_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Jeff's Lesson Notes

"Black magic women"

 

This lesson takes a look at "early" Santana.  In this early era Santana primarily used a Gibson SG and not the PRS that the younger generation all seems to think was his only axe. 

The early Santana stuff had a different vibe and sound to it than a lot of the newer stuff does, which is why I'll usually split an artist like Santana or Clapton who's been around for 4 decades into "eras" in time.  This is a fun style to play around with, and a great one for all skill levels to sink their teeth into.  Santana's style has a lot of personality to it...  This of course is the case with most Latin based music styles, but to bring Latin music energy and timing into the rock scene was a nice touch. 

This lesson's example track is modeled after one of my favorite Santana tracks called "Black magic woman".  I know the song very well and have performed it for numerous gigs over the years, but I have to admit that it was a lot of fun to tweak it, and use it as inspiration for our example track here. 

Our lesson example track is me just messing around with the chords and scales that Santana likes to use.  It's a fairly easy skill level, so I think everyone can sink their teeth into it.  The video lesson is a theory based lesson that's geared toward sound, performance tips, & some out of the ordinary, yet very useful "rules of thumb" for Santana'esque phrasing..

I hope everyone enjoys the song track.  Be sure to crank it up, Mick did a great mixing job on it.  I'm a big fan of Latin vibe and groove in rock music, and Santana is a good one for people to start with.  He's not a speed demon player, there's a certain class to his playing that's well worth anyone's time to take a look at and assimilate pieces of into their own songwriting and performing....

Enjoy the lesson.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Lesson

Below are the chords and scale, or scales being used in our lesson example song track.  "Black magic women".  Be sure to check out the video lesson for tips and of course an explanation of the lesson here.
 

Basic Chord shapes


        Dm7     Dm          Gm7             Am7

E___5___10_____3_______5___________
B___6___10_____3_______5___________
G___5___10_____3_______5___________
D___7___12_____3_______5___________
A___5__________5_______7___________
E______________3_______5___________

D minor (Aeolian) scale:  D, E, F, G, A, Bb, C
(scale shape below is not necessarily in scale order)
 

E_______________________________________________________________10D_12E_13F_15G_17A_18Bb_20C_22D_
B_________________________________________________10A_11Bb_13C___________________________________
G___________________________________7D_9E_10F_12G________________________________________________
D___________________________10C_12D______________________________________________________________
A______________10G_12A_13Bb_____________________________________________________________________
E__10D_12E_13F___________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________