China Girl (Album Version) by David Bowie: How to Play the Guitar and Bass Parts

This video is about how to play the guitar and bass parts to China Girl by David Bowie.

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00:00 Intro
00:52 Background
04:14 Nile Rodgers Guitar Parts
06:20 Stevie Ray Vaughan's Guitar Parts
08:50 Carmine Rojas's Bass Part
09:29 Complete Track

I first heard China Girl in 1983 when it was released as a single in the UK and I thought it was terrific. It's over 30 years later and I still think it's a fantastic track.

The song was written by Iggy Pop and David Bowie. It was first recorded in 1977 in Berlin for Iggy Pop’s album ‘The Idiot’ which David Bowie produced. David Bowie re-recorded the song in December 1982 in the Power Station studios in New York for his album Let’s Dance. This time Nile Rodgers was producing.

In this later incarnation it made it to number 2 in the UK charts and number 10 in the US charts. We are looking here at the version from the album which features two guitar solos and runs for 5 minutes and 32 seconds.

From a guitarist’s perspective it’s a great track to study because it features two fantastic guitarists – Nile Rodgers on rhythm guitar and the late Stevie Ray Vaughan on lead guitar.

The band was David Bowie, producer and guitarist Nile Rodgers, guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan, bass player Carmine Rojas, drummer Omar Hakim and keyboard player Rob Sabino.

For the album Nile Rodgers used his hard tail, cream Stratocaster which he has nicknamed The Hitmaker. Nile tends to plug his guitar straight into the desk when he records.

Stevie owned a number of guitars through his career. The sound of the guitar on the record is that of a Fender Strat and at that time Stevie was recording with his Number One Strat through Fender Vibroverb and Super Reverb amps. Stevie famously used an Ibanez Tube Screamer overdrive pedal.

In 1983 Carmine Rojas was endorsing ESP bass guitars and it’s likely that this is what was used on the Let’s Dance album.

The song has quite a complicated structure. David Bowie was a highly innovative and creative artist who wanted to break out of conventional pop music structures and this is highlighted by the complexities of China Girl.

It’s in the keys of G Major and the relative E Minor.

The prominent bass line is against an E Minor chord sequence (Em, D, C, B) called the Andalusian Cadence which is a foundation of Flamenco music and is popular in modern music. In the scale of E Minor the fourth chord would be B Minor but the Andalusian Cadence substitutes a B Major chord giving the sequence a slightly unresolved feel.

It ‘s at a constant tempo of 134.5 beats per minute at a constant time signature of 4/4.

There are 6 guitar elements to the song – dyad riff used in the intro and outro, rhythm guitar, repeating dyad run underpinning the song, two solos and bass guitar. In this version we’re using a nylon guitar to play the melody, making a total of 7 elements.

You can pause the video to study the chord chart and chord sequence. Nile used a number of chord embellishments which you should be able to pick up from the video.

No track-sheet is available for the song but there is a representation of what the track-sheet might have looked like to help us navigate our way through the various parts.

The opening dyad run, which is also used in the outro, was created by Nile Rodgers who was concerned that David Bowie might not like it. However, he loved it and its oriental flavour gives a great opening and ending to the track. It was played on a Fender Strat, probably on the neck pick-up.

Nile plays the rhythm guitar which provides the backbone to the track. With the many chord embellishments It’s quite complicated. Again it was played on a Fender Strat, probably on the neck pickup.

The dyad run played on the A and D strings was probably played by Stevie Ray Vaughan. It sounds like it was played on a Fender Strat using the neck pickup.

Both solos were played by Stevie Ray Vaughan who favoured Fender Stratocasters. He also used heavy gauge strings, typically 13 gauge, and tuned down half a step to E flat. The first solo hits a low E on the 5th note and ends on a high E. Considering Stevie played a 21 fret Stratocaster it takes quite some effort and skill to make an accurate 4 semitone bend up to the high E with 13 gauge strings, even with the guitar tuned down. Again it was probably played using the neck pickup.

The bass guitar was played by Carmine Rojas. There wasn’t much of a bass line on the original so Carmine had to improvise. He has stated that he took his inspiration from the vibraphone line from the Rolling Stones’ Under My Thumb which uses a similar chord sequence.

And when it’s all put together you can hear what the entire track sounds like.