George Harrison All Things Must Pass Bonus 10-Pack

Lessons

• Lesson 1: All Things Must Pass

  All Things Must Pass is the title song from George Harrison’s 1970 album that included about 20 songs that he had written over the previous few years. There was obviously not room on Beatles albums for this spectacular binge of creativity, so he decided it was time for a solo album. Of course, My Sweet Lord was the big hit from the album, but the deeper cuts offer some great tunes for guitar players to work on.

  This song only uses a handful of easy chords, and the lesson includes looking at some of the theory involved, as well as some strumming variations as you run through the four main chords.

• Lesson 2: Wah-Wah

  The Beatles were starting to implode in January of 1969 while trying to put together an album like they did in their earlier days, not the big production and cutting edge recording techniques used since Sergeant Pepper. The 'Get Back' Sessions spiraled into arguments and disagreements, which help fuel George's creative streak, and led to a few new songs that saw the light of day on his 1970 album 'All Things Must Pass.' Wah-Wah was one of his responses to Paul's heavy handedness, and was the first song he recorded for his solo album.

  The song opens up with George playing a riff based on an E7 chord, then Eric Clapton comes in with a matching one an octave lower, and embellished with a wah-wah pedal. This lesson goes over both player's riffs, as well as multiple ways of playing the accompanying chord progressions. There is also a close look at the melody George picks out in the bridge.

• Lesson 3: Ballad Of Sir Frankie Crisp

  George Harrison's 1970 album, All Things Must Pass, was full of great tunes that he had written over the previous few years, giving him too many for the Beatles to consider. Among songs like Isn't It A Pity and My Sweet Lord, George wrote a song inspired by his new home, Friar Park, and its original owner, Frank Crisp. The song is an attempt at an old English ballad, using many archaic terms in the lyrics. He mentions some places and things around the extensive grounds as well.

  
  This short lesson goes over the chord progression, strumming pattern (including some bass runs), and even includes a section on an early demo as the song was under construction.

• Lesson 4: Everybody, Nobody

  Everybody, Nobody is an early draft of George Harrison's song Ballad Of Sir Frankie Crisp, which appeared in final form on 'All Things Must Pass' in 1970. George recorded quite a lot of demos for Phil Spector, who was going to produce the album, and many of these were recently released on the 50th Anniversary Edition of the album.
  This lesson shows George's unusual voicings of the common chords in the arrangement, including his surprising, abrupt end to the song.

• Lesson 5: Art Of Dying

  George Harrison's 1970 album, All Things Must Pass, had a few hits but also a bunch of great songs that didn't get the publicity of songs like My Sweet Lord, Isn't It A Pity, and Beware Of Darkness. Art Of Dying was one of the first tunes that the members of Derek And The Dominoes ever played together on. It even led to the idea of forming the band.

  
  This lesson starts by looking at George's acoustic demo, which was recently released on the Super Deluxe version of All Things Must Pass, which was in the key of E minor. It also goes over the final studio version, where the key was raised to A minor.

• Lesson 6: Isn't It A Pity

  In 1970 George Harrison released All Things Must Pass, a double album full of songs that there was no room for on Beatles albums over the years. It was chock full of incredible tunes, including two versions of 'Isn't It A Pity.' The original arrangement was mostly a piano accompaniment but the voicings used transfer over to the guitar very well, and make for a fairly easy set of chords.
  The song is in the key of G but the best way to duplicate the voicings is to do it with a capo at the fifth fret, playing in the relative key of D. This lesson starts with that approach, throws in a fair measure of theory about the chords, and then includes a challenge for the student to figure out how to play it an octave lower without the capo.

• Lesson 7: My Sweet Lord

  My Sweet Lord has been one of our leading vote getters in the Recommend A Lesson here at TG for quite a while. This lesson covers strumming it in a couple of different keys, one using a capo, and also goes over the slide guitar parts that immediately identify the song.

• Lesson 8: Beware Of Darkness

  All Things Must Pass was the album that really brought George Harrison’s songs to the attention of the public. Released in 1970, just after the Beatles broke up, it was full of great songs, including *Beware Of Darkness*. The song was also recorded by Leon Russell at about the same time, and in 1996 was covered by the modern progressive rock band Spock’s Beard. All Things Must Pass was produced with a very heavy hand by Phil Spector, but we are fortunate that George made some demos that were stripped down to just solo performances. Consequently, this song makes a great acoustic guitar lesson. It is played in the key of E, using quite a few barre chords, along with a couple of chords outside of the key, and the lesson includes a segment on transposing it to the key of B as well.

• Lesson 9: If Not For You (Bob Dylan)

  If Not For You was written by Bob Dylan and appeared on his 1970 album New Morning. George Harrison, who had always been a fan of and was heavily influenced by Dylan, covered in it 1970 as well on his album All Things Must Pass. George's version added some slide guitar to the accompaniment, giving it a touch of his signature sound. The lesson goes over the chord progression as well as some of the slide fills. If you have not tried playing bottleneck or slide guitar you might start with the lesson on Amazing Grace. If Not For You is a good one for the second step of your bottleneck journey.

• Lesson 10: I'll See You In My Dreams - Short Ukulele Lesson

  In this lesson Neil introduces the chords and strumming pattern used by Joe Brown in his performance at the end of the Concert For George. The memorial concert was put on a year after George Harrison died and featured many of his musical friends playing his songs. Neil shot this lesson on location in Hawaii, just a day after he bought a Kala ukulele at Hilo Guitars. He seemed to think it would be a good idea to record it at the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel, using the beautiful, natural surroundings as the background. This didn't turn out to be a great idea in terms of video and audio quality. Hopefully, you can still learn to play the song...