Learn to play guitar with weekly video lessons & print-friendly guides! Learn your favorite songs & techniques with step-by-step tutorials that actually explain how to get from here to there.
🎸 Learn TRIADS with a Melodic "Happy Birthday" Arrangement
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LESSON #622 ▶️ Click to watch free video lesson​ Hey there, my friends... new lesson for you to kick off the weekend! This one spontaneously found itself in my playing rotation after my daughter’s birthday celebration last week. The topic here is triads, where I use the good ole’ familiar song Happy Birthday as the melodic inspiration. I’ll show you TWO ways to play the melody to Happy Birthday using triads. For the most part, this is all done with two chords (G and D), but we’ll need to use several triad positions (up and down the neck) to let the melody notes shine through. As usual, you can get my print-friendly tabs over on my lesson webpage. You'll also find the Part 2 tutorial, as well as two different zoomed play-through clips (with tabs on screen) for you to reference. A Triad-Heavy Recommendation Of all the lessons I've made, one of the most fun (when it comes to using triads to play a familiar song) is lesson #174, where I show a Sultans of Swing-inspired riff which makes heavy use of minor triads: If you want more Sultans of Swing but can take-or-leave the triads, check out lesson #555 where I teach a fingerstyle approach to this Dire Straits classic: Thanks and Enjoy! Long-time audience members may realize I actually taught almost the exact same thing (Happy Birthday using Key of G triads) back in lesson #312... which is something I didn't fully realize until late into production for this new lesson! But fear not, this new lesson takes a mostly different approach – and I think does a much better job. I hope you all dig the new lesson! Until next week, David |
Song Notes by David Pots
Learn to play guitar with weekly video lessons & print-friendly guides! Learn your favorite songs & techniques with step-by-step tutorials that actually explain how to get from here to there.
LESSON #625Acoustic Bassline Fun with "Ramble On" ▶️ Click to watch free video lesson In this week's new lesson I’ll teach you a fun acoustic guitar arrangement of Led Zeppelin’s Ramble On iconic bassline. My focus isn’t simply teaching the individual notes (which I will do), but additionally I’ll give you several tips on how you can add strumming between many of these bass notes. Practice notes, percussion jam track, and bonus videos also available! Using this approach, you end up with a...
Hey there, friends – I'm excited to share TWO new lessons with you today! They both tackle the all-time classic Love Me Tender, but take very different approaches. Take your pick, or learn 'em both! –David LESSON #623Sing & Strum (Key of D) ▶️ Click to watch lesson #623 This first lesson teaches you to sing & strum Love Me Tender as it's heard in the Elvis recording. I'll start by teaching you the chords, measure-by-measure... then shift into the world of alternating bass notes. There are a...
Learn Guitar Faster Using Jam Tracks This week I have a couple fun updates involving the video jam tracks on my Song Notes website. These play-along tracks are an incredibly helpful way to get more out of your practice sessions, while also having fun along the way. My video jam track for Soulful Lead Guitar over America the Beautiful Don't miss my new video lesson (showing how I make jam tracks) below, but first let me show you how to find my jam track library... BROWSE ALL MY JAM TRACKS I've...