and one, and two, and three, and four and. All right, now the final measure of line number two should sound like this. All right, with that last note being for the C chord in the next measure. All right, so there we had F major 7. I'm gonna play upstroke. High E then back to the B string. So one and two. Next, reach your pinky out to the fourth fret of the D string. This is going to be F
sharp half diminished. All right, so the exact
same picking pattern. Then finally the last eighth, eighth note, the third fret of the A string, the root note to the C chord. Put all of line number two together and it should sound like this, D minor. All right, that gets us
to line number three, which will look and sound like this. Next, we have G7, but we can play this great little lick. ♪ Once I lived the life of a millionaire ♪ And then into the verse. Okay, so that started
with measure number six. We're playin'. All right, so that was the
base note of the C chord last measure followed by the upstroke. Next, the walk down two, one, zero, followed by an upstroke on the A7 chord using this two-finger configuration. D string second fret,
B string second fret. All right, so so far you have, next the high E string, back to the B and G, followed by the open D string, which is gonna get us
into the next measure using D dominant 7. Next, we're gonna play up, up, slap, base, up, up, slap. Followed by. Okay, so there I'm picturing the G major pentatonic scale. Maybe the G major blues scale since I'm using some chromatics, and I'm playing the lick. Oh, three, oh, one, two, oh, two, three, two, oh, three. The end of the lick kinda switches to the C major scale. Okay, so one more time. Oh, three, oh, one, two, oh, two, three, two, oh, three. Okay in that last note there, that C note on the A string third fret is going to be the base note for the incoming chord C major and the beginning of the verse section. Okay, you put that entire intro together, and it should sound
like this nice and slow. We're gonna do our best
to count along as we go. One, two, three, four, and one, two, and three, and four, and one, and two, and three, and four, and one, and two, and a three, and four, and one, and two, and three, and four, and one, and two, and three, and four, and one, and two, and three, and four, and one, and two, and
three, and four, and, and one. Okay, now as you move
into the verse section, I want you to keep in mind that you can include as many of those embellishments, those cool licks, those cool movements into your verse as you want. But what I'm gonna give you for your verse sections is something much more stripped down and easier to sing on top of. Okay, excellent work, everybody. You have that intro section down. Now from here, everything's
gonna get a lot easier. We have those stripped down techniques that we have for the verse sections. First, a demonstration. It's gonna look and sound like this. A one, two, three, four. ♪ Once I lived the life of a millionaire ♪ ♪ Spent all my money ♪ ♪ Didn't have a care ♪ ♪ Took all my friends out
for a mighty good time ♪ ♪ Bought bootleg liquor,
champagne, and wine. ♪ All right, then verse number two is gonna be the exact same thing. Okay, taking that measure by measure, I'm going to play through it and kind of call out what I'm playing. So I'm starting off an eighth note early, hittin' the base note of the C chord. Base up and slap, E up, up, slap, A up, slap, and up, up, slap D. Okay, now measures three and four, we're going back and forth between D minor, A7, and then back to D minor for a full measure. So that's going to be. Ending with the open D string, bringing us into the second line of tablature where we're gonna have a slight difference in our technique. You put all of line number one of our verse section together and it should sound like this. A one, two, three, four, and one, and slap, E up,
up, slap, A up, slap, and up, up, slap D, D minor, A7, D minor. All right, now demonstratin'
line number two. It's gonna look and sound like this. All right, ending on a C note to get us into verse number two. Okay, so there I start off
with the F major 7 chord, I'm gonna use my thumb and middle finger to strike all three strings, D, G, and B, followed by the open high E and a slap, so one and two. Next on the end, reach for the fourth fret of the D string. We're going to that half diminished cord. All right, so that was D, an upstroke, high E string, followed by a slap. Next we have the C major chord. We're gonna play that walk down just like we did in our intro section. All right, so that was base up, two, one, oh, up, E slap. Then the open D string gets us to D dominant 7 where we're gonna play base, up, up, slap,
base, up, up, slap, followed by G dominant 7, base, up, up, slap, base, up, up, slap, C. With those root notes still comin' in a half beat early. Those chords kind of rollin'
on top of one another. Okay, put that entire
line of music together, it should sound like this. One, and two, and three, and four, and one, and two, and three, and four, and one, and two, and three, and four, and one, and two, and three, and four and. Okay, and our entire
verse section B applied to verse number two should sound like this with a little bit of vocals. ♪ Then I began to fall so low ♪ ♪ Lost all my good friends ♪ ♪ Had nowhere to go ♪ ♪ When I get my hands on a dollar again ♪ ♪ I'll hang on to it
'til that eagle grins ♪ ♪ 'Cause nobody knows you ♪ And that gets us into the chorus section. Okay, beautifully done, everybody. So far, you have the intro section and also the verses down. Now, great news, the choruses are going to be played almost
verbatim to the verses, just with one slight difference. So playing through it, you're gonna spot the difference here. ♪ 'Cause nobody knows you ♪ ♪ When you're down and out ♪ All that was verbatim. Now, here in the second line, here's where we have the
difference right here. All right, so instead of playing F major 7 to that diminished, we're gonna play and switch to a D7 slash F sharp chord. Base, up, up, slap. Then the walk down, and then the D7 chord just like before. Though it's worth noting that if you played it
the exact same way you've played it in the verse sections, that's still gonna sound great. Okay, so puttin' all that together, applyin' it to a chorus. ♪ 'Cause nobody knows you ♪ ♪ When you're down and out ♪ ♪ In your pocket ♪ ♪ Not one penny ♪ ♪ And as for friends, you ain't got any ♪ All right, there after the chorus in my demonstration, I performed an original guitar solo. You can click the card right here in the top corner to check out a full lesson breaking down the mindset of a pro soloist and each of those licks. Now, the last thing you need to learn is the outro chorus. It's played the exact same way except it's going to have this
momentous ending switching from D7 to F dominant 7. And I'm gonna take this opportunity to close up shop with a nice little blues lick. So it looks and sounds like this goin' to the end of the tune. ♪ Said it's strange ♪ ♪ Without a doubt ♪ ♪ Nobody knows you ♪ ♪ Nobody knows you ♪ Back to D7. ♪ Nobody knows you ♪ Lettin' that G dominant 7 ring out. ♪ When you're down and out ♪ All right, a great way to end the tune right there. So that was pretty basic. We have some rhythm options with this D dominant 7 chord. We're gonna have it for two measures. We can play down, up, chuck, up, down, up, chuck, up, down, up, chuck, up, down, up, chuck, up and do the exact same thing for the F dominant 7 chord. Down, up, chuck, up, down, up, chuck, up, down, up, chuck, up, down, up, chuck, up. Return back to the D7. Down, up, chuck, up, down, up, chuck, up. And then let the G
dominant 7 chord ring out. Okay, now let's end the tune. A little minor blues scale, key of C with the addition of the major third, which in this case is
going to be an E note. All right, that gives
it some major flavor. So here I'm gonna play. Okay, so right there I had the eighth fret blues string wrapped around with the thumb, followed by the minor third on the high E string. 11th fret with a slight bend followed by some triplets. That was eight, 11 on
the B, down to eight. Add that into the mix and we have. All right, then on the
G string I'm gonna play. All right, that was a
slide and a slide back. 10 going up to 11 and then back to 10, and then pulling off down a full step down to eight. So far we have. All right, there I'm on the 10th fret of the D string to kind of end that first part of the phrase, followed by 8, 9, 10. The minor third going
up to the major third. Classic blues right there. All right, following that, we can have an upstroke, open strings followed
by a C sharp 9 chord, down to C9 where we can resolve. All right, so that first chord, that's gonna be frets four, three, four, four, four. And just bring it down a half step. And let it ring out for dramatic effect. Okay, so finishing up the tune. ♪ Nobody knows you ♪ D7. ♪ Nobody knows you ♪ ♪ When you're down and out ♪ Just like that and
you're ready to perform. All right everybody, thanks so much for checking out this
blues guitar tutorial. I hope you enjoyed it. Lemme know what you think in the comment section down below, and be sure to share what song you think I should break down next. Big thanks to my supporters at Patreon.com/Swiftlessons. I hope you're enjoying
all those extra resources, and until next time,
this is Rob comin' at you from the Jersey Shore
saying happy picking. (upbeat music)
