Old Love Guitar Lesson – Eric Clapton Unplugged


In this video lesson series we will take a look at Eric Clapton's acoustic version of "Old Love" from his massively successful Clapton Unplugged album.

Originally appearing on Clapton's Journeyman album, "Old Love" was written by Clapton and Robert Cray. It was given a complete makeover for the Clapton Unplugged album.

In these Old Love guitar lesson videos, I will breakdown the two different rhythm sections of the tune, followed by another video lesson dedicated entirely to the guitar solo.

Within these two different rhythm sections we have Clapton playing some pretty laid back rhythms with some tricky chord forms. These chords are made more difficult because of the way that Eric Clapton chose to play them. He plays most of these chords by fingering the 6th string bass notes with his thumb. Now not all of us have a thumb as long as Clapton's (me included), so if you have a lot of trouble playing them in this way, try playing them as just full barre chords.

In this intro Clapton starts the opening chord progression with a little riff that is very reminiscent of Layla. However, after the vocals come in, he just sticks with the chords.

The second rhythm section has some beautiful chromatic lines in it. Both of these chord progression are great but they really are just the beginning of what this song is about. Once you get to the guitar solo you will find it to be one of the greatest examples of Eric Clapton in full flight as a guitarist. It is simply brilliant.

For the second video lesson I will be tackling the entire solo. It is quite long as goes through many different dynamics and techniques, but all in all I think it is one of the greatest Clapton solos you could learn.

So I hope you enjoy learning this acoustic masterpiece by Eric Clapton. Grab that acoustic and get warmed up because this Clapton acoustic classic will definitely put you through your paces. 🙂

Carl...

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Old Love Guitar Lesson - All Rhythms

Old Love Guitar Lesson - Solo

3 Comments

  1. Kevin Trager on February 21, 2020 at 4:44 pm

    Hey Carl, rhythm is great, solo is a dream. All laid out.

  2. Kevin Trager on April 8, 2020 at 3:36 pm

    Carl, Amazing song, especially the solo!

  3. Samuel on February 28, 2022 at 8:06 pm

    Hey Carl, really enjoying learning this solo. I’m a fairly new guitar player, and I wanted to know how I can become quicker so I can keep up with the pace of the song, especially the faster parts. Also, do you think you could make a lesson on Soothsayer by Buckethead?

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