TFB Lesson 3 - Layla - Eric Clapton/Derek and the Dominos

Evo · November 2022

Welcome back fret boarders!

I'm back again with another track for you, this time it's the love it or hate it, undeniable classic...LAYLA!

Cover -

Tab - Here

Advice

An undeniable classic, but also undeniably tricky in places.

We start out with the instantly recognisable hammer on/pull off riff on the open strings, spend the time on this and get it running smoothly. As guitarists we have a tendency for accuracy to go down as speed goes up, so keep it under control and fight the urge to just let your fingers flail away and hope for the best. Immediately after the riff we have a run of power chords, these were recorded by a second guitar on the original track but if you're a more advanced player then these are definitely possible to play on your own. Don't feel disheartened if you can't quite make it there in time, it's a difficult leap for your fingers to make and there's no shame in focussing on the main riff.

Speaking of which!

After twice through the open string variant, we have the riff in all its glory shifted a couple of octaves higher.

Same advice applies to the hammer ons/pull offs, put the time in and keep them smooth. Once you have those under your belt, we get what I consider to be the real tricky part of this track...the bends.

The bends themselves are not especially difficult in isolation, just one tone (2 frets) bends on the high E string. The difficulty comes in when trying to keep those bends consistent and accurate all the way through the song. The amount of stamina and focus required to keep those bends in tune is not something to be underestimated (trust me, I recorded it for this!). Also worth pointing out that the VERY last bend here is only a semi tone (1 fret). This is because the verse is actually in a different key (E major/C#m) to the intro/chorus section (Dm).

The verse section is very busy with lots of different parts going on all at once, I have suggested what I would consider to be a sensible approximation for anybody playing it live without the luxury of a studio full of musicians and multi-tracking at your disposal. Keep the chords light and bouncy with a soft strumming hand action, try to avoid hitting the strings too hard and making the chords sound too thick and muddy. Also, there is an A power chord which I haven't notated right at the end of the verse (before the chorus riff kicks in), I decided to leave it out of this transcription to give time to jump your fingers from the open E chord up to the riff on the 10th fret. No need to make it too hard on ourselves, but it is there in case you're wondering.

Chorus....back to that classic riff and keep watching those bends!

Rinse and repeat until we get to the instrumental outro section. I haven't notated all the repetitions etc, but there should be enough there to put the whole section together if your band doesn't have a keys player to take the reigns at this point. Keep everything sounding as clear and ringing as possible in this section, no room for scuffed or clicky notes. Keep those fingers up on their tiptoes and hold them down with plenty of even pressure across all the strings, when you're playing the single note lines, execute them confidently and above all clearly.

As always, if anybody has any questions then drop a comment below or feel free to shoot me a message and I'll gladly talk you through any difficulties you're having.

Best of luck!

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories

Become a Subscriber!

TFB Lesson 3 - Layla - Eric Clapton/Derek and the Dominos