More GUITAR Technique - Keith Richards

Keef - stone me!

Keith Richards, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley 

Keith: 

"T-Bone Walker was one of the first to use the double- string thing--to use two strings instead of one, and Chuck Berry got a lot out of T-Bone. Musically impossible, but it works. The notes clash, they jangle. You're pulling two strings at once and you're putting them in a position where actually their knickers are pulled up. You've always got something ringing against the note or the harmony. Chuck Berry is all double-string stuff. He very rarely plays single notes. The reason that cats started to play like that, T-Bone and so on, was economics--to eliminate the need for a horn section. With an amplified electric guitar, you could play two harmony notes and you could basically save money on two saxophones and a trumpet. And my double-string playing was why, in the very first Sidcup days, I was looked on as a bit of a wild rock and roller, and not really a serious blues player. Everybody else was playing away on single strings. It worked for me because I was playing a lot by myself, so two strings were better than one. And it had the possibility of getting this dissonance and this rhythm thing going, which you can't do picking away on one string. It's finding the moves. Chords are something to look for. There's always the Lost Chord. Nobody's found it." 

Photo by Paul Natkin

 with THANKS to Don's Tunes