Hey, how you doing? Justin here.
Today we're going to check out the Peter Gunn theme.
It's a really awesome beginner riff.
It's kind of like a finger exercise at the same time, and a picking exercise,
and it's a cool riff.
Some of you might know it as the Blues Brothers theme song as well.
Very, very popular little ditty this one,
and there's loads of stuff good to learning it.
So let me play it for you first of all. It looks like this:
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Now, if I was playing it for real, I might use different fingers.
I'd probably be more likely to go:
♪
And just use fingers 1, 2, and 3, cos they're a lot stronger.
But as a beginner, we haven't got into using our little finger yet,
so I want you to have a go at using the fingers, one per fret.
So 1st finger's gonna play all the notes in the 2nd fret,
2nd finger's gonna play all the notes in the 3rd fret,
3rd finger's gonna play all the notes in the 4th fret,
And the little finger's gonna play all the notes in the 5th fret.
Okay? Now the pattern is gonna be:
Open, open, 2, open, 3, open, 5th fret, 4th fret.
I was talking fret numbers there. Open, open, 2, open, 3, open, 5, 4.
Okay? That's the whole riff.
When you first start playing it, it ain't gonna sound like that.
It'll be more...
You know...
Actually it's really difficult for me to deliberately do it wrong right-handed,
but if you wanna watch me do it left-handed,
there's the videos over on the website, the Nitsuj Series,
where you can watch me fumble my way through this tune.
The trick, the things that's gonna help you be able to do it well,
first of all, is try and get your hand in position there.
Okay? Now some of you are gonna find it really difficult
to keep your fingers spread out enough like that.
You're gonna be find it will be a bit like this.
Try and use the right fingers even if you have to go...
here and move.
Here you might end up moving a little bit like that.
You don't...it's not ideal.
You wanna try to get the fingers spread out if you can.
So just as a little starting point, 1st finger 2nd fret.
It's all on the thicker string by the way.
2nd finger in the 3rd fret,
3rd finger in the 4th fret, little finger in the 5th fret.
See if you can get your fingers to just sit there.
You might already find that's like,
"Hey man, that's super difficult for me, I can't do it."
It's okay. Practice it through the week, you'll get better and better at it,
even if you can't do it right now,
you might not be able to do it in a week or 2 weeks,
but you'll be better at doing it if you try.
Okay? Like I said, there's a whole heap of things going on here.
It's not just about playing the riff.
Okay? This is a great finger exercise to be going...using all 4 fingers,
♪
You're getting some little finger action.
♪
You're getting used to with your pick hand,
playing the same string over and over again,
cos it's literally...
all downs.
1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and,
would be the count for those of you who don't understand rhythm.
It's called Even 8th Notes.
♪ 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 ♪
♪
Okay? So getting used to the pick being consistent
is gonna be a big part of the exercise.
Getting used to using all of the different fingers.
♪
Now, some common other mistakes that you're gonna find,
it's gonna be difficult to hit just the one string.
You'll probably find you go like,
♪
and that's okay. Just be forgiving of yourself again.
Later on, you'll be able to control the pick better to just play one note.
One thing you might find,
is if you let your 1st finger kind of rest on the strings a little bit,
♪
here, when it goes...when it's not playing or when it's playing that note,
I'm letting the edge of my 1st finger touch on all of the strings,
so just ends up muting them a little bit.
So if they were accidentally ringing out,
touching them ever so slightly with the 1st finger,
is gonna mute them all for you. So you might find that helpful.
♪
Don't worry about trying to do it fast, if you're going like this,
♪
that's totally fine as well.
♪
It's a learning experience, you're gonna find this difficult.
♪
The idea with me giving you these riffs
is to give you kind of nice, recognizable, fun things to do on the guitar,
but they're also exercises.
Every one's got something about it that I want you to learn.
This idea of picking out individual notes
is a really, really important thing for beginners.
Learning to keep your timing consistent is important,
and then starting to develop your finger independence,
so that you can control the fingers on the same string
is also a really useful exercise.
So it's not just about the riff, but it's a lot of fun.
I don't think I got to the point
where I could play it along with the record,
cos it's considerably faster than most beginners are gonna be able to do it.
If you're worried about how you're feeling about it,
then go and check out my lefty video. You'll probably find it a lot of fun,
you know, watching me fumbling with it, and struggling and how it goes.
You'll probably find sometimes you 'fall off the skateboard', I call it,
where it's going... you're like,
"Yeah man, I can do it, this is going great.
uh...what happened to my fingers?"
and they just...something will go wrong, and you'll just have to stop.
That's okay! It's just normal.
This is what happens when you're a beginner.
Don't stress about it. Don't be all like,
"Oh I can't do it, I'm never gonna be able to do it. I'm hopeless at guitar."
That's completely the wrong place to put your head.
You just wanna be like,
"Yeah, can't do that yet, struggling with it a little bit, that's okay.
I'm just gonna keep practicing it."
Okay? That's the ideal thing for this little riff.
I'm sure you're gonna have a lot of fun playing it.