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Jeff's Lesson Notes

"Brown Sugar"

 

This lesson is the 2nd installment in this lesson mini-series.  This time around we're tweaking and VH'izing a Stones classic.  Brown sugar is ripe for some VH style influence.  The secondary chord riff which consists in its power chord form of Eb, C, Ab, Bb, C.  Is great for both riffing out, and soloing over.  Which is exactly what I've done with this song track.  I've also created all new verse, and chorus riffing, leaving the chords and basic melody the same.  I've done them as a band like VH "might" do them if they were to do a cover of this track.  Which of course is the whole point of the Vin Heuton lesson in the first place, so I guess I'm stating the obvious there a bit...

It should be noted that this Vin Heuton version, doesn't utilize the open "G" tuning (D, G, D, G, B, D) used in the original version from the Stones.  Again we're doing a VH version here, and VH rarely uses open tunings.  Of course, we will be using one for a Vin Heuton "Top Jimmy" like song on the "1948" CD/DVD we'll do, but that's probably about it...

I hope everyone enjoys this song track, and the lesson.  On the lesson, we're going really rip this thing apart.  I'm so sick to death of hearing re-makes of songs that sound exactly the same as the original.  One thing VH did very well was put their own stamp on any cover song they did, and we certainly are doing that here with our Vin Heuton examples as well.  So again, on the video lesson I'll break this song down for you and compare it to the original version in order to show you how it came to be, and hopefully you'll take the example and what you've learned and run with it. 

You can do the same type of thing to some of your favorite cover songs.  It's all about having some fun with this stuff....  You can make your favorite covers VH'y or hopefully you just simply make them "you", either way the techniques and methodology to doing it are basically the same...


With this lesson be sure to observe how the VH style was used.  In other words, with this track, I changed up some of the chord shapes and riffing to suit a more VH'y approach.  It's a good idea if you can to obtain a tab for the original version of "Brown sugar" to do some sort of comparison. 

It's also a good idea to listen to the Stones version of the track.  A lot of what I do here requires some analysis on your part.  I give examples, then I explain the important points on the video, and from there it's all up to you. 

One thing to notice with this track is the re-writing and re-arranging that I've done.  The main kick in riff for example is not only a transition like in the stones version, but I've also used it as the chords under the solo.  I've also added a "Drop C" riff to it, to give it some additional groove and melody, while guitar 2 in the right speaker does the power chords.

Enjoy the lesson

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