Intro, Verse, and Chorus
John Entwistle, bass player for The Who, died in Las Vegas on
Thursday from a heart attack. There’s no doubt that The Who were
one of the greatest rock bands that ever existed. It’s hard to
imagine what The Who would have been without the bass of John
Entwistle.
As a tribute to John Entwistle I’ve put together this look at
The Who’s classic song “My Generation”. Not only can
you learn the guitar parts for the intro, verses, chorus, and
solo, but I’ll also show you Entwistel’s bass parts for the song-including
his famous bass solo.
My Generation is played in 4/4 time at fast 189 bps (beats per
second). Below is the guitar parts and John Entwistle’s bass parts
to the intro, verse and chorus.
Intro
A slight dissonance is created in the 2nd and 4th measures of
the intro as the guitar holds the G notes and the bass moves down
to F. In the actual recording the intro is played through only
once then leads into the first verse.
Here’s the guitar part:
Here is the bass part:
Verse
For the guitar part you can use your thumb (like Pete Townshend)
to fret all the notes on the low E string. The 4 measure verse
part is played 4 times:
While the Townshend’s guitar part is simplistic in it’s approach,
Entwistles’ bass part uses busy hammer-ons and staccato like eighth
notes to add rhythmic interest during the guitar break:
Chorus
While the song continues in it’s G, F chord progression, the
guitar part is changed up a bit during the chorus:
Playing The Vocal Melodies on Guitar
Here is arraignment for the guitar of the lead vocals and back-up
vocals from the verses. Feel free to elaborate on it. You can
even add your own stuttering!
Bass/Guitar Solo Section
John Entwistle, bass player for The Who, died in Las Vegas on
Thursday from a heart attack. There’s no doubt that The Who were
one of the greatest rock bands that ever existed. It’s hard to
imagine what The Who would have been without the bass of John
Entwistle.
As a tribute to John Entwistle I’ve put together a look at The
Who’s classic song “My Generation”. Not only can you
learn the guitar parts for the intro, verses, chorus, and solo,
but I’ll also show you Entwistel’s bass parts for the song-including
his famous bass solo.
Rhythm Guitar Part for the Solo
The rhythm part below is played throughout the bass/guitar solo.
Bass Solo
Bass solos have never been the norm, but My Generation was all
about breaking the rules. The bass solo begins after the second
set of the verse and chorus.
Guitar Fills
Below are the guitar fills head in between the bass runs. To
practice along with the loops for each fill, you’ll want to rest
an additional measure at the end before starting back at the beginning.
Just listen to it a couple of times before you starting playing
along and you’ll get what I mean.
