Stikkyfingers and Ched - Stop Breaking Down

Stop Breaking Down by Rolling Stones Band Stikkyfingers with Special guest Keith Cheesman Bay Horse, Wincolmlee, Hull

Rolling Stones Cover Band -Stikky Fingers - Not Fade Away

http://www.rollingstonestribute.co.uk Stikkyfingers play Not Fade Away at the Griffin, Hull on 26th January 2013

Rolling Stones Tribute Band Stikkyfingers play Stop breaking Down at the Grafton in Hull

http://www.rollingstonestribute.co.uk Stikkyfingers Play Stop Breaking Down at the Grafton in Hull

Stikkyfingers Sound Check

http://www,rollingstonestribute.co.uk Stikkyfingers soundcheck 2004

Play Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones have been writing and recording songs since the early sixties. They have a very distinctive sound which is hard to copy. When was the last time you heard your local band play a Rolling Stones song? Did it sound like the Rolling Stones, or was it just a poor imitation? Read on if you’d like to be able to play Rolling Stones songs and make them sound authentic!
In the early sixties the Rolling Stones were just a cover band, playing other people’s songs. Gradually they began to write their own songs, probably because they realised that if they wanted to be successful they had to have original songs. Nobody ever made much money playing other people’s songs in those days. In those early days they were using standard tuning on their guitars, only later did they add open g tuning (probably around 1969). If you’re learning to play guitar then you’re almost certainly using standard tuning. All the early hits are played in standard tuning. So, for example, you can play Satisfaction, All Over Now, The Last Time and Not Fade Away (although this has a 12 string guitar in standard tuning). Pick any track form one of the early albums and you’ll find that the guitars are in standard tuning.
Honky Tonk women is the first example of open g tuning, followed by Brown Sugar, Tumbling Dice, Street Fighting Man and then on to Start Me Up. You Can’t Always Get What You Want is recorded in open e tuning with a capo on the 8th fret, but it too is normally played in open g when played live.
Tuning your guitar to open g is easy enough, here’s how to do it:-
To change to open g we only need to detune 3 strings, the 1st (thinnest), 5th and 6th strings. Tune the 1st string down a tone to D – check it against your 4th string (which is a D). Do the same for the 6th string, down a tone to D – check it against your 4th string. Then finally tune your 5th string down to G – check it against your 3rd string (which is a G). Keith usually takes the top 6th string off, so you might want to do that too.
If you now strum the guitar from the 5th string down you have a G chord! No fretting required, which is why it’s called open g tuning!



You can see in this picture that Keith only has 5 strings on his guitar. If you would like to know how to play Honky Tonk Women in open g tuning then go to http://stonesmusic.co.uk/songs/
Next you’ll need to learn a few chords in open g tuning, but they’re really quite easy to learn. Then you too will be able to play Rolling Stones music in their authentic style!

Play Like Keith Richards

Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones is certainly a world class guitar player, but unlike some guitarists, he is best known for his ‘feel' rather than his technique. He uses open tunings a great deal, and especially open g. If you can master some of his style you too will be able to ‘play like Keith Richards'.

If you listen closely to any of the records he's played on, you'll often notice that his guitar work relies on ‘space' and classic timing. It's hard to say exactly how he produces those riffs with such exquisite results, but part of the secret is to leave gaps in the guitar playing – where nothing is heard. This is what I mean by ‘space'. Often the listener is expecting to hear Keith's guitar at a certain position in the song, but that doesn't mean that he'll play anything at that moment. Leaving gaps in there is one way to play like Keith Richards. A quick listen to Honky Tonk Women will reveal the ‘spaces' that he uses. He lets the drum and bass and vocals ‘push' the song along whilst he waits to play in the ‘sweet spots' of the song.

If you want to get an idea of exactly how this works, listen to your favourite song and then play along with the rhythm guitar part, but leave those ‘spaces' and listen to how it changes the feel of the song. Syncopation is part of the style. One of the definitions you will find for syncopation is "the displacement of the usual rhythmic accent away from a strong beat onto a weak beat". Well, that's a very useful thing to be able to do, but it takes a little practice. To really get the best out of a song you'll have to play it many different ways using syncopation to come up with something fresh and original. We're all very used to blistering guitar solos but we often miss the skill of the rhythm guitarist, working ‘behind the scenes', so to speak.

The purpose of this article is to give you some pointers on Keith's playing style - it won't turn you into the new Keith Richards. Let's start by tuning your guitar from standard tuning to open g tuning. Check the internet to see how to do this, it's not hard, or check my website www.stonesmusic.co.uk.

If you strum the guitar from the top (thickest string) down to the first (thinnest) string you have a g chord without fretting any notes – so you won't need your other hand at all. Check out Keith's playing on a live video of Honky Tonk Women and you'll see what I mean. He's playing the intro with only his right hand and not using his left hand in the intro at all! He's just picking at 3 strings, in this case 5th, 4th and 3rd strings which are g, d and g. If you mix in a little syncopation and cool timing you'll get the feel of it. www.stonesmusic.co.uk/HonkyTonk WomenTab.pdf

If you listen to a lot of Rolling Stones songs you'll hear the interplay between the standard tuned guitar (Ron Wood or Mick Taylor) and the open g tuned guitar (Keith). This is an important factor in the Rolling Stones sound. You'll hear this tuning in Brown Sugar, Honky Tonk Women, Tumbling Dice, Can't You Hear Me Knocking, Start Me Up and plenty more besides. When they play live the Rolling Stones often play You Can't Always Get What You Want in open g too, although it was recorded in open e tuning. The open tunings add an extra dimension to the songs. It's a bit like a recipe – and different flavourings to spice things up! If you play guitar in open tuning you'll find that it's easier to write a song as the unusual sounds can be very inspirational. Before long you'll be able to ‘play like Keith Richards' too!

Lastly, remember the capo! Even in open tuning a capo on say, the 5th fret will lead to even more interesting chord variations and that will make things sound ‘sweet' too.

This will help you to play like Keith Richards too. Put the capo on the 5th fret to get the sound for You Can't Always Get What You Want, or put it on the 4th fret to get the sound for Tumbling Dice. If you'd like some more information visit www.stonesmusic.co.uk

Read more: http://www.articlesbase.com/music-articles/play-like-keith-richards-2389941.html#ixzz0p47RQxTv
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