Now the moment you've probably been waiting for, we're going to start learning how to play lead guitar like Chuck Berry did. And when I was a kid, not so much a kid but maybe a freshman in high school, I went saw the movie American Graffiti. And in the soundtrack, you've got to Chuck Berry tunes, Johnny be good, and almost grown. And I remember hearing the guitar and those songs and right there thinking, boy, I want to I want to be able to play that this is even before I started playing guitar. And so that's what we're going to do here. And I'm going to try to do it in a specific way.
And I'm really going to show you the Chuck Berry guitar style as a series of licks, what I call an encyclopedia of Chuck Berry guitar licks, these sort of little phrases and ideas that he used over and over and over again, and all kinds in different ways, and some people again say that Chuck Berry's guitar style is really easy. I disagree. It's easy to play it, but can you play it the way he did that is different, that is more difficult. Now before we get into any of this any lead ideas, we've got to talk about something called the first position blues box. And this has to do with playing lead. And I'm going to show you this in the key of B flat, which is right in the center of the guitar.
And the first position blues box is simply I'll use the word area that covers the first position barre chord, so this is a B flat first position bar chord. So when it comes time to solo, and play licks, how do I know where to play Chuck Berry most always plays over the first position court or the one which in this case is a B flat. Now when you're talking about blues and single string rods, the first position blues box is something like this. Here's how that matches up with a B flat chord. For Chuck Berry, we're going to be doubling up everything. playing it more like that.
And that probably sounds familiar to you. So we're playing over this position. So the first position blue Xbox, if you're a B flat, it really starts on the first string between the ninth and the six frets, we've got the nine, eight, and six notes or six position six frets on the first string. Same on the second string, really the same on the third string. Mostly, a lot of guys will just stay between the eighth and the sixth fret, but you can play that note and they only got eight, six on the fourth string, eighth fret, sixth fret, same thing on the fifth string. And then I went to the ninth fret on the sixth string, and the sixth fret.
Now there's more, you can Play. That is just the outline of what they call the blues box because it looks like a rectangle or a box. But by no means is that the only place you can play. But so many Chuck Berry licks are played right in that area. So here's how it works if I want to play in the key of B flat song like Johnny be good, how do I know on the guitar where I'm gonna play? Ah, I find the first position barre chord and there is that first position blues box that I can play on top of what if we're playing a tune like no particular place to go?
Here's g first position barre chord that song is in G remember this? We're gonna be playing stuff like this. How do we know we can play that there and it's gonna sound right because that's the first position g blue Xbox, along the same lines. If we're playing and see tunes like Carol, talking about you, then we're going to go ahead To the first position, see, play over the top of that. So when I say blues box, that's what I'm talking about first position blues box. Now there's also a second position blues box.
And there's some other positions that you can play in. And we'll learn those as we go through some specific examples. But before we really get started into the licks I wanted you to make, make sure you know that understand that idea. And I'll have diagrams I have diagrams for you to help you. Now let's get started. And we'll stay right here and we'll learn our first Chuck Berry lick and we're going to go to the key of C and play over the first position blue Xbox.
And our first leg is on the first and second strength and it goes something like this. And that's not from any particular song. I'm just playing that it's just a double stop on the eighth fret first and second string, so I'm using my first finger and playing that Now this by itself. He doesn't use a whole lot just by itself. He uses that mostly as a passing lick, to connect other licks and we'll see that in his introductions, which we're going to spend a lot of time on, you'll hear this letter played over and over and over again. So it's really important.
If you look at the shape, here's my first position barre chord. Both of those notes are being got by that first position. So if I just pick the first and second strings, I've got that little lick, except he's doing that with one finger. Listen to ron ron Rudolph the solo or run Rudolph run the solo on that tune. He starts out with something like this. Something like that.
I didn't play that exactly the way he does. But that is a pretty simple Chuck Berry idea. So we're playing the key of G. There it is. If we play a B flat there it is. Now we're going to learn one more, very similar lick that goes with that. And that is what I call rolling into it from the third string.
Let's go to B flat. And I'm going to reference a tune called route 66, which isn't that cool tune that Chuck Berry did later. And I love Chuck Berry's version of the song, you got to hear this. And when he plays this leg, he combines it with this with this little, little hammer on, this is on the third string, so we're a B flat. And I'm going to go from the sixth fret of the third string to the seventh fret before getting that lick, and he just plays it like in succession. And he does that in several different songs.
And you'll hear this George Thorogood he did you know several Chuck Berry covers in the 70s and 80s. He uses that lick a lot when he plays in standard tuning and plays Chuck Berry stuff was the one thing he did a cover of it wasn't me where he uses that lick. Quite a bit. So anyway, there are two basic Chuck Berry licks to get us started. And we also learned what the first blues box is all about. So that leg that's in the first blues box, this one also just right over the top of that first position bar chord.
And that's what we mean when we say the first position blue Xbox. So practice those two, two licks, and see if you can play them in a bunch of different keys using your first position barre chord as your your home base or your reference