Guitartricks – How to Play – Back Door Man (Willie Dixon)

In this set of lessons, Henrik Linde will teach “Back Door Man”, by Willie Dixon. Henrik will introduce the song and go over the gear and tones, then dive into the funky main electric riff. Next on the agenda is the slide guitar part, then we’ll move on to the very cool solo. Henrik will give some advice on bends and vibrato before we do full performance and single guitar play alongs; we’ll top it all off with a jam along.

We’ll be taking a look at two guitars today and we’re going to focus on sitting in the groove and just nailing the sweet spot of the pocket. Guitar 1 is going to play a funky little phrase during the verses and choruses and a sweet blues solo with some really interesting licks and rhythms. Guitar 2 is going to be a guitar tuned to open G and we’re going to outline the progression with a slide. This guitar is really setting the tone and the vibe of the song, especially combined with the more rhythmic elements of guitar 1.

Keep in mind that this song is more of a one chord jam with some turnarounds rather than your typical blues or pop format song. In a song like this that has a lot of the same phrases, what is changing is the vocals and lyrics – so it helps to keep an ear out for what the vocalist is singing. We’re in a 4/4 time signature at a tempo of 110 bpm, in the key of G.

To play this tune with one guitar, play Guitar 1 all the way through!