Shake A Tail Feather (Ray Charles) Guitar Lesson with TAB

Shake A Tail Feather Guitar Lesson + TAB
In this guitar lesson, we analyse the chords, translate the keyboard part to guitar, and study 6 pieces of TAB!


Shake A Tail Feather | TAB


In my opinion, it’s much better for your development to transcribe other instruments for the guitar than to transcribe just guitar stuff. With that in mind, here’s the keyboard intro of Shake A Tailfeather, for guitar!

Shake A Tail Feather TAB, intro.

For the verse, I got a bit excited and did three verses even though there were only two in the tune!

Here’s verse 1, you could play this should you have lost/fired your keyboard player on the way to the gig, or if you want to play this on an acoustic.

Notice how the 6 chords are on the 2 and 3+ in this example. The Bm is followed by a Bm7, and the E is followed by an E7. The A chord takes us to verse 2.

Shake A Tail Feather TAB, verse 1.

Here’s verse 2, now the band has joined in and we need a smaller guitar part or we won’t cut through the mix. The G chord is now an E shape.

The Bm7 is followed by a Bm, not the other way around. It is also almost identical to the DD6. The E is followed by an E7. The A chord is the beginning of the pre-chorus.

Shake A Tail Feather TAB, verse 2.


Next, here’s another way to play the verse. The Bm is now followed by a Bm7 again, same goes for the EE7. The A chord is the first of the pre-chorus.

Shake A Tail Feather TAB, verse 3.

Let’s look at a way we could build the intensity for that pre-chorus using TAB.

Notice how the top part of the chord moves root3rd5thb7lick.

Shake A Tail Feather TAB, pre chorus.

Finally, here’s Shake A Tail Feather’s chorus chords in TAB.

Shake A Tail Feather TAB, chorus.

The honky tonk is now different from what we played in the verse, the 6 chord is on the 2 and 4, not the 3+. The final GD chords are played without honky tonk, giving the arrangement more space.

To get better at this kind of rhythm guitar playing, play along with the original recording above as well as compare how these kinds of 6 chord parts are played in other tunes like I Can’t Stand The Rain, Son Of A Preacher Man, You Never Can Tell, Nutbush City Limits, and perhaps most famously, Johnny B. Goode.



Shake A Tail Feather TAB | Related Pages


Shake A Tail Feather | Chords + Lyrics

Shake A Tail Feather chords lesson.

You can learn how to play Shake A Tail Feather by Ray Charles using chords, lyrics, a chord chart, and the original recording.

D5 (D6) | G (G6) |
Well, I heard about the fellow you’ve been dancin’ with…


Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics

When you can play the TAB for Shake A Tailfeathers, try these five tunes from the songbook.


Blues Brothers tunes

Blues Brothers performed Shake A Tail Feather.

The 1980 Musical Blues Brothers tells the story of a band “on a mission from God” to raise money for an orphanage.

Tunes include Gimme Some Lovin’, Rawhide, Shake A Tail Feather, Think, Minnie The Moocher, Soul Man, and Jailhouse Rock.


Blues Brothers on the web

Listen to Blues Brothers on Spotify.


Ray Charles tunes

Ray Charles made Shake A Tail Feather famous.

Ray Charles, nicknamed The Genius, sang songs he wrote himself, songs other people wrote for him as well as covers.

Best known for Mess Around, I Got A Woman, Georgia On My Mind, Hit The Road Jack, and You Don’t Know Me.


Ray Charles on the web

Listen to Ray Charles on Spotify.


Tina Turner tunes

Tina Turner sang Shake A Tail Feather.

Tina Turner was discovered by Ike, joined his band, and even married him. Together they achieved great success with many hits.

Off stage, Ike was an abusive husband, when they divorced Tina would embark on a remarkable solo career and Ike would end up the most hated man in America.


Tina Turner on the web

Listen to Tina Turner on Spotify.


About me | Dan Lundholm

Dan Lundholm wrote this guitar lesson and TAB for Shake A Tail Feather.

This guitar lesson by Dan Lundholm features TAB and covers Shake A Tail Feather. Discover more about him and how you can learn guitar with Spytunes.

Most importantly, find out why you should learn guitar by playing tunes, not practising scales, and studying theory in isolation.


Follow Spytunes

GET IN TOUCH