Any Way You Want It Guitar Lesson – Journey
Any Way You Want by Journey is a very fun song to play on the guitar that doesn't present very many challenges, especially if your not playing the solo.
In this Any Way You Want It guitar lesson video will I will teach you the rhythm guitar part and both guitar solos of this Journey smash hit as played by Neal Schon.
In the verse you will have a nice opportunity to work on muting and dynamics. You will be using those elements along with a little single note riff that acts as a turnaround throughout the song.
In the chorus you get to work on using your thumb to play a bass note on the 6th string. This can be a bit awkward at first, but will become very comfortable with practice.
In order to help the thumb reach the 6th string, it is important to have a hand position that facilitates that kind of playing. I find that bending the inside of my fret hand wrist upwards towards my face a little bit makes reaching those 6th string bass notes with my thumb much easier.
You should experiment with that hand position and maybe a few others to find what works best for you.
In this second video lesson, I will show you how to play Neal Schon's main guitar solo. As typical with Schon's playing, there are lots of very melodic phrases with some fast scale runs thrown in there as well. This solo isn't very difficult except for a fast descending pentatonic lick. I will break that lick down into the patterns that he is using so it won't feel like it is just a series of random notes.
In the third and final lesson video I will show you how to play Neal Schon's outro solo for "Any Way You Want It".
For this solo, Neal Schon uses a lot of bends to create the melodic phrases. Practicing this solo a lot will probably give your fingertips a pretty heavy beating, so make sure you only work on it a few minutes at a time unless you have calluses that can already stand up to that kind on abuse. 🙂
Try to focus on keeping those bends in tune and really letting the notes soar. Slightly releasing the pressure of the notes during the sustained bends will make the notes die out too soon which will ruin the effect that Neal Schon created in this solo.
Hope you guys have fun tackling this monster hit from Journey!
Carl...
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Any Way You Want It Guitar Lesson Pt.1 - Chords
Any Way You Want It Guitar Lesson Pt.2 - Main Guitar Solo
Any Way You Want It Guitar Lesson Pt.3 - Outro Guitar Solo
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Hey Carl:
I learned this song years ago in slightly different way. I saw Neil
cont….sorry got sent unfinished.. So. I say Neil play it with a G bar power cord, the two fingers
index on G and pinky on “A” string D note, to make up the two note power cord, same strum pattern, then the index finger steps down to G-flat, or F#, like when you hold the thumb there and use the D chord, and then the strait E power chord in the “A” finger formation?
The line is the same of corse, and then the same two note bar form power chords for the chorus with the strum sustained note pattern. The timber sounds closer to the original recording this way, but I do think he uses the “D” chord with the thumb ‘hang-over’ on the F# for the drop down from the starting “G.” At any rate, I’d love to compare the solo I hear and have picked out with yours. you are usually perfectly dead on with solos. Heres a vote for adding the rest of the song and the solo. Thanks again, Carl.
TommyRad