SNEAKY TRICK of Dickey Betts. It’s SIMPLE (Learn in 5 Minutes) 

Dickey Betts, the man, the legend, what a legacy....

OMG I've been playing guitar since 1962 and it never dawned on me how difficult I was making it and how easy this trick is. It's a whole new thing!

Most of the time I play alone. To get a decent Allman touch just play the pentatonic scale parallel on two strings at once. I call it my Fake Allman mode.

This was awesome. Simple, short, well recorded and edited. One the best song movie placements was Jessica in Field of Dreams. Every road trip since 1989 starts with the ceremonial playing of Jessica. Thanks for the video.

Dickey is the most UNDER-RATED guitarist of the rock era. I can't play guitar at all, but your video was clear and understandable. I love Dickey and often wondered what it was about his style that was so appealing. Thanks for explaining it.

This formula is transferable to any of the 5 Pentatonic shapes. As long as you skip a shape in between two Pentatonic shapes you will find the harmony. Great trick thank you!

Nice! I wish I had your RU-vid videos 45 years ago to learn from. Thanks for the lesson.👍👍

After years playing I picked out, by ear, Southbound. From there I have always used what I call a minor pentatonic in C with the “house shape” up from that scale. It’s all Dickey and it has gotten me by for years now. 😊

Great stuff! Just remember... there's NO lick like Dicky Betts' "One Way Out" groove. Divinely inspired I think. Then Betts' solo is perfect, and then Duane comes in with the slide on top of it... wow! "One Way Out - Live at the Fillmore East" - 6/27/1971"

So SWEET the sound! \m/

I believe, on the recording, there are three parts - the main melody line is played by Dickey Betts, the low harmony is Gregg Allman on Hammond organ and the high harmony is played by Chuck Leavell on Rhodes piano. Chuck also played the acoustic piano part on the recording. I think the twin guitar thing came from their live performances of the song, since Chuck could not play both the Acoustic piano and Rhodes parts at the same time live. The song sounds brilliant played either way, though the original recording does have something very special

😲😃Very cool Mark! I'll have try that with my looper. Never knew you could just go up to positions like that. Nice!

Very cool, thanks Mark. It's interesting to note that Dickey was influenced by Western Swing and tried to incorporate that sound and style into his playing.

Yep....That's the sound I love to listen to...harmonized lead....Awesome!

Thank you! Love your lessons your outlook and your positive vibes.

One of the best articulations of his style for sure. I have been seeking this. Thank you!

Great video.... You had me at Dodge Dart. I had a 1969 Dodge Dart, slant 6 engine.. I just need your guitar skills to match our choices in 70's Dodge's..

Great guitar lesson. Thanks for breaking it down. Keep 'em coming Mark.

Dickey Betts is probably my favorite guitarist. My band plays a lot of Allman Brothers including Jessica but without the harmony part since I'm the only lead guitarist. We still rock it including the piano solo. The main riff is from the D chord structure or actually C. Its an A scale. At least thats how I see it.

Thanks Mark fantastic lesson. Your right that one note makes all the difference! 👋🖤🦋🖤

Thank you. Never even thought about that. Great tool to add to the toolbox. Always just worked through my harmonies this makes it so easy.

I'm such a huge Dickey, Duane, and especially Jack Pearson fan

I loved how May, used this technique, Jimmy Page as well, then really got into it when I understood what was going on. I've used it on many songs to give it a tonal width with great effect. Thanks for the post Mark.

Brothers And Sisters was the first ABB album without Duane Allman. Les Dudek, a Florida free lancer and friend of Dickey’s, played most of the second lead guitar parts. To hear Les tell it, “Jessica” was his idea. He’s a great player and he did play a lot on that record. About the “Dickey Betts Scale:” Nice description of that. Indeed-it’s a thing. When you have something named after you in music, you’ve had an impact. The “Dickey Betts Scale” and the “Jimi Hendrix Chord” fit the bill. Two giants, two additions to the “slang” of music.

Very nice content. Enjoyed your breakdown of the Betts style. Thanks, mate. 👍

the lesson is great and all, but can we all just take a moment to appreciate the mini humbuckers?

My best friend (and conveniently next-door neighbor) Tom was one year ahead of me including with his driver's license. Tom also was an only child and both his parents owned cars.......so generally we got stuck cruising in his mom's Dodge Dart (identical to yours only bronze colored with a vinyl roof) which represented great independence, but the true treat was borrowing his dad the judge's sweet baby blue colored Ford Galaxie 500 XL! Then we moved from a Harmony guitar to a sweet Strat or LP!! Jim C.

Love your LP with mini humbuckers!

Love the Deluxe Les Paul, thanks for this lesson. Never could figure that out.

Lord, have mercy. Dickie Betts!

Enjoyed that tip,and I had to laugh when you talked about your dodge dart, because I was a teenager in the 70's and my first car was a 67dodge dart.😉

Very good , great information indeed. Thanks .

Excellent video brother.Well done. Blessings.

Yes, sir, very nice indeed. If I may draw your attention to the live 1971 Fillmore concert briefly; on Hot 'lanta, consider those lead harmonies that bend and flow in and out so subtle yet with the power of Godzilla breaking out and wreaking havoc upon the listeners. The point is it wasn't what they played so much as how they played it. And that, my fellow guitar masters, is why they are the legends that they are today; never to be duplicated, only imitated. Oh, and add in some bass and organ harmonies while you're in there. I'm hardly worthy to even be talking about them.

Huge western swing influences w Dickey Betts❤

Great content here! I have been playing out of the Allman's catalog since about 1975. Your breakdown could not have been more concise or accessible. Really a cool Deluxe by the way. I have had her twin since 1980. Original pickups in mine but yours sounds great! Cheers!

Very cool! Thank you!

Great lesson!!!! Please more of it!😊

Mark, I appreciate that you eschew the use of the pedal to "mimic" this technique. In the guitar community and on RU-vid especially it sometimes feels like interesting music couldn't be created without the use of pedals, when in fact great guitarists and musicians like Betts and many others found the way and most pedals only try to replicate it. My guitar "guru" once told me..."All pedals are cheating and with a little more practice and imagination you won't need them." He did recommend an amp with spring reverb and was ok with an EQ and drive pedal, though. This video was a great display of how an inventive approach can produce a legendary sound.

Great lesson on harmony without theory. A friend told me “If you’re thinking you’re stinking”.

I love the simple things in everything, especially music which can seem overwhelming 👍

I do love Dickey Betts. Some time after Duane died, Dickey seemed to add a certain kind of bend to some of his notes and it sounded out of key, to me, but evidently not ot him because he kept it up. He was certainly a fine player and of equal rank with his early-in-life buddy, Duane Allman.

PHENOMENAL VIDEO LESSON... FANTASTIC...

Too much fun!! Thank you!

Great lesson Mark!!! Dickie was and still is overshadowed by Duane. Great guitarist and still rocking!!! Keep up the great work. See ya on the next Livestream!!!!! Keep em coming!!🎸

No other song has so influenced my own playing as much as Blue Sky. It's all about MELODY.

Love it!

Thanks for making this easy to understand! Where is the link to the next video you point to at the end?

Yes. It does sound like like Dickey and Duane. And like Mark. And hopefully soon, me 😁🎸

Always good to see a Mark Zabel viddy and then improvising on it, thanks!

I play that extra note all the time in my pentatonic solos! Knowing that Dickey Betts is my likely influence makes it more special!

Cool. The few times I've done that, I calculated the harmonies for each corresponding note of the main line. More fun than a harmonizer to DT yourself, imo.

1:34 - Dicky Betts with a PRS?!?! Yeeeah!

Nice little trick, I'll have to try that! You can actually play both notes yourself by just using the 4th above the original note, playing 2 strings at a time. A little tricky to work out the fingering but 4ths are an easy interval to grab and it sounds great.

Great lesson 👍

I'm no guitar professor. I am here because youtube keeps goading me to watch this video. The logic I always used is add the 4 to the R. ie. If in key of E, the harmony riff will be played in A. Simple theory for a simple man. Again, if it's in C, the harmony is in F. With that said, there are no steadfast rules, just whatever sounds good to the player. Just so happens using the 4 sounds tasty. Don't forget to add some unique grace/expression (bends?) to both. When the notes are played exactly the same it sounds robotic and starched, might as well use the harmony pedal. Sometimes the riffs are not played exactly the same, this is probably due to modes and/or mixing major with minor which can sound awesome. In this case there will be times when the R riff has to use a whole step, but the harmony uses a half. Now that's where it gets "tricky".

I love playing that song Jessica

Good tips and explanation! The harmonies between Duane and Dickey have a unique sound that has made ABB one of my favorite bands ever. I've managed to learn most of Blue Sky (through Duane's solo + harmony part) and will soon get Dickey's solo + harmnony down. Playing both solos back to back is relatively straightforward, but I was wondering how on earth would I be able to do both harmony parts on one guitar? Do I just choose one and/or use a pedal? This really helps to at least approximate that sound so I won't go crazy. Thanks!

Well, that was awesome!

As fantastic and iconic as this song is, unfortunately Duane Allman was dead by this point. 😪🙏🎸 Dickey Betts played alongside an uncredited Les Dudek, who played the harmony part as well as the acoustic rhythm part, and he was a session musician for Capricorn Records at the time. The Allman Brothers' management were really pushing for Dudek to be in the band, and their encouragement had him believing that he'd really gotten the gig, so he began telling people that he was a shoo-in for the band...but that wasn't the case, and the rest of the band were furious that he was making this publicly known, least of all that he or anyone could actually replace Duane...😮 That in itself is an entirely different story, but in spite of the circumstances, Les Dudek deserves credit and his due for being in a right place albeit wrong time scenario and lent his great talents to this classic!

Hey Mark, love your playing and lessons, but like others, there seem to be some inconsistencies in this one that I found confusing: 1) At 2:30, you show the alleged notes of 3rd position Em pentatonic; except it's not because it shows 3 C# notes.... not part of Em pentatonic. It's F# minor pentatonic. I think you just missed by two frets. 2) The notes to be played that you show in blue (I think that's what you're trying to do) on frets 6,7,9&10 are not the notes you actually play which are down on frets 4-8?? What you play is in 3rd pos. Em penta. 3) If by "play the same pattern" you mean play the same relative fret positions on each string but just moved up, that's not what's happening. The fret pattern played in the harmony is NOT the same as the pattern played in the melody. For example in the melody, the third note, G is on the same fret as the starting note; that is, fret 0. In the harmony the 3rd note (B) is on fret 4 while the starting note is fret 5. I think you mean play the same relative note in the 3rd position as was played in 1st position.... the two licks each start on the 5th note of their respective positions and the 1st four notes are 5,1,2,1 Most of my confusion stemmed from the incorrect display at 2:30. I get it now... cool trick!

yes!

You know whats funny is after watching this... i never realized how much Allmans was in my lead playing haha! Im a Jerry Garcia type of player but i add this Allmans feel to stuff that keeps the energy going where the music sometimes crashes. Anywhoo thanks for the video. Also give us the scoop on that guitar ! I love no binding on a LP

Ah, this is the longer version of your TIkTok. Thank you! So seeing the two parts together, it's just the entire riff moved up three frets-exactly the same across the board? I get confused when you say "play it in this other position." We're not finding the unison notes in that different scale pattern, we're just moving up the exact move?

Thank you

This is cool , I need all the help I can get .

So in the final result, you're just playing notes an octave above correct? Because I think at the beginning you were playin the fourth or fifth notes or something like that relative to the "primary" sequence. Both sound great, but just wanted to ask since its something I noticed

I love your goldtop! That's the thing about learning guitar, you are kind of let downby how easy it is to copy your idols. But, it is not the playing, so much, as it is coming up with something unique and GOOD! 5:06

Very nice.

I played ina a couple bands with another guitarist. We played a lot of harmony guitar parts. Counting is the easy way to figure out the harmony notes.

Interesting but complicated. Probably because I play by ear and learned all the notes by listening to records and copying the notes. Now I know what note goes with what sound and what fret. An easy but precise bit would have been from the introduction from Mountain Jam. Duane used that kind of pattern, too.

I like these OG guitar stories. My biggest fail/success was not realising Arlo Guthrie played Alice's Restaurant with a capo as there was no video or photos! So I learned it by ear from the LP without a capo. Craziest chords ever! None of them looked like normal chords. My left hand was in a perpetual claw shape. It took about 6 months to be able to play it. 20 years later I saw a video on YT and realised my mistake. It took about 15 minutes to learn and all the chords were simple, standard open chords🤣

Before you added the hexatonic you had what we used to call the "asian" harmony. That note makes all the difference in the world - without it, sounds like something from a kung fu movie. Nice lesson.

Dat SWEET

The e minor pentatonic diagram shown around 2:30 of this video is wrong

Hi, let me thank you for your time for putting your videos out. You are a fucking awesome guitarist...love this. The one on Leslie west!..I work a lot but i will subscribe and look for other videos you have, again thank you so much😂

Wonderful lesson. More ABB & Dickey please. Do you still have the Dodge?

I had the exact same Dodge Dart Swinger and same color.

Dude! I had the same car. The blue was darker though. ❤

I do that in many songs and sometimes parte of the notes I play them one octave above or below.

Duane had been dead about two years when 'Jessica' was recorded.

Very nice lesson! I wish I had taken time to master this concept years ago. too much of the BB box, lol......I just always thought of Allman Brother's sound as major scale guitar wanking minus the 7th.... no dissonant notes from them boys...all the sweet stuff only.

What is the model Les paul that you are using here?

I wish you still had the Dart 🚙

FYI that photo of Duane you use at 1:03 was shot by my good friend Amalie Rothschild.

Dicky loves his major pentatonics.

What do you mean by "the same sequence of notes" in the next position? Do you mean you start on and play the same exact notes, or are you speaking of a fingering pattern?

ha I Had A DART Swinger. I give up.

Was the graphic overlay for Em pentatonic #3 on the wrong frets?

I'm getting some strong David Van Driessen vibes, but that's not a bad thing.

Hank Marvin does a great version of Jessica. I have played his version live in a three piece band? and I think I got away with it.

I always thought of it as not playing the 7 of the major scale.

Mark, thank you for the great video. Wanted to let you know that the follow-up video that you pointed to his about ZZ Top, not a deeper dive into Dickey Batts. Let me know if I am missing something. Thanks a bunch for your awesome work

ive always found that there is always a note that sounds off playing straight 5ths and always add a4th in there. Dont know why, maybe to add tension then back to the perfect 5ths(wait, theyre not always perfect so add a 4th)

Always remember Dickey😢

The first time you display the second minor position graphic (position #3, at 2:30), I believe it's a whole step (two frets) up from where you're actually playing the lick. Or did I miss something?

What I don't understand is that if you are playing an E Major Pentatonic scale and move it up 2 positions, aren't you still in E Major Pentatonic, just in a different position. Wouldn't it be correct to say I am playing in E Major, in position 2?? I'm no theory guy, so it doesn't make sense to m

Is the Emaj pent the same as Aminor?

Nice gold top Les Paul Deluxe

Ok....that was cool!