Tag: Rock

Steppenwolf’s Born to be Wild is a real basher. It’s one of the rare occasions where the video is my first take. It’s not the cleanest, but it had the most energy. And that’s the most important thing to get in this song.

Intro: This is all strumming away on a C5 chord until the last bar where I throw in a little lick inspired by the bass part.

Verse: Still hammering away on that C5 chord.

Chorus: We finally get a couple more chords. So there’s a slight increase in difficulty. There’s a stretch for the fifth fret in bar 13. Otherwise, it’s clear sailing.

Bridge: The bridge section gets sparse. So I was tempted to throw in some muted strums in bar 28 and build up into the “Borrrrrrn to be wiiiiiiieiiiild” section. So give that a try and see how it feels.

Solo: This solo doesn’t match the original in anything more than vibe. So feel free to change it however you like. Any sort of widdling on the C minor pentatonic scale will work.

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Intro: The intro is the most challenging part to get down. But it’s a nifty picking pattern that could come in useful in many places. So it’s well worth learning.

Verse: The fingerpicked verse is simple. Just a bit of sliding around to deal with.

Pre-Chorus: Switch to using strums to build into the chorus. The biggest problem I had here was memorising the chords. They shift around rather than repeating exactly.

Chorus: The chorus is fun to play. You can really bash out the chords.

This arrangement uses just the end of the guitar solo from the original (bars 31 and 32) to build into the bridge.

Bridge: More chord bashing in the bridge. The song’s Springsteen origin really becomes obvious here.

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Intro: Kicking off with a dissonant augmented E chord before diving straight into the verse.

Verses: The verses have a call-and-response structure. The vocals are the major scale call, and the guitar licks respond with some minor notes. In this arrangement, I’m playing the vocal part with picking and the guitar part with strums. This helps to make them distinct.

Solo: The solo is a workout for the strumming arm. It’s almost all triplets. But I’m playing them all with downstrums to keep a consistent attack.

This is mostly based on the first solo, with a few ideas from the second one thrown in. Feel free to include your own ideas too. But I’d recommend not straying too far from the Chuck Berry style.

Outro: A fun, if slightly cheesy, descending chord move at the end.

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Down in a Hole by Alice in Chains fits on uke better than I was expecting. There’s a nice mix of fun bits and challenging bits.

Intro: This sets up the Gm – F – C chord progression that runs through the verse and pre-chorus. I’ve thrown in a few twiddles based on the acoustic and electric parts in the original. Definitely room for your own ideas here.

Verse: I played around with just doing one of the vocal parts here (first heard in bar 9). But I think the vocal harmony is too good to ditch.

Pre-Chorus: This is the hardest part of the song by some distance. It’s high up the neck and fiddly. You could get away with simplifying the section. Either by repeating parts or moving notes around. But I’d be reluctant to get rid of the dissonant C# (E-string, 9th fret).

Chorus: Mostly bashing out the chords in the chorus. Things get tricky towards the end though with a trip up the neck and a short lick.

Outro: A reprise of the intro but with the baffling choice of ending on an A major chord (despite the whole song being gloomy and minor).

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