As you're probably aware by now, John Mayer is a rather large influence on my playing! It's no surprise really… His influences are very similar to mine. Clapton, the Kings & blues stuff in general, but also with plenty of more modern pop, rock, and R&B ideas mixed in. Add to that John Mayer himself being a major influence to me, and you've got yourself an ultimate "fanboy"!
So, after many years of studying John's playing, it's time to start putting some of these lessons up online. In this blog post, I have 2 in-depth lessons for you, covering every element you need to learn in Slow Dancing In A Burning Room, which is still one of my favorite Mayer songs of all time. So, let's get down to it.
The first video on this page is the bulk of the song. There is so much to go into here, so I break it down in baby steps. A couple of things to get your head around before you start are the key of the song, the scales we are using, and finally the basic structure.
So, we're in the key of C# minor or E major, and the basic chords are simply C#m7, A major & E major chords. Check out how these chords all fit together in the same key, using scale harmonisation. I've drawn it out as E major, as it feels as though the E is a real resolve in this song.
The good news is that the verse and intro are the same, and are known as a 6,4,1 style progression, as you can see from the diagrams. When we go into the chorus, we move to the B, followed by C#m and F#m. This beautifully pulls in the rest of the chords from the key, making it the perfect study guide as well as a perfect song! Alongside all of these chords we're using our CAGED system to find some very cool little licks alongside the chords. For more detail on this, check out our Unlocking CAGED courses, as well as our Intermediate Rhythm course. Check out the video for the full details.
Next up we have the solo to learn. It's one of the best solos I've ever played. It's melodic, bluesy, and has touches of immense technique thrown in for good measure. The scale we are using is C#m / E major pentatonic, and we're using boxes 1 and 2, like this:
This solo, whilst seemingly quite simple, is an absolute masterclass in dynamics and "feel". The most important aspect when playing it is to enjoy playing the notes, and if that means straying away from the exact notes John Mayer sues, to improvising your own, please be our guest! All in all, it's a great study piece that I would highly recommend to learn.
If this song has really challenged you and want to dive deeper, we have a range of courses that I would highly recommend. The obvious course companion is our John Mayer Player Study, but even before getting that I would recommend signing up to the Guitar Club subscription (via a 14 day free trial) to get yourself a pathway. This pathway will give you a road map to be able to play like John Mayer, meaning that you wont even need the lesson in the future… You can do it yourself!