Crazy On You Intro Guitar Lesson - Heart - Famous Riffs

The rapid acoustic guitar intro for "Crazy On You" by Heart introduced the rock world to the band in a very surprising way. "Crazy On You" was the first single off of Heart's album Dreamboat Annie and guitarist Nancy Wilson paired the song which is in their signature hard rock style with a very cool and challenging acoustic guitar intro.

This rapid acoustic guitar intro was originally called "Steel Wheels" and uses a fast quasi Travis picking approach throughout. This fingerstyle approach was how the intro was written and recorded even though through the decades since it's 1976 release, Nancy Wilson began to play the intro with a pick and a little bit of hybrid picking.

In any case, this Crazy On You Intro guitar lesson will focus on the original recorded version so drop that pick and get ready for a fingerstyle workout.

Upon the first couple of times listening to this intro you may feel that everything is a bit random sounding with different notes flying all over the place. In reality though, Nancy Wilson does use a repetitive pattern within all of this complex picking and she simply plays the pattern then does a variation on it over and over again 3 times in a row followed by an ending.

It can be quite difficult to get every note to ring true in this fast acoustic guitar intro. The pull-offs are going to be especially challenging. As always, it is about breaking everything down into sections and mastering each little detail by itself before putting all of those pieces together to form the entire intro.

Also, the tempo is quite fast but by no means should you practice at that tempo. Especially if you are not used to this style of fingerpicking. It is very important to get the fingerpicking patterns down well enough at a very slow tempo that you don’t even think about them when you speed it up. This is called muscle memory and is what your body uses for pretty much any rapid activity.

The training that you do at very slow tempos is what programs your muscle memory in a certain way. If you keep it clean and controlled it will also be clean and controlled when you speed it up. If you take a few short cuts and don’t practice the parts properly even at very slow tempos, that is also how you will play them when sped up.

In the second video lesson I will show you all of Nancy Wilson's acoustic guitar chords starting from the end of the intro and progressing throughout the entire song.

You need to grab your pick again for these rhythms because Nancy Wilson does some very aggressive strumming throughout. This constant fast strumming makes for a nice picking exercise!

In the third video lesson I will tackle all of the electric guitar parts. We have that legendary main riff that is instantly recognizable by just about any rock music fan, plus lots of cool little guitar fills thrown into the pre-chorus.

I will also show you how to play both parts of the harmony guitar solo just in case you and another guitar player want to take a shot at it. If you don't have another guitarist to harmonize with just pick the harmony part you like to play the best. They will both sound great on their own.

After the harmony guitar solo, we have short interlude with a clean guitar solo over it. I will also show you how to play that guitar solo note-for-note. :)

We that is about it. Hope you guys enjoy learning this rock epic from Heart!

Carl..

[mattleone]

I once did a gig with Nancy and as she was packing up her guitar, I mentioned how I always loved this piece. She took her guitar out of the case and ran through it for me. “It’s just moving this A chord up and down the neck....” So sweet of her!

[SweetSourMiss]

Oh Carl....This is THE SONG that got me begging my parents for a guitar when I was a kid. When they finally bought me one....I worked on learning the Am and F barre chords immediately so I could play the fast strumming after the finger picked intro of this song (ha ha....I didn't realize how hard barre chords were to learn when I was a wee little kid...but I got that F down in not too long of a time) Over the years I have figured parts of the finger picking part out, but parts of it stumped me so I could never get the entire intro down or play it fluently. But still...it's one of those songs I have never given up on. I was going to ask you to teach it, and on a whim did a search on your site tonight and poof there it was. I had to comment and say THANK YOU SO MUCH! Tomorrow when I get up I am going to get working on the parts I've never been able to get down.  SO EXCITED! Wish me luck!!! I know I can get this thanks to your tutorial! 

[BreakfastKids]

this is the most intensely hard but amazing acoustic song like ever, like its impossible but sooo satisfying

[MisterDanMartin]

Excellent lesson. In trying to learn this song, I found it easier with a few bookmarks to key parts of the lesson. I have tried to use the same words he uses in the lesson to help this make sense.

demo of the whole introduction - 0:10

the slide-in - 1:12
the beginning (this will get played six times) - 1:48
"the part"/"same part again" - taught at 2:58; explained in the context of the song at 7:41

review - 3:46

first "ending" - 3:57
second "ending" - 5:54
third "ending" Part A - 7:58
third "ending" Part B - 8:23
outro - 10:40

[angelawebster]

You did lovely. Really shows how difficult this piece is though and how there really is only one Nancy Wilson.

[mikeread]

hmm maybe this was a bad idea, nah I got all night

[RyanWehr]

my guitar is now smashed in to a thousand pieces

[billshropshire]

This is a great lesson. Been playing my whole life, and always been a little intimidated by this intro. You made it MUCH easier to understand and learn. Very much appreciated.

[dancarpentieri]

Nancy Wilson in an interview said that she's played that song over 10k times and never played the intro the same twice. Every time it's a little different.

[maureenb]

Last year I tried to learn this with other videos. The teachers were frustrating, I put it aside. You are a great teacher! You made it easy for me. I knew it wasn’t that difficult, I just couldn’t follow the others. Thank you thank you!!! ❤️❤️❤️

[videosrandomyocurrencias]

Great Adam Warlock AND
PeliGod
#Pelicomic

[Amoybill]

Thanks, Carl. I've never seen anyone explain it as clearly as this. Amazing. It takes real talent (and empathy with us common folk) to make something seem so straightforward and simple.

[chadgarber]

I was just messing around with playing that first part without being in the a chord position because it seems way easier to me. Watching you do it this way makes me feel better about "cheating" lol.

This is WAY outta my league! Have a great day.😕

[carlen]

Bravo Lesson - been trying to learn this for years and you break it down perfectly. Slowing it down to 1/2 tempo in the beginning when you play it through helped me finally get this. Thank you!

[gemaf]

This is a difficult one however you patiently broke it down which is harder to do than playing the whole song. Thank you very much.

[someoneelse]

Nancy Wilson approves. Don't ask me how I know.

[alexthegreat]

I fucking love this guy i learned three of my favorite songs from him and they sound so professional. I wondered if he did this song as well and i could help but laugh at how skillfully he learns songs.

[slimrythmman]

thank you so much buddy your an awesome teacher.

[Baci]

Great job.  You're a very good instructor - and player!