Well you’ve got four incredible chords now and they’re working together in this very durable and useful progression. You might be developing calluses on the tips of your fingers and that’s a good thing! In this lesson we’ll take a look at the strumming hand and talk about some of the interesting bass runs that’ll get us from one chord to another. The runs themselves here are satisfying but it’s really the general concept that’s important and once you grasp it you’ll be cooking up your own runs for any song you care to learn. Developing a style starts now! We’ll also look at alternating bass notes (and it won’t be the last time. As the late great Dave Van Ronk said “If the bass notes don’t alternate, what’s the point”?) and at this point I hope that you’re all patting yourselves on the back. If you’re with me up to here you’ve done a lot of work. You can probably begin to feel that things are getting easier and I assure you things are going to get a lot more fun as we start to really fill the songbag.
Dan
Topics and/or subjects covered in this lesson:
Guitar
Print Chords & Tab
Loop 0:00 Run-Through of Stand By Me
Loop 0:45 Welcome and What You Will Learn Today
Loop 1:41 Alternating Bass Breakdown
Loop 5:14 Practice Loop of Alternating Bass
Loop 6:00 Breakdown of Bass Runs
Loop 10:33 Practice Loop of Playing With Bass Runs
Loop 11:43 Strumming With Your Fingers and Singing
Loop 14:41 Practice Loop of Playing and Singing Together
Loop 15:47 Closing Thoughts
Comments
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why don't you try it in this key and see how it feels. right now the main thing is to get comfortable with the guitar chords. as they become second nature you'll have options for changing the keys. stay with it like this for awhile and let me know how it goes!
I have a low voice. Do I change chords?
So when you hear the change in the song. Change. Thanks
that's right! you'll see the chord on the page above the word and when you're singing that word you'll play that chord. stay on that chord until another one appears above a lyric.
and eventually you'll begin to hear when things change.
the chords are all played for a regular number of strums.....
if you're still having trouble send me a video of where you're at with this and we can go from there!
yr pal,
dan
when your singing and playing Guitar? when do you know when to change chords.
greetings boyd! thank you for your question. i'm just back from a weekend performing and it's great to sit down and think about this for a minute.
for me, unless i know the song so well that i can hear the changes in my head, when i'm getting started on a song i usually have to look at the lyrics and chords to know when the chords change. so i'll be singing the words and looking at the page (or screen) and see the chords change above the words. sonic junction does a good job of laying this out. it's really the best way for me and then eventually, after i've played the song a number of times, i can feel where the chords change...
let me know if this helps!
thanks again for reaching out....
yr pal,
dan