People Get Ready - chord grips???

Seeing the clip of Jeff Beck with Joss Stone on youtube, and then listening to several JB versions with others, including of course the classic one with Rod Stewart, I notice a few things...1st is that Beck sounds like he's got a slide on because of his constant whammy use...2nd though is that he doesn't really play the song exactly the same way twice!

I don't need any exact transcriptions, but I'm wondering how can figure out the grips in such a way that (a) I can transpose it down a bit for my voice, and (b) so that I'm not stuck with open chords and stumped when it comes time to modulate...

Well, he's playing it in D and the chords sound like:

D Bm A7/E D x3, then D/Db Bm Em7 A7 D

You can use barre chords for all of these
The A7/E is just a regular A7 but don't play the low E string.
The D/Db can be played with the first finger across the D, G, and B strings at the 7th fret with the third finger on the E string at the 9th fret. That naturally slides into the Bm at the 7th fret.

This is a good song for experimenting with voicing, like playing the D with the first finger across the D, G, and B strings at the 7th fret with the third finger on the A string at the 9th fret. And playing the seventh chords with the fifth in the bass like the A7/E.

Using these chords you can transpose it down as far as Bb without changing things. The song modulate up, so no problem there either.

I think to play this song with the best feel, the goal may be to get through the whole piece without having strummed a complete chord - it's all light and air.

The progression is kind of diffuse - not very strong, so you can substitute an Em7 for the A7/E and likewise elsewhere... sounds the same but gives it some variation.

Thanks, Paul!

I worked on this a bit this weekend...found some alternate grips that do not use open strings; and sound more like the Curtis Mayfield licks that Beck uses...then the 1/2 step modulation is easier...plus, once I stopped trying to sing the song an octave up like Rod Stewart, I found that the key suits me just fine...