Second Song

In this lesson we will be starting very simply... Just listening. Get the full song played through at least 3 or 4 times around before the next lesson. This way you'll have the melody in your ears and the rhythm in your feet. A perfect start to learning any song.

Let's begin by tackling the verse section. First up, the chord chart looks like this:

So we have two bars of D major, two bars of E minor, two bars of G major and two bars of D major. We then repeat that once more to make up the verse. We know what you're thinking though... "What is G major?". Great question! Let's learn it now.

It would be very wise to add this chord to your guitar gym part of the practice time, allowing the physicality of it to gradually embed! For now, whilst you're still getting to grips with it, do your best and appreciate that it won't sound anywhere near perfect for a while. That's all good 😃

Strumming Pattern

We also need to learn our new strumming pattern, commonly known as the "universal strumming pattern" as it seems to be used in so many songs, and will work over most tracks! The pattern looks like this:

Remember to keep that arm moving all the way through, and try and count through this initially. This is a huge chunk of work, so do your best today and know that we will be continuing to practice and work with this over the next few weeks!

Let's now dive into the chorus! The first step is to learn the chord chart for this section, which is shown below.

An important part of this progression is the speed at which you need to make the change from A to G. It is half a bar each, which means you can count "1 and 2 and" on the A, followed by "3 and 4 and" on the G. It also requires a slightly different strumming pattern, which looks like this:

You use the above strumming pattern for the first bar, then move into your universal strumming pattern over the D. You then repeat this 4 times to make the whole chorus. Take your time with that change from A major to G major, as it's tough to get it that quick. Once again, we will be working with this song all the way through the course and beyond, so enjoy the ride!

Now we get the juicy stuff! For those of you who have your aspirations set on becoming the next great leads guitar player, you'll love this! Remember, whether you play acoustic or electric, this can be learnt completely. So, let's start by putting ourselves in the right key.

D major / B minor...

The key of the song is D major, which is great, except at the moment we only know how to create a minor pentatonic. We have great news for you though, every major key has a relative minor. That simply means that they are the same key signature but start on a different chord and note. We don't need to dive into that any deeper theoretically, but there is an awesomely easy way to work this out.

It's as simple as that! In this shape, where your little finger is (yellow) on the E string is the major root note, and where the first finger is (red) on the E string is your minor root note. This track definitely roots on the D major chord, so we would lean towards saying this is a D major pentatonic, but really it's exactly the same as B minor... Just hit those yellow root notes more than the red!

The Solo

As you work through the solo below, remember that the whole thing is using that pentatonic box, so be sure to visualise that as you go through it. Also, try and make sure that you can hum the melody of the solo before you tackle it. We don't expect you to read the music notation above the tab, but it's good practice to keep it there for those who can. Enjoy!

With all the individual elements learnt, we will now put the whole thing together. It's all written out in this chord chart below. Remember to play the lead guitar part when the chord chart says "guitar solo". This is an important thing to realise with any chord chart, it delivers you the outline of the track, and all the chords, but nothing else!

NOTE: Start by slowly piecing the sections together, then add drums, then use backing track... That process is likely to take a few weeks.

Now, before we end this unit, let's just check out our practice routine. It stays very much the same in the Guitar Gym section, but now our musical section is very different! Here we have it.