Watch the Just Like It Was online guitar lesson by Robben Ford from Rhythm Revolution

This chord progression begins in C sharp, C sharp 7, and occasionally C sharp raised nine which very conveniently, that open E string gives you a very nice C sharp raised nine chord so I play this thing, this kind of basic rhythm which runs the tune. And then the next chord it changes into is B minor, B minor 9, or B minor 11. That's a real left turn for one’s ear when you’ve been set up with this. It's very pretty and that's what I liked about it. Doing something a bit different harmonically, in something that's pretty straightforward and funky and more, that's the release in the song. So that's not only just hard driving. So there's that C sharp raised nine, B minor 9, or B minor 11 and back to that C sharp raised nine chord so if you notice the suspended note in the B minor 11 is the raised nine of the C sharp chord so it ties the two chords together and you still get the sense of relief from the minor 11 chord. The next chord it changes to is E raised nine, or just E 7. So that's very Hendrix like right there. "Purple Haze", or "Foxy Lady" but I'm just using that G sharp raised nine. So here's something like that, a little rhythmic themed. Again there’s a rhythm, I’m not just strumming chords. I’m doing a series of punches. We haven’t heard that rhythm yet in the context of the song, so it's still just these basic seventh chords and raised nine chords. And the way I’m making it not just the same thing over and over again is rhythmical. The rhythm gets hard. It's kind of like shout choruses of a big band, trumpets behind you. Those rhythms are strong, and each segment of the song I accent a different approach to the rhythm. The first one is pretty consistent. This is something I did on the presentation with the band. So I'm just playing a C seven and I'm kind of playing those three notes, the third, the seventh, and the tonic sus. And I play that the same way pretty much every time. Hitting that G sharp raised 9 because it's this thematic thing that brings you back to the song. You open it up rhythmically and it brings you back to the fundamental thing, the big shout chorus. The point here is that it's not so much about the chord voicing, per se, as it is about the rhythms you use to break up or change each segment of the song.

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