How to Play All The Things (Your Man Won’t Do) by Joe Thomas
Joe Thomas is an artist I had not heard of when I received the request for how to play All The Things (Your Man Won’t Do). This is a soulful rhythm and blues song. Learning how to play it on guitar is going to teach you some great jazz chords. As I become a better guitarist, jazz is becoming more and more enticing and seductive musically. I’ve always been a rock n roll and country kind of guy. But the farther I dig into the roots of country and rock, the more times I run into jazz.
That’s not saying I’ve never liked jazz. I’ve always had an appreciation for it. Lately, your requests for specific song lessons are taking me to places that I may have never reached. Thanks to All The Things (Your Man Won’t Do) I’m learning things I may have never learned. So if you’ve been looking for something new that will help expand your musical knowledge, look no further. Today’s lesson is going to dive into some wild chord shapes that will get your fingers all twisted up!
Video Lesson
First, I will direct you to my YouTube lesson. This covers all of the chords, the picking pattern, and the guitar solo. There are A LOT of chords to learn, and if you’re used to cowboy chords and bar chords, these jazz chords are going to be a perfect challenge for you. Scroll down on this page, and you’ll find the tablature used in the video. And, if you’re really stoked about learning this song, I’ve made the tab available for purchase at Sheet Music Plus here: https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/21987199?aff_id=721405.
Gear Corner
From what I can hear on the record, you’re going to want to use a nylon string guitar to get a truly authentic sound. However, learning how to play All The Things (Your Man Won’t Do) can still be done on an acoustic steel string if that’s what you have at home. And if push comes to shove, your electric guitar will do just fine. If you are using an acoustic guitar, be sure that you can reach the upper frets in order to play the solo. Specifically, you’ll need to reach the 14th fret of your high e string.
I will recommend that you use a finger pick style (or use finger picks that slide onto your finger tips) for the verses and chorus. It will be easier overtime to finger pick these notes while you’re playing along. When you get to the solo, I personally recommend using a pick to play the notes, mostly so you can play all of the notes at full speed. I believe that it’s possible to finger pick the solo, but I am not a skilled enough player so I opt for a pick.
Chords
Like the first paragraph says, this song has some awesome jazzy chords in it! We’re going to see major 7 chords, minor 9’s, minor7’s, minor 11’s, 9 suspended 4’s, and diminished 7’s. This song doesn’t lend itself too well to Nashville numbers. But it does give you an opportunity to explore what the numbers mean.
If you’ve read posts on The Smelly Tele, this next paragraph will be familiar to you. Similar to how we use the major scale to assign a number to a chord when using Nashville numbers, you can also use your scales to determine how the nomencalture and chord name is derived for these jazz chords!
First, this song mainly focuses on variations of major and minor chords. The major chord is made up of the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes of the major scale. All you need to do is count each note in any major scale, starting with the root note, to determine what the 3rd and 5th notes are. So in G major, the 1st note is G, the 2nd is A, 3rd is B, 4th is C, and the 5th is D. Therefore any combination of the 1st (G), 3rd (B) and 5th (D) notes will give you the major chord triad. For a minor chord, you move the 3rd note down half a step (or a flat 3rd!) and bam, you have the minor chord.
See if you can use these numbers to find the 7th notes, 9th, notes, and the 11th notes of these chords using your major or minor scales! It’s a good challenge and will help you master your fretboard. It can be a bit academic, but trust me, it will help this stuff sink in. Hint, remember that the 9th and the 11th notes of the scale are just the octaves of the 2nd and 3rd notes.
Without further adieu, here are the chord diagrams for how to play All The Things (Your Man Won’t Do):
Finger Picking Time!
I love me some good fingerpicking, and this song doesn’t disappoint. This is a beautiful piece of music to play.
Intro
The introduction makes use of 8 chords. To start, I’ll show you the chord diagrams so you can see how each chord is played. Then, I will provide tablature and charts so you can see how the notes and chords are played together.
Now, the tablature for the introduction.
Verse
The great news about the verse is, you learned all the chords you need in the introduction. I will skip the chord diagrams and get straight to the tablature & fingerpicking.
Pre-Chorus
The pre-chorus, or bridge, is one of the easiest sections of the song. Though, the chord shapes may be a bit foreign to most guitar players. This is one of the prettiest sections of the song and really fun to play! We’ll start again with the chord diagrams, and then dive into the tablature.
And now for the fingerpicking!
Chorus
The chorus is nearly the same as the introduction, so we will skip the chord diagrams again! Straight to the tabs!
SOLO!
The guitar solo was one of my favorite parts of learning how to play All The Things Your Man Won’t Do. Note, the run-up before the first beat of the first measure begins at the end of the chorus. It’s important to time the end of your run-up, so the first note of the solo (7th fret of the B string, or and F#) is the first beat of the measure.
That’s It!
Another lesson with a ton of chords in the books! This is a great song to practice because it will force your fingers to move into new positions and configurations. Knowing how to play All The Things (Your Man Won’t Do) is going to help your hand and fingers stretch out a bit more, and you’re going to be able to play more “Big Stretch” chords!
Remember, if you would like to support this webpage, please become a patron on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/smellytele! A perk of being a patron? I will make a video lesson specifically for you! If there’s a song you want to learn, but you can’t find a lesson for it, tell me! I’m here to help!
If you’re looking for country lessons, check out our Chris Stapleton lessons on Starting Over and You Should Probably Leave!
Or if you love torturing yourself on the quest to be the best guitarist ever, you can check out our lesson on Only Daddy That’ll Walk The Line by Waylon Jennings!
Also, go check out some of our acoustic guitar lessons! If you’re a beginner looking for more simple chords, try Wagon Wheel by Old Crow Medicine Show or Willin’ by Little Feat! These simple songs are great to learn!
And if you liked the guitar we used in today’s video, check out our full review of the Martin Custom D Classic Rosewood!
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