Riff RundownDifficulty: Intermediate Composer - Coster Where to find this song - Moonflower track # 12 Release Date - October 1977 The Biography of A Guitar Legend: Carlos Santana was born on July 20th, 1947, in Autlan, Mexico. At a very young age, he was introduced to the world of music by his father, Jose. Jose taught the young Santana first how to play the violin. Carlos' father just so happened to be a seasoned veteran of the mariachi violin. In turn, Jose began teaching Santana the concepts and fundamentals of musical theory. The knowledge that he attained from his father quickly enabled Santana to branch out into different genres of musical liberation. His love of the guitar became the foremost focus on his mind, and when the Santana family moved to Tijuana, Mexico, while young Santana was only eight years old, he started learning the eccentricities of the modern guitar by such musical afficiandos as B.B. King, T-Bone Walker, and the great John Lee Hooker. After playing in several bands, Santana quickly moved to San Francisco, California, to be with his family, whom had moved there a year earlier. While in San Francisco, Carlos found himself submerged in the kind of musical atmosphere that he flourished in. The sounds of San Francisco, the colorful atmosphere, and the news of ground-breaking bands, began to shape how Santana's music sounds today. Soon after, he created a band that was then known as " The Santana Blues Band, " appropriately titled. The band skyrocketed. They found themselves playing at the famous Woodstock '69, and soon the legend of Carlos Santana was born. Soon after, Carlos Santana realized that it was time to go to the studio. They began recording, and started churning out hits like "Jingo" and "Evil Ways." Four out of the five subsequent albums either ended up going gold or platinum. From these albums came hits such as " Oye Como Va" and "Black Magic Woman." Soon after, Santana's musical career started to flounder. He began to focus more on jazz than blues, even though the two can be placed hand in hand in many circumstances. That did not stop Santana though, who, in 1998, began to collaborate with a handful of musicians. Those musicians included Dave Matthews, Everlast, Eagle Eye Cherry, Rob Thomas of Matchbox 20, and Lauryn Hill, originally of The Fugees. Moonflower was the first album to be released in the U.S. His fantastic comeback, "Supernatural, " once again put his name on the music charts and sold over 1.25 million copies in that year alone. There is no doubt as to whether Santana could mix his unique understanding of musical theory and innovative riffs into his jazz and Latino background. There was never any doubt that he was able to harness something that most musicians dream to have - their own sound. Lastly, there was definitely no doubt that he would always live up to his standards, and only play how he feels. He is so prolific that he has his own Signature Series Paul Reed Smith guitar out, which he plays exclusively at all of his shows. He is living proof that understanding where you come from, understanding where you have been, and understanding where to go is one of the most important aspects in musical inspiration. Main ThemeBelow is what the main theme to Flor D'Luna (Moonflower) sounds like with guitar and bass. You can learn both parts in this lesson.
Guitar
The lead guitar part is mostly based around D natural minor (aeolian) pattern below.
Video BreakdownNotice that in the first video you will be primarily focusing with your 1st finger as a pivot point. One thing to try and keep in mind here is that you will need to keep your fingers parallel to each other. You will rarely have to alter much here. What we mean by this is that if you allow your 1st, 2nd, and 3rd fingers to hold their space in the riff, you won't have to shuffle your fingers around as much. You will be playing quite a few notes, but notice that your 1st finger only plays within one fret of each note almost the whole time.
In the second video, look closely at the frets. You aren't really playing anything much different. Santana has an amazing grasp on musical theory, and tries to hit all the notes within the give scale that he can. That is why you see that the 1st finger isn't moving around too much, but IS hitting many different notes. You can almost always guarantee that in a given riff, the 1st finger will be the pivot point, with you 2nd, 3rd, and 4th finger playing the harder to hit notes. It is common in a new guitarist to use one finger to play. By doing that, you will limit yourself to mostly slides. Here, Santana focuses on a great deal of hammer-ons and pull-offs.
For the last video, you will be using a great deal of your 3rd and 4th finger. This compliments what we said earlier, where the 1st finger is STILL your pivot point. The 1st finger should set the standard for the rest of the notes being played. As you can see, once again the 1st finger doesn't move much, and the other fingers seem to fall into place, playing the appropriate notes shown.
Bass
Riff ResourcesComplete Transcription To "Flor D'Luna (Moonflower)" (PDF) Complete Transcription To "Flor D'Luna (Moonflower)" (Power Tab) |
