Brian Setzer is a legend in the rockabilly world. His playing has inspired many budding guitarists throughout his illustrious career. He's most famous for his work in the Stray Cats and the Brian Setzer Orchestra.
In this video lesson Brian shows you how to get a classic rockabilly sound by using barre chords. He also embellishes the chords with extra notes.
This can be quite tricky, so if you find yourself struggling, you might like to start off with one of Brian's other lesson on rockabilly picking using open chords.
Barre chords with fingerpicking
This sequence shows how Brian uses barre chords combined with fingerpicking to get his patented rockabilly sound.
At bar 8 (the 5/4 bar), Brian was about to talk and momentarily lost concentration! We've tabbed what he actually played, but to keep it as a 4/4 bar simply leave out the beat in the brackets.
"When it comes down to chords, we don’t often spend much time talking about Brian May – until now": learn 4 from his Queen classics
His musical career has taken him from blues to pop, reggae, country and back again as we hone in 4 key chords from the career of old Slowhand himself to help you mine some inspiration for yourself
