Blues Guitar Lesson | How To Play The Mustang Sally Groove The Right Way

[@lamper2]

first time i'm actually watching on the same day! usually it's even a different year! the young rascals owned this song in my house

[@graycrom]

ive played it for 30 years , never get bored of it!

[@davidmoore8912]

Been playing it for years, thanks for giving it a new lease of life for me!

[@georgedescavish6779]

Good lesson..thanks

[@lovepg56]

This track was recorded in Muscle shoals . The swampers are playing on it . It has a great swampy groove that is not fast ! Most bands play it way too fast ! But thanks for playing it right and showing how it’s done !

[@guitarz6562]

You’re lesson was really well done. I’ve been struggling with the strumming and timing and I needed to know how to do it for an upcoming gig. I do vocals and rhythm guitar and I have a horrible time staying in the pocket while singing and playing this song. It was requested so I want to respect that and give it a go so I’m hoping I can make my brain connect my fingers to my vocal cords lol 😂 Thanks for the tutorial it was great!

[@Oymmit]

this is a great way to get into the song before you go about making it your own and still recognizable to get them on the floor and singing along. no matter what you do keep it tight.

[@patgaff2536]

Love the song. Wilson Pickett was the best. Love the Commitments movie too. Fun stuff. Thanks for sharing.

[@0utcastAussie]

Yeah but Andrew Strongs vocals on this are just sensational.

[@roberthutfliess2015]

You're a GREAT instructor. I'll be following...

[@seanfried5583]

This is a great song, recorded by all-time classic dudes. After 40 years of slogging it out it is still great to my ear. I only hate the song when crappy bands play the song poorly.

[@jackbenimble999]

I'm not really a guitar player, but I love this song. For you pros out there, think of how much the audience is getting out of it. They aren't sick of it at all.

[@gangnamstylegrandpa6352]

I have been playing this tune in bar bands since the 60's . Like it or not it is one of about a dozen songs that if you want paid , you better play it . I play it in key of C , but that is where the similarity ends . I don't know where you learned this version , but if you want people to dance ( people dance , buy beer , owner is happy ), then you better play some horn parts on your guitar , and get down and dirty , or it just sucks !

[@jahking1969]

No truer words have been spoken you have spoken the truth if you want to get paid for that gig that night tell those guys do they better shut up and play that song

[@gangnamstylegrandpa6352]

@@jahking1969 , thanks , Man !

[@blumbe]

“I don’t know where you learned this version” I guess you weren’t paying attention, he tells where he learned this version. Wilson Picket. And also from the movie “the commitments”

[@lilyhoward3560]

Excellent analysis! Wow I never knew all of that was going on. We play this in our set list so I will ask my other guitarist to watch this and see if he wants to work it up with the First and Second parts and the Third over the Fifth

[@michaelmerrullo2043]

I never thought to lift my ring finger to get that extra stretch in performing a shuffle starting from with a root and fifth as I watched you do. That’s genius! 😂 I used to be able to do it holding my ring finger down but I’ve been frustrated in my old age.

[@jeffjohnson7381]

Love the Blues can you continue to send as many songs in this format as well as some slide work and accoustic delta blues lessons…thanks so much🎸🎶

[@jonathanbaggs4275]

Jimmy Johnson played the guitar on the original Pickett version. He used a gretsch on it. I knew him for 40 years plus.

[@jerrywilson4371]

Gonna hit 100 grand soon. Congrats. Always thought of this as more of a horn song

[@curtpratt2203]

Great discussion and play suggestions.

[@TheRoguetrooper21]

Awesome man, Thanx for that 🤘

[@catsailor9772]

Wilson Pickett was not the originally artist, it was Mac Rice who also wrote the song an originally called it Mustang Mamma. Aretha Franklin came up with the idea to call it Mustang Sally. It was first recorded by Mac Rice in 1965, and by Wilson Pickett in 1966 who had more success with his recording.

[@russcalabrese7561]

Here's one of those various reasons, my buddie Hause once told me he hated when someone requested playing mustang Sally when he played out cause there would always be some big girl with horse teeth clomping around on the dance floor every time. True story

[@radrook2153]

The ones with horse teeth are usually the most ongoing and frenetic dancers.

[@jamesmckinley6202]

Thank you soo much, I really appreciate it!

[@ellahorses5436]

Great breakdown and explanation - thanks

[@bubbba4945]

Griff, that's the good stuff! now for some Buddy Holly

[@precisionbrown6829]

I love playing this. Some players hate it lol

[@dvdpilling]

What model Telecaster is that. I need one. Beautiful.

[@mauricioferreira4157]

very good dude, thx

[@LEMORTIS714]

sounds real good thanks

[@jerrylehti7230]

cool stuff

[@1mespud]

If you want to get paid, you better play MUSTANG SALLY and all the other oldies. Just do it. Your personal taste is not going to save mankind. It's about serving the general public. I was raised around a lot of old former Chuck Berry, Ike Turner and Albert King musicians. In a cover band, the rule is to play what people want to hear and NOT what the band wants to hear. This is how you $iphon the money. You have to save your best ideas for your own original material. Cover music is popular because "everyone" is already brainwashed on it and they also don't have the patience to listen and figure out stuff they never heard of. The lesson: Leave your ego at home and don't bring it to the job. It'll still be there when you get back..

[@dyerarch]

I have always wondered what Sally Ride thought about this song!

[@Tricknologyinc]

Obviously her parents liked it! :P

[@micke6103]

You've got it slightly wrong about the second guitar( let's call it "the octave guitar") It plays C-G-Bb-C every second bar. On the F it changes to a low "Power chord F"( F-C-F) on the 1:st fret with a hammer-on between Eb and an F (on the D-string...) from the third beat. You have the same type of chord on the G with the hammer on (and it overshadows the first guitar that plays a full turnaround just like you thought) Try it! 😎

[@andreapasillas5803]

My favorite version of Mustang Sally is by Magic Slim.

[@stevendallman8938]

Mustang Sally is only old and boring if you play it old and boring. Wilson Pickett’s original recording is perfection.

[@jamessmithjr5420]

Okay bro. I have played Mustang Sally since it was released by Wilson Pickett. I liked most of what you said. There are so many versions, it is difficult for those born in the 70s or later to get it. (You sound like a child of the 70s.) Most non-Pickett versions, including Tony Joe White, the writer, over play it, in my opinion. The Pickett version is a laid back thumping simple grove. The original Pickett version guitar primarily comes in with C octaves 5th & 3rd string, followed with G, A, Bb (G-dorian picking). There are no dominant chords on guitar. The 4th (F A C F) has muted picking on E-flat to F. The 5th is a hammer on F to G; resolving to FAC. The turn around is a hammer on starting on F moving to G to Bb to F to Eb resolving back to C. One guitar can do it.

[@jamessmithjr5420]

My bad. Tony Joe White wrote A Rainy Night in Georgia. Sir Mack Rice wrote Mustang Sally.

[@225rip]

Great explanation.

[@davecooper5951]

Your version but with a slur from 'B' up to 'C' maybe ? Might depend on what the vocalist(s) are up to though....At age 75 I've got a newly formed band - I'm sure we'll be asked for it at some point !

[@maxmartz4665]

Turn the amps up to 11 and let that C shuffle out. After shuffling thru Mustang Sally we would through in Ride Sally Ride, Red Rocker tribute and a crowd pleaser in SW PA

[@TheBigH1975]

You should check out the John Cowan version on Soul'd Out. Love that one. Thanks for the vid.

[@paulbergagnin5158]

Thank you!

[@billygage6899]

I’ve took it out of the setlist many times but every gig someone request it, I gave up lol

[@jonreiser2206]

I’ve checked out four different sources to see what people say about the guitar parts and I’ve found for different opinions.

[@petevonsholly]

The octave thing is wrong- it's C FG C not twice on the F

[@jeffodders2892]

How did Magic Slim play it?

[@bluescatreimer]

Buddy Guy and Wilson Pickett do a great Mustang Sally.

[@jackjdolan]

Good lesson. I wish my band would get the right feel but they just turn up their nose at it and blunder through it.

[@trevorgwelch7412]

No I don't like this song but could you do Lady Love by Robin Trower ? Super Great Thank You

[@stephenhanlin2388]

I second that or any Trower

[@Oymmit]

robin trower does a great mustang sally.

[@imannonymous7707]

stax records and muscle shoals too they had their own way of doin things...point and case here.....ya you nail it tho....i hear it

[@robertolezama6118]

Muchas palabras, muchas palabras y poco de música

[@roadsterman]

Get the original album with the picture of Wilson Pickett on it.

[@oneeyemonster3262]

I personally use ALL DOMINANT CHORDS or Hendrix chord shape ( 1, 3. b7) Hammer the octave with my pinky... But Im used to playing the DOMINANT penatonic..different ways to get different voicing.... example...C7 chord to D min/F Major ( You can barr completely across the 3rd fret) Play any note on the 5th fret.... Or play the C5, b7 chord....It's just my MIDDLE finger in on the 5th... This way my pinky can hammer the 6th..then my ring finger can hammer the octave The blues it fun to play...because you can play 7 passing notes.lmao or use the FULL Dim H/W.. It's just dor b2, #4....Lyd b2, b7.. Becuase you can play dominant...maj or min example...Im going to shift my hand. ( when I play lead or extend the riffs) My index will slide to the b7....so I can hammer and pull off the b2, and octive. and the tritone.....I'll play the b3 too... Notice...when you'll shuffling those chord ( riff)...you' NOT playing the 3rd. So when you play lead...you can wank it...b3 and or maj3

[@roadsterman]

It is simple. It is a 24 bar shuffle in the key of C. Don't make it complicated.

[@bikersoncall]

I get sick of listening to the arrogance of fellow musicians saying omg we're not playing Mustang Sally , or some of the other RR Classics or Standards, in my view these are unprofessional losers that think they are 'somebody' , they are 'to good' to play the standards. Yeah, I've played johnny b goode 10 million times etc, but guess what guys, most of the standards are so for good reason.

[@johnparker2636]

I don't mind people saying they don't like it. I do object to those same people (mostly arrogant guitarist snobs) saying no-one else should play it (because they are fed up with it) We're all on a journey and many of us are still at the point where this is a great song. Great lesson with good options for a bit of variety

[@oopsydaizi3s824]

I’ll take playing Johnny b Goode over mustang sally any day. Some songs just feel like a chore to play

[@kingdavidhoward]

Very good, but everybody don't have long fingers, i don't, there has to be another way to play this shuffle.

[@jahking1969]

I agree we played a hell out of that song but it is a funky ass groove in the key of C no disrespect dude but those parts are quite generic that you are putting in there I have a hybrid version that I do my own spin on it my forte is funk r&b soul jazz a little bit of rock and roll hit me up I would like to show you what I put on mustang Sally it's so funky they can still smell it onstage from the last gig I played LOL

[@sharkair2839]

you left out the turnaround.

[@bluesguitarunleashed]

No, I gave an option for it in the video. I can't really hear much guitar in that portion so I showed what I do typically.

[@CheapTaco]

Unless there’s a REALLY good reason, we won’t play it for any less money than we were tipped the last time we played it. After a doctors’ convention and a couple of high-dollar corporate parties, I seem to recall that it will take over 300 bucks to get us to play it. I’d still have to bribe the drummer-we are all that sick of it.

[@leonnachu7612]

Get a harmonica in f , forget the horns....

[@jimmycleveland139]

Moo

[@jokermaan1]

What I always hated about playing this song was that it was nearly always requested by a group of pissed up women who fancied themselves as backing singers!

[@webstercat]

Yes Burned Out but maybe that’s because it always played wrong….. plus the drunks…

[@bamboomultipasslifestyle]

arretes de oarler man

[@petestaff2754]

Too much talking

[@bluesguitarunleashed]

I'm sure there are vides out there of someone just playing it without talking... why don't you find them?

[@MichaelBrown-zj4uw]

Never dawned on me that this song is VERY close to "once bitten twice shy" (the Great white version).