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Hello everyone. Today I'm looking at a true classic: Rock & Roll by The Velvet Underground. There are various different ways you can play this one, but my instinct is that on the original recording  a drop C tuning is used. I've not seen anyone else do it this way, but it sounds right to me - see what you think. 

Here's a link to the video - 

https://youtu.be/2gHTAEuL_lA

I've tabbed it all about below (PDF and Guitar Pro file).

And in an unprecedented turn of events, I actually released 2 videos today. The second is a demo of a new octave fuzz pedal from Mastro Valvola. You can check that out here, should you wish: 

https://youtu.be/_bRxEmyRudA

Hope you all have a great weekend. Speak next week!

- Adrian 

Comments

Matthew Schaefer

So good, but man I wish it was the 1969 Live version with the chords at the end!

Andy

Hi Adrian - if you fancy another Velvets song how about I Can't stand. A guide on the strum pattern for that woudl be great. Can't find any tabs at all online. A couple of vids on youtube but no lessons and only one sounds pretty good but can't really figure it out. Cheers!

Steve Zimmerman

Oh yeah! I’ve been working on learning this one from a tab. Looking forward to playing along with you. A truly glorious song - impeccable taste as usual, Adrian!

Jez Loftus

What a start to the new year! Thanks so much Adrian. Take care

Adam Salinas

Thank you for this lesson Adrian. It surprises me that you have never coved Lords of the New Church before. Their song Russian Roulette immediately comes to mind but their entire discography is worth giving a listen to as well as Stiv Bators's previous punk band "Dead Boys".

Kerry From AJ

Those are great suggestions, a couple of my favourites 👍 I’m practicing every day for 3 years now learning guitar trying to get to where I can figure more of this out myself. Adrian has that magic touch though and he has been one of my three resources the whole ride. I just started a band…seems like a good next step.

John Walsh

Love it. Thanks, Adrian and Happy 2022 !

Gary Baldwin

Excellent, excellent, excellent. Thank you, Adrian!

Gary Pennington

Love this song. Nice work. It was Doug Yule playing the solo. Great album: Loaded (with hits).

Chris Grimes

Adrian, this is amazing. I had come up with a version of RnR that seemed pretty much right sorta but also completely totally wrong. Never would have come up with this tuning in a million years. Can't wait to dig into this over the weekend. HNY

anyonecanplayguitar

Thanks Mickey. Yes, not seen those other videos - looks like they've both got the right idea!

anyonecanplayguitar

Thanks Chris! Yes, it was a song that had been puzzling me for a while. Once I'd figured out the tuning it all fell in to place. Hearing that low C was the big clue.

anyonecanplayguitar

Thanks Gary. Good to know it was Doug Yule. That was my guess - I tried to research it, but couldn't find any definite info.

anyonecanplayguitar

Thanks Adam! Yes, excellent suggestions. I'm planning new videos at the moment and will throw Lords of the New Church into the mix.

anyonecanplayguitar

And thanks Kerry. Brilliant that you've started a band - best of luck with it!

Adam Salinas

Wow, thank you Adrian, I look forward to it.

Fin

Thanks Adrian. 'Two TV sets and two Cadillac cars ain't gonna take you too far...'

BILL ROBINS

Great Lesson, Adrian. Would love to see you look at "Mother of Earth" by The Gun Club. The main riff and the chords are easy, but I'd really like to see what you think is going on with the slide guitar (that Kid Congo Powers laid down??).

Chris Kueny

I loved seeing this lesson, Adrian. Eric Haugen covered this once, but without this tuning, and his lesson was much more cursory especially for the lead breaks, so I never felt it clicked. The rhythm is much easier in Drop C and also sounds right!

anyonecanplayguitar

Yes, I think I saw Eric's lesson a while back. He's great, but I think his approach was quite different to mine.

Deron

Yes. Let's face it... basically, the Greatest. I was thrilled to see this choice at the start of the year. Finally got to it today. The rhythmic strumming on this song makes me just want to play it every time I hear it. It's so fun to play -- and the Drop C on acoustic guitar does sound right to me too. Incidentally, I "discovered" you for your Pale Blue Eyes lesson. Thanks for sorting out the parts!

anyonecanplayguitar

Thanks Deron! Yes, this was a fun one to do - been playing it myself wrongly for years, but once I hit on the Drop C tuning thing it suddenly sounded right to my ears.

Luca Solari

FANTASTIC LESSON !!! and Adrian great teacher!

Luca Solari

eheheh, VU songs are not so easy as they seem!