Learn to play Love in Vain by The Rolling Stones on JustinGuitar!
View the full lesson at Love in Vain by The Rolling Stones | JustinGuitar
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This is Robert Johnson’s best and easily most emotionally mature and complex song, in my opinion.
The lyric has a voice that isn’t found anywhere else in his writing.
So much so, that I do wonder if it was written by another hand.
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Justin does this really well, love the song!
The stones? meh. I just dont get on with Micks singing, rather have Justin.
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I’ve got you @JustinGuitar! To play it close to the record, you have to play in standard tuning, but yes put the capo on the first fret, so it’s in Ab. You do a walk down starting on double stops from frets 10 and 12 on the high E and B strings (relative to the capo) and then switch to pinky on the third fret of the high E relative to the capo and walk down from the third fret on the D string until open before landing on a D7. The verses, he seems to always have a pinky on the third fret relative, but you play G for one bar, then G7 for three with some slides or fill stuff. C for two bars with your pinky on the high E, Then back to G for two bars, but here is where it gets interesting. He throws in a D7 (the secondary dominant) for a hot second in these two bars. Then for the turn-around he does a II-V-I-V (A7, D7, G, D7-relative to the capo) instead of the V-IV-I-V (D7, C7, G7, D7) you would expect.
Some people also play this song in open G tuning, which is fun if you want to bust your slide out, but I think Robert played it in standard either with a capo or out-of-tune guitar or they also could have raised the pitch slightly bc of the recording technology at the time often did that
Justin’s voice on point 
sooo good!!
While I am just starting music theory would I be right in saying it is ok for the beat to change in a bar like it does in Love in Vain, It begins in 6/8 but bar 4 changes to 8/8 then back. I am assuming this is not a mistake ? Justin does mention the rhythm changing ish in the lesson I am a bit confused, If that’s right could we start 3/3 and then change to 4/4, mm? cheers Hec
The tempo/time signature can change anytime, it’s up to the composer/performer.
Also, are you sure you wanted to write 3/3? That would not be a common time signature.
Don’t you mean 3/4 to 4/4?, 3/3 would not work.
I believe bar 4 is the only bar that has 8 counts instead of 6. This was not uncommon in old blues songs (this is based on Robert Johnson’s original from the 1930s. Curiously, that version is in 4:4 time). I’ve come across this in many songs by the Beatles, Dylan, etc., as well.
Anyway, for me it’s easier to think of the whole song in 6:8 time with just 2 added beats in bar 4, rather than switching back and forth between time signatures. This is how Justin teaches it, also. As another community member likes to say, Simples!
Sorry no that was just an example as could it be done cheers Hec
Hi Darreli, yeah I think i understand that like I say it was an example as I am new to music theory then I came across this straight away I am just curious cheers Hec
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