How To Play 'Crazy On You' by Heart

Nancy Wilson & Roger Fisher, live on stage in 1978

By Matt Montgomery & Jarred McAdams

“Crazy On You” has become a signature song for one of classic rock’s most celebrated sister acts, Heart. The introduction, played on acoustic guitar by Nancy Wilson, is the by far most challenging part of this song.

Nancy plays the part with a shuffle feel, commonly found in blues music. This means that the notes falling on the downbeats are slightly longer than the notes falling on the upbeats. She emphasizes this rhythm on the open A string, played with a pick, while simultaneously playing an intricate melody line using the 2nd and 3rd fingers of her right hand.

This mix of right-hand techniques is known as hybrid picking, and it will require a bit of practice to get it to sound smooth. To get your fingers used to this approach, just practice picking the fifth string – the A string – with the pick while plucking the 2nd string with the middle finger of your picking hand, in a sort of pinching motion, so that both strings sound simultaneously. Once you’re comfortable with that, try alternating between the fifth string and second strings rather than playing them simultaneously. Then, you can experiment with playing different sets of strings using this same technique.

From there, try the same thing, but use your right hand's ring finger instead of your middle finger. Finally, try using the pick and two fingers all together to make three note chords and patterns. This is the foundation of the technique used in this intro. As always, use Riff Repeater to slow this sequence down and build up your facility slowly.

Though this section is extremely complex, Nancy Wilson's live performances suggest that it was at least partially improvised. Every performance is unique and features embellishments not found in the studio recording. Learning the part as recorded is challenging, but to use this material as a springboard for improvisation requires an even deeper mastery of the instrument.

After the introduction, the acoustic guitar moves to a more traditional rhythm role, with the meatier material appearing in the Lead arrangement. In the choruses, the electric guitar plays an iconic overdriven riff on the low strings. It’s a scalar line in mid-tempo eighth notes, starting on the A, jumping up a fifth to the E, then walking down the A minor scale and landing on the low F (6th string, first fret) just when the chord changes from A minor to F. This pattern continues, landing on the G when the harmony changes to G and F when it goes to F. You can also hear this line briefly quoted in the acoustic intro for some tasty foreshadowing.

The lead part also features a number of truly tasty lines that manage to stay out of the way of the vocals during the verses. The guitar solo is very melodic and consists mostly of sustained bends. Pay close attention to the intonation of these bend; listen carefully to the recording and to your guitar, and try to match your pitch to the recording as closely as possible.

The bass tone for "Crazy on You" is also a standout. It sounds kind of hollow and slightly overdriven, while still providing a healthy dose of punch and low end. The part uses fret-hand mutes on the beats, with emphasis placed the non-muted notes that follow. This is a fairly common and extremely effective bass technique that helps the part lock in with the drums, making the bass more rhythmic and percussive. "Crazy on You" is among the more straightforward examples of this playing style in the Rocksmith catalog, so we recommended it to all bass players.

Matt Montgomery has been a notetracker and composer for Rocksmith since 2010. Matt received a BFA from the California Institute of the Arts, studying viola and composition. As a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and songwriter, he has worked with Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, IFC Online, Symphony Silicon Valley, California Symphony, and several independent films and commercials.

Jarred McAdams joined the Rocksmith team in 2011. He studied composition at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and hold a Master's degree in composition from Mills College. Jarred has served as a composer, performer, writer, and video producer for a wide variety of artistic and commercial projects, and has worked on a number of music game franchises since 2008.

"Nancy Wilson and Roger Fisher - Heart - 1978" by Jim Summaria is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.