Seriously now my favorite all time band. Steely Dan was so badass they truly separated the men from the boys. From legendary musicians Carlton, Grayson, Gadd, Perdie, Baxter etc a powerhouse. Finally the most creative & stylistic changes in rock. Just friggin perfect. RIP Walter Becker! As always 🍺’ski you rule!🤘
Thanks so much for posting this. I have been a SD fan for a long time but always found their music very difficult to play. This really unlocks a lot about their techniques and sound.
In 1973 I was 11 years old, I heard Reelin In The Years on AM radio, the guitar tone, arrangement, musicianship, and production quality dropped my jaw and in 1975 I was 13 my older brother had gotten a Les Paul and an Orange Amp, I have been playing guitar ever since. Yes, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Steely Dan have always been my top four.
So many different ways of playing the same thing! I learned that Peg opening a totally different way! Awesome insight into all those sumptuous chords. Thanks!
Walter Becker came up with some really interesting parts all throughout but they hired some of the best: Skunk Baxter and Denny Dias were the original guitarists, along with Elliott Randall. Later on when they became mostly a studio band they hired guitarists like Larry Carlton, Jay Graydon, and Dean Parks, just to name a few.
Probably the biggest influence I ever had in my musical education, not just technical , but style and music appreciation in the realms of blues and jazz. Steely Dan's catalogue is essential for all aspiring musicians!
Amazing! I'm knocked out by how well you can hear all those crazy chords. I love Steely Dan and it was good to see those examples up close and slowed down!
I just wanted to say thanks...a life time of listening to something Steely I thought was impossible to grasp, you made incredibly approachable.... Thank you so very much! LJM
Thank you for taking the time to make this Video. I would love to hear the future Steely Dan Videos with a little less distortion. Best of life to you. Thanks again!
Your diverse musical knowledge is inspiring! Didn’t see this one coming, and you knocked it out of the park. Thank you for your amazing content. I’ve been obsessed with Steely Dan’s chord work for years. I really appreciate your knowledge of those advanced voicings.
Wow!! I learnt more about their chord structures from watching this than I have from constantly listening to them since 1972. Great video, well done and thank you.
had the pleasure of getting a lesson from Larry Carlton, and your are playing the right phrasing of the chords.......you are the first one I have seen on youtube
Thank you for the excellent lesson. You have a wonderfully approachable presentation style. Very conversational and familiar yet highly informed. (Heck of a player as well.) As a fellow educator I just wanted to send my sincere respect. Will definitely be visiting more of your offerings. 😊🎶👍
Wow, I love steely and have been fascinated by there sound. Steely Dan is like pizza! You can never have to much! Thank you for a demo of music I will never be able to play! Great presentation, YOU Are A MAJOR DUDE!
Oh my god~!!!! Are you kidding me? Let's see. I married my daughter's daddy in 1977 and we were jamming to AJA in the living room of our apartment. I was 19 (no reference to Hey 19). I had been playing guitar eight years by then. I'm 62 now and I NEVER KNEW it could be possible for me to play a Steely Dan song. THANK YOU MAN! I waited my whole life for this! lol. Ok, well.. let's say I soo appreciate this lesson! Thanks man!
Hey, your video is really nice! And with a smile it's so cool. I discovered Steely Dan music in 1975 while baby sitting the already tall son of an american basket player in my hometown in France. I had to order the records as they were only imports from USA. I never quit listening to this fantastic band. And today, some chords are coming in my tunes.
As a lifelong Dan fan and guitarist since my teens, I have to say I loved this. Gave me new insight into their chords and revived my interest in their tunes, after all these years. I'm back into it, guitar-wise too. Thanks again. Subscribed.
Many thanks for your calm, clear narrative on the chords used by the several guitarists who worked with SD. You are quite correct -- that music will live on among people with an ear for complex and sophisticated music.
Well that just reinforces my notion and personal taste that Steely Dan is the classiest band in rock. Just candy to my ears. Thank you for breaking it down for us... ROCK ON BROTHER !!!🤘😎
My god Man, is there anything you can't play? This lesson is for us big boys. 😉 That has to be the coolest arrangement of chords. I'm obviously familiar with steely Dan, but watching Josie being played, much more respect I have for these guys. You don't hear this stuff now a days. Good stuff D B🐓👍👍
Not a huge Steely Dan fan, but as a metal guitar player with a degree in music theory, I TOTALLY respect their writing. And, your effort in presenting the fact of what they accomplished, is to be commended.
Fun lesson. Dangerous. Reminds me of the days when I figured much out by ear with a cassette tape. So much info is easily accessible today. I’m just discovering your cache of info now. Thank you for sharing the love.
I think that second chord in the “Peg” verse might function as a Gmajadd9 with the third (B on the A string) functioning as the root, as the bass goes from C to G...same applies for the F to C and G to D.
Aside from simply enjoying their music, it seems that almost any time I've ever studied something from Steely Dan's music on guitar, it takes me out of my box/comfort zone in various and good ways. 😎
Great overview of Steely Dan. They've been my favourite band since the 1st time I heard them back in the early 70s. The arrangements, the lyrics, the monster session guys they brought in... everything.
Really stoked that this showed up in my "suggestions"... Sir, your channel is magnificent & I immediately subscribed. It's been used but man, you're the, "Bob Ross" of technical explanations. Thoroughly enjoy your methodology & subtle way of coveying your experiences. I've learned quite a bit this fine morning here in 'unusually' rainy, but welcomed, Dana Point, CA! Wonderful channel indeed! I'm hooked! 😉 💜 🍀 🎶 💜 Love & Light to you all out in there in UA-cam Land & bEyOnD!
What a great lesson, David. And I really like your style and the way you communicate. So glad I came across your channel. Very helpful and informative. Thanks for what you do!
I’d argue man for man Steely had the best guitarists in the world playing on their records ! The list of killer players in really unmatched ! Skunk, Dias, Bullock, Coryell, McCracken, Knopfler and of course Becker himself hits crazy how many top flight guitarists put their mark on their tunes !!
You also left off Lee Ritenour. Not sure about Coryell...what did he play on? You also left off Dean Parks and of course their current lead player, John Herington. Knopfler was credited for Time Out of Mind on Gaucho, but it sure doesn't sound like him....and rumor I heard was that your icon Becker basically altered and stripped Knopfler's solo contribution down to about zero. Becker was an interesting guitar player but he played in the same tempo, format, musical scale box time after time. He was very unimaginative, but Dan-Fans continue to treat him like some kind of god. He wasn't.
I was just naming a few that came to mind wasn’t meant to be an all inclusive list. May have been wrong on Coryell though you are right. As for Becker where did I say he was a God ? Not sure what your point on that was ... that said was a pretty fine writer and engineer and along with Fagen crated “the sound” s kinda hard to leave him out.
I have great gear, play poorly but this episode is like the best thing I've seen in a long time. Like a play with multiple acts, all easily digestible. Thanks so much!
Wow that was packed with a whole lot of chord ideas-had to just watch and listen first...will rewatch now with guitar and do my best!! I always felt Steely Dan’s recordings still really hold up as well. Like they sound really good still. Great lesson and thanks for making your lesson so diverse to include a band like Steely Dan!!
I've been a Dan Fan for over 40 years now and although I doubt I'll ever master the complexity of their music (I'm a simple, 3 chord on an acoustic kind of guy), I have so enjoyed hearing you discuss how these fabulous songs were constructed...thank you so much.
I'm a bass player and I love to play along with Steely Dan songs because of the funky grooves along with the movement in the songs but I've never sat down and tried my hand at the guitar arrangements.... Until this video. Thanks!
Great stuff. One of the bands I am fortunate enough to be in plays several Steely Dan songs. Josie, Pretzel logic, Green Earrings, Peg, Kid Charlemagne I'm still catching up on some of it. Not only great cord work, but the solos are fantastic. Without a doubt my all time favorite band.
Tackling what I'd consider the essence of SD's mystique is an admirable feat. Sending appreciation for revealing a portion of their elusive magic that became much less complicated to grasp in the relationships of chords you've presented.
Simply wow! What a great lesson that helps to decipher Steely Dan’s chords progression. My hat’s off to you, you are amazing. Bravo. You have a new fan :)
Great video and introduction to the Steely Dan chord vocabulary. You probably already know this, but for those that don't, the reason they call it a "mu" chord is that in some musical notation when writing chords in shorthand you use a capital M to represent "major" and a lower-case "m" to represent a "minor" chord. Steely Dan may have been the first to use this as a shorthand way to write "GM7add9" by taking a commonly used letter from the Greek alphabet. The Greek "m" is called "mu". Unfortunately, the capital "mu" is written the same way that we write our capital "M", but the lower-case "mu" looks different, µ, similar to a cursive "u". The symbol is used frequently in math, physics, chemistry, and medicine. It is part of the metric system prefixes (kilo-, centi-, Mega-, milli-, etc) and in that context, it represents one one-millionth, or 10 the negative 6th power (0.000001). It is the symbol used most commonly to represent very small lengths (one micrometer, 1 µm, aka one "micron", for context, a typical human hair ranges from a few microns thick to about 60 microns) and in mass or weight, the microgram, 1 µg. This comes in handy when you use it as often as Steely Dan and are trying to write it above lyrics on a song chart. "Gµ" takes up less space than "GM7add9".
Hey man, thanks for this! SD is the greatest band EVER! Walter was/is great on all the recordings, and of course Donald is brilliant in his own right, being the keyboardist and heavy handed on writing. Great find, I subscribed, hope to see more sooner than later! Cheers!
You're a great teacher and communicator not to mention a great guitarist
yep, he's good at this.
Steely Dan, the intersection of heart, intelligence, brilliance and soul.
Great lesson. Thanks!
Seriously now my favorite all time band. Steely Dan was so badass they truly separated the men from the boys. From legendary musicians Carlton, Grayson, Gadd, Perdie, Baxter etc a powerhouse. Finally the most creative & stylistic changes in rock. Just friggin perfect. RIP Walter Becker! As always 🍺’ski you rule!🤘
...Porcaro...
Actually it's Graydon...Not Grayson (Jay Graydon to be precise). Hey did the solo on Peg.
An incredibly intelligent musician - skilled at discussion, too
Thanks so much for posting this. I have been a SD fan for a long time but always found their music very difficult to play. This really unlocks a lot about their techniques and sound.
In 1973 I was 11 years old, I heard Reelin In The Years on AM radio, the guitar tone, arrangement, musicianship, and production quality dropped my jaw and in 1975 I was 13
my older brother had gotten a Les Paul and an Orange Amp, I have been playing guitar ever since. Yes, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Steely Dan have always been my top four.
Very commendable top 4 bands choices 👏
The Dan! One of the best rock bands of all time
Nicely done. Just the right amount of "distortion". Excellent lesson.
So many different ways of playing the same thing! I learned that Peg opening a totally different way! Awesome insight into all those sumptuous chords. Thanks!
The Dan were in a league of one.
Only Level 42 came close, but from a different direction.
Amazing! To hear those chords slowed down you appreciate those chords and sounds even more. Wow!
Love your Aja album picture over you computer. Awesome guitar playing too.
Had no idea how crazy Steely Dan's guitar playing was until recently when I heard Frank Gambale mention them in an interview. Green Earrings is sick
Walter Becker came up with some really interesting parts all throughout but they hired some of the best: Skunk Baxter and Denny Dias were the original guitarists, along with Elliott Randall. Later on when they became mostly a studio band they hired guitarists like Larry Carlton, Jay Graydon, and Dean Parks, just to name a few.
Check out the backing-track-only version of Green Earrings... I never appreciated what a kicking arrangement it was before I heard that.
Probably the biggest influence I ever had in my musical education, not just technical , but style and music appreciation in the realms of blues and jazz. Steely Dan's catalogue is essential for all aspiring musicians!
Amazing! I'm knocked out by how well you can hear all those crazy chords. I love Steely Dan and it was good to see those examples up close and slowed down!
Always very nice sounding chords in Steely Dan's music, I'm a 4 decades fan, definitely.
I just wanted to say thanks...a life time of listening to something Steely I thought was impossible to grasp, you made incredibly approachable.... Thank you so very much! LJM
Thank you for taking the time to make this Video. I would love to hear the future Steely Dan Videos with a little less distortion. Best of life to you. Thanks again!
You are one of the coolest guitar teachers I've ever watched and I've watched hundreds. Great job man!! Keep up the very cool way of teaching.
Your diverse musical knowledge is inspiring! Didn’t see this one coming, and you knocked it out of the park. Thank you for your amazing content. I’ve been obsessed with Steely Dan’s chord work for years. I really appreciate your knowledge of those advanced voicings.
thanks for sharing this! it makes me appreciate Steely Dan even more
This is so fun. Thank you David Brewster.
Just a joy watching and listening to how they constructed those classics. Wonderful. Thank you
Wow!! I learnt more about their chord structures from watching this than I have from constantly listening to them since 1972. Great video, well done and thank you.
had the pleasure of getting a lesson from Larry Carlton, and your are playing the right phrasing of the chords.......you are the first one I have seen on youtube
Those fingerings fall out when you follow the piano chart in the published songbook, 'Steely Dan Complete'.
Thank you for the excellent lesson. You have a wonderfully approachable presentation style. Very conversational and familiar yet highly informed. (Heck of a player as well.) As a fellow educator I just wanted to send my sincere respect. Will definitely be visiting more of your offerings. 😊🎶👍
Wow, I love steely and have been fascinated by there sound. Steely Dan is like pizza! You can never have to much! Thank you for a demo of music I will never be able to play! Great presentation, YOU Are A MAJOR DUDE!
Oh my god~!!!! Are you kidding me? Let's see. I married my daughter's daddy in 1977 and we were jamming to AJA in the living room of our apartment. I was 19 (no reference to Hey 19). I had been playing guitar eight years by then. I'm 62 now and I NEVER KNEW it could be possible for me to play a Steely Dan song. THANK YOU MAN! I waited my whole life for this! lol. Ok, well.. let's say I soo appreciate this lesson! Thanks man!
Found a new channel to binge. These channels that dissect music are great. Watching someone stumble over tabs is exhausting.
Great sesh bud. Love the Dan right from the early days. Your contribution to the rest of us guitar plebs is appreciated. Best wishes from australia😀
Hey, your video is really nice! And with a smile it's so cool. I discovered Steely Dan music in 1975 while baby sitting the already tall son of an american basket player in my hometown in France.
I had to order the records as they were only imports from USA. I never quit listening to this fantastic band. And today, some chords are coming in my tunes.
As a lifelong Dan fan and guitarist since my teens, I have to say I loved this. Gave me new insight into their chords and revived my interest in their tunes, after all these years. I'm back into it, guitar-wise too. Thanks again. Subscribed.
Awesome David!!!! Definitely Nice to see this!!!!
Many thanks for your calm, clear narrative on the chords used by the several guitarists who worked with SD. You are quite correct -- that music will live on among people with an ear for complex and sophisticated music.
dude, you're great. a placid reprieve in a world of distress... thanks!
Well that just reinforces my notion and personal taste that Steely Dan is the classiest band in rock. Just candy to my ears. Thank you for breaking it down for us... ROCK ON BROTHER !!!🤘😎
Steely Dan was amazing! The tonality was spot on! The innovation was outstanding!
excellent stuff my friend. thanks for this.
Your lesson has flow without promising too much. It's a door opener. Inviting. Very, very well done. Thank you.
Thankyou. Interesting and beautifully presented. Will get that pinky switching fast as lightning. More please.
Excellent teacher - the kind everyone should have! Great work, great posts.
Love your variety of video/artist subjects , keep up the great work !!!
Brilliant! Excelent delivery. Thank you!
My god Man, is there anything you can't play?
This lesson is for us big boys. 😉
That has to be the coolest arrangement of chords. I'm obviously familiar with steely Dan, but watching Josie being played, much more respect I have for these guys.
You don't hear this stuff now a days.
Good stuff D B🐓👍👍
Not a huge Steely Dan fan, but as a metal guitar player with a degree in music theory, I TOTALLY respect their writing. And, your effort in presenting the fact of what they accomplished, is to be commended.
Fun lesson. Dangerous. Reminds me of the days when I figured much out by ear with a cassette tape. So much info is easily accessible today. I’m just discovering your cache of info now. Thank you for sharing the love.
I love this guy’s personality and style of teaching. He’s like the Mr. Rogers of guitar instruction.
I think that second chord in the “Peg” verse might function as a Gmajadd9 with the third (B on the A string) functioning as the root, as the bass goes from C to G...same applies for the F to C and G to D.
Dooood! So insightful! Thank you!
Outstanding lesson. Tnx so much for these voicings.
Love Steely Dan! Thanks Brew, I finally learned Josie after meaning to for years!
..nice breakdown.. really good stuff 👍
Good stuff. Thanks for posting.
Quite possibly your best video yet. Great work sir!
I bought Aja in high school, I've been a fan ever since! Thanks for the lesson!
The Best SD album!
Steely Dan turned me on to the 13 chords. Great lesson, thanks!
You dude, rock !!! perfect
Great lesson. The sitar solo in Do it again is one of my favorite
What a Great lesson,thank you,David.
Very good video. I know a lot and learned a lot. Thanks!
Aside from simply enjoying their music, it seems that almost any time I've ever studied something from Steely Dan's music on guitar, it takes me out of my box/comfort zone in various and good ways. 😎
Great overview of Steely Dan. They've been my favourite band since the 1st time I heard them back in the early 70s. The arrangements, the lyrics, the monster session guys they brought in... everything.
Really stoked that this showed up in my "suggestions"... Sir, your channel is magnificent & I immediately subscribed. It's been used but man, you're the, "Bob Ross" of technical explanations. Thoroughly enjoy your methodology & subtle way of coveying your experiences. I've learned quite a bit this fine morning here in 'unusually' rainy, but welcomed, Dana Point, CA! Wonderful channel indeed! I'm hooked! 😉 💜 🍀 🎶 💜 Love & Light to you all out in there in UA-cam Land & bEyOnD!
Great radio voice!
Steely Dan! Great stuff!
What a beautiful breakdown. Thank you so much. I really learnt a lot
What a great lesson, David. And I really like your style and the way you communicate. So glad I came across your channel. Very helpful and informative. Thanks for what you do!
Fabulously wonderful video. Thank you.
I’d argue man for man Steely had the best guitarists in the world playing on their records ! The list of killer players in really unmatched ! Skunk, Dias, Bullock, Coryell, McCracken, Knopfler and of course Becker himself hits crazy how many top flight guitarists put their mark on their tunes !!
you missed Carlton!!
Toby Hodkinson let’s not forget the great Jay Graydon and Rick Derringer 🕶
You also left off Lee Ritenour. Not sure about Coryell...what did he play on? You also left off Dean Parks and of course their current lead player, John Herington. Knopfler was credited for Time Out of Mind on Gaucho, but it sure doesn't sound like him....and rumor I heard was that your icon Becker basically altered and stripped Knopfler's solo contribution down to about zero. Becker was an interesting guitar player but he played in the same tempo, format, musical scale box time after time. He was very unimaginative, but Dan-Fans continue to treat him like some kind of god. He wasn't.
I was just naming a few that came to mind wasn’t meant to be an all inclusive list. May have been wrong on Coryell though you are right. As for Becker where did I say he was a God ? Not sure what your point on that was ... that said was a pretty fine writer and engineer and along with Fagen crated “the sound” s kinda hard to leave him out.
@@toby1kenobe And Khan
Thanks for the insight. My band plays a lot of Steely Dan. I'll finally get them right.
Just getting into Dan now and realising how incredible they are .
HELLO I'M CARL AND LOVE STEELY AND YOUR TAKE.. YOUR DEMEANOR HELPED RECEPTION OF MATERIAL EASY, COMFORTABLE THX
I have great gear, play poorly but this episode is like the best thing I've seen in a long time. Like a play with multiple acts, all easily digestible. Thanks so much!
Awesome Breakdown! Thank You!!
Excellent job!
Wow that was packed with a whole lot of chord ideas-had to just watch and listen first...will rewatch now with guitar and do my best!! I always felt Steely Dan’s recordings still really hold up as well. Like they sound really good still. Great lesson and thanks for making your lesson so diverse to include a band like Steely Dan!!
Great lesson.
Outstanding!
I've been a Dan Fan for over 40 years now and although I doubt I'll ever master the complexity of their music (I'm a simple, 3 chord on an acoustic kind of guy), I have so enjoyed hearing you discuss how these fabulous songs were constructed...thank you so much.
Thanks for churning out such great stuff, man! This one is a dandy
Thank you!!! Greetings from nearby the Arctic Circle/Finland.
Thanks so much for your videos, it's really eye-opening for my learning!
Wow this is really helpful for me to begin to understand the Steely Dan Jazzy chord structures.
Really good, thank you.
You knocked this out of the park my friend!!
Very well done , thanks
Very deep material Mate . Thanks for posting Cheers.
The Dan - one of my all time best bands-Fagen and Becker -fabulously talented and intelligent!
Yes! I agree...
I'm a bass player and I love to play along with Steely Dan songs because of the funky grooves along with the movement in the songs but I've never sat down and tried my hand at the guitar arrangements.... Until this video. Thanks!
Great stuff. One of the bands I am fortunate enough to be in plays several Steely Dan songs.
Josie, Pretzel logic, Green Earrings, Peg, Kid Charlemagne
I'm still catching up on some of it. Not only great cord work, but the solos are fantastic. Without a doubt my all time favorite band.
i’vw been a steely dan fan for many years i love the Walter backer plays he’s still awesome to me i want to learn their music i’m such a big fan
YEEEAAAAHHHH!!!! Thanks, David!!!!! Whewwww!
Tackling what I'd consider the essence of SD's mystique is an admirable feat. Sending appreciation for revealing a portion of their elusive magic that became much less complicated to grasp in the relationships of chords you've presented.
Simply wow! What a great lesson that helps to decipher Steely Dan’s chords progression. My hat’s off to you, you are amazing. Bravo. You have a new fan :)
Always interesting and informative ...
Thank you sir. Now a I can play along a few steely Dan songs.
one of my favorite groups. awesome breakdown, making the impossible possible. I wish I knew chord structure as well as you do. Thanks!
Great video and introduction to the Steely Dan chord vocabulary. You probably already know this, but for those that don't, the reason they call it a "mu" chord is that in some musical notation when writing chords in shorthand you use a capital M to represent "major" and a lower-case "m" to represent a "minor" chord. Steely Dan may have been the first to use this as a shorthand way to write "GM7add9" by taking a commonly used letter from the Greek alphabet. The Greek "m" is called "mu". Unfortunately, the capital "mu" is written the same way that we write our capital "M", but the lower-case "mu" looks different, µ, similar to a cursive "u". The symbol is used frequently in math, physics, chemistry, and medicine. It is part of the metric system prefixes (kilo-, centi-, Mega-, milli-, etc) and in that context, it represents one one-millionth, or 10 the negative 6th power (0.000001). It is the symbol used most commonly to represent very small lengths (one micrometer, 1 µm, aka one "micron", for context, a typical human hair ranges from a few microns thick to about 60 microns) and in mass or weight, the microgram, 1 µg. This comes in handy when you use it as often as Steely Dan and are trying to write it above lyrics on a song chart. "Gµ" takes up less space than "GM7add9".
Excellent - many thanks for doing this.
Came across this while working on Dr. Wu. today. I'm a long time subscriber and fan....
Another Amazing lesson again. Many thanks. 🎸 🇬🇧☺️
Hey man, thanks for this! SD is the greatest band EVER! Walter was/is great on all the recordings, and of course Donald is brilliant in his own right, being the keyboardist and heavy handed on writing. Great find, I subscribed, hope to see more sooner than later! Cheers!