How to Play Love Someone by Chris Liepe (Guitar Lesson)

This original song lesson is designed to improve your playing in a few specific areas.

First, as you're following along and playing through the parts, you'll notice that there is a lot going on, but most of the actual guitar parts are quite simple. Learning the parts and experimenting with the recommended effects will help you discover the puzzle method to arranging guitar parts within a song. Nothing is complicated, but fits together in a certain way to pass as a whole.

Second, there are a lot of sections, and transitions in this song. This song shows you how to link different ideas together that, if you were not listening to them within the context of the same song, you might not think they were related at all. As you are figuring out your own new licks or riffs, you never know what they all might add up to.

Third, this song was produced and recorded with only two real instruments-- voice and guitar. The rest was programmed or played with keyboards. It is my hope that this song will inspire you to take the tools available to you and be creative with your own music. Enjoy the lesson!

Disclaimer: Hehe! Since several unconventional recording, mixing, and editing techniques were used in the process of creating this song, what you hear on the tracks themselves may not sound exactly like what is coming out of your guitar, or what is notated in the supplemental content section. The parts as notated for this lesson are suggestions for closely replicating what you hear on the recording and generally what I play when the song is performed live.

Waves GTR and effects
This song utilizes a guitar software plugin called Waves GTR. (www.wavesgtr.com) Waves GTR is a very inexpensive program that runs inside of a DAW such as Pro Tools, Logic, or even Garageband. I have included screenshots of some of the effects that I used to generate the sounds in the song. These screenshots are pictures of Waves GTR. You can download a free version of this software from the website listed above and it is yours to use for a period of one year. It doesn't have all the features of the full blown version, but it is still a great creativity tool! Also, since the software works like traditional amps and stomp boxes, you may be able to pull from your own collection of effects to get something similar. As you're tweaking your tone, remember that it isn't very important to generate the exact sounds I created, more just to get you in to using effects in different ways than you may have already been using them. So, even if you don't have Waves GTR but you have your own collection of effects and a favorite amp, you can use the information here to get some ideas of how to tweak your gear and playing!

Alternate Tunings
Most of this song is played in Drop D tuning -- DADGBE. The guitar solo is played in Drop C, which is Drop D tuning down a whole step -- CGCFAD. The acoustic guitar in the choruses is played in standard tuning.

Verse Riff
The verse rhythm riff was played using the amp model from GTR. A screen shot of the set up for this sound can be found in the Supplemental Content with the Verse Riff Image.
To me, this sounds like a Vox AC50 type amp on the clean channel with the gain turned all the way up ...Or an amp on the clean channel with a very mild overdrive pedal in front of it.

After getting your tone just right, refer to the supplemental content to learn the line.

Main Chorus Electric Rhythm
As you listen to the track, you'll notice that the heavy gain distorted rhythm in the choruses sounds heavily gated, or very contained in some way. When I was recording this sound, I originally used a Tremolo effect set to a square wave timed to 1/8th note divisions. The effect is set to 100% for maximum cut. A screen shot of the set up for this sound can be found in the Supplemental Content with the Chorus Tremolo Effect Image.

After adding in some other parts, I thought that there was a little too much pulsing in the song so I resorted to recording the whole guitar part with out any effects, and then, using a tempo grid in Pro Tools, manually went in to the track and deleted parts of the file to get that gated sound. So, I strummed all the way through, and the cutting in and out is generated by calculated missing information in the file. A screen shot that illustrates what the missing waves look like can be found in the Supplemental Content with the Gated Wave Image.

When I have played this song live, I always just use the tremolo sound and it works fine!

Here is the amp model I used for the heavy rhythm as well as some other parts in the song. A screen shot of the set up for this sound can be found in the Supplemental Content with the Heavy Rhythm Image.

This model sounds like a Marshall JCM 800 with the gain at about 75%. It is not as high gain as you might think, and notice the completely flat EQ!

Wah Chorus Part
This effect was generated by using an intensity sensitive wah where by the harder you play, the more the wah opens up. A screen shot of the set up for this sound can be found in the Supplemental Content with the Wah Chorus Image.

If you don't have this effect, a standard wah pedal will get you pretty close. Just make sure you are "wah-ing" to the tempo of the song. This sound also uses a tremolo sound, but this time, a triangle wave is used in combination with the same amp sound as the distorted rhythm.

Transitions
Both the transition riff into the solo and the ending riff use the same "Overdrive" amp sound as the main rhythm in the choruses. However, a higher volume setting is used.

The Solo
The solo uses the same "Overdrive" amp sound as a good deal of the rest of the song. It was played on a Les Paul on the bridge pickup and is in Drop C tuning: CGCFAD. To record the solo, I strung my Les Paul with .11 strings so the strings weren't too slinky. Even with the thicker strings, it is really easy to accidentally bend the string to an undesired note while playing.

This solo, played up to tempo, is quite the picking exercise. Refer to the supplemental tab for an exact transcription. Also, note the use of the major and the minor 3rd with a b7. You could classify the major / minor sound as borrowing from a blues scale, or switching back and forth between the Mixolydian mode and the minor pentatonic. The latter is probably a more logical interpretation, because the distorted vocal hook throughout the song is clearly a Mixolydian line.

Make sure to practice the solo slowly at first to really get the picking down. Don't use your shoulder. Generate the picking movement from the wrist!

1/4 Tremolo Sound
If you listen to the intro in to the first verse, you'll notice a strange pulsing sound. The effects used to generate this sound can be found in the Supplemental Content with the 1/4 Tremolo Image.
The 1/4 triplet tremolo gives the sound an odd time feel. A phaser with the depth and rate turned down provides a little more width to the sound.

Acoustic Guitar
The acoustic guitar in the chorus section is played in standard tuning. The chords for this part can be found in the Supplemental Content.
The acoustic guitar was recorded a number of times and panned in different places in the mix to widen the sound of the instrument. I also played two tracks of just string scratches (strumming while muting all of the strings with my left hand rather than fretting a chord). This technique accentuates the rhythmic / percussive nature of the acoustic guitar.

Full Acoustic Song Version
For the acoustic version of the song played at the end of the lesson, I use Drop D tuning. The chords for this version can also be found in Supplemental Content.
There are numerous other small parts and layers throughout the song including some open strummed chords, a single "D" note played during the verses, and some intentionally out of tune notes at the end of the solo. You can follow along with the video and the tracks to hear how these parts blend, but they don't really stand by themselves. As a result, they are not included in the TAB portions of the Supplemental Content.

Vocals
I have tried to include a very brief vocal instruction section. I realize that it isn't much, but hopefully it will wet your appetite for more singing and playing! In the video, I outline a few vocal warm-up techniques as well as talk about general breath support.

The Supplemental Content:
I have provided the original recording of the song as a reference track. I have also included 10 different variations of the track so you can better hear what is going on both from a guitar playing and production standpoint. Here is a list of the variations:

1. Practice track
2. Drums and bass only
3. Guitar stem (only the recorded guitars to a click track)
4. Vocal stem (only the vocals and a click track)
5. 1st chorus acoustic
6. 2nd chorus acoustic
7. End acoustic
8. Guitar Solo
9. Guitar Solo practice click
10. Instrumental Mix

There are also TABs for all of the prominent parts of the song. There are a ton of little "1-noter" parts, or ambient layers created with the guitar that I have not included in the TAB section because they are not main riffs, rather just extra sparkle added to the recording. If you have any other questions about a sound you hear and would like more of an explanation, please ask me on Live Q&A and refer to the track variations to get a closer listen.

I hope you enjoy this slightly different lesson! Have fun figuring out the parts and playing with effects! I hope this lesson inspires you to dig deeper into your own songwriting and production!

Song Structure:
Verse
1/2 Chorus
Verse
Chorus
Transition
Guitar Solo
Chorus 2x
End Transition

-Chris
P.S. Transcription for the "Acoustic Version" is coming soon!

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Video Subtitles / Captions

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