This is the famous intro guitar lick from the Steely Dan song “Reeling in the Years”. The guitarist who plays the tasty solo that starts out the song is Elliott Randall.
Steely Dan “Reeling in the Years” Lick – Audio Fast
Steely Dan “Reeling in the Years” Lick – Audio Slow
The red number is the note that you should use as your guide when playing this lick in other keys. In this case the red note is an A. This lick is in the key of A major. If you wanted to play this lick in B major, then you would move everything up 2 frets so that the note in red would be at the 7th fret (B).
For more information on how to read this, check out the lesson on Reading Internet Tablature.
This guitar lick comes out of an A major pentatonic scale, with a chromatic passing tone thrown in for good measure.
A Major Pentatonic Scale
numbers = fingers
red numbers = the root of the scale
A Major Pentatonic
(with added chromatic note)
numbers = fingers
blue number = the chromatic passing tone
