LESSON #2House of the Rising Sun In this lesson we will concentrate on learning a couple of songs. These
are slightly more advanced than in lesson #1 but, you should not be concerned with your strumming technique too much, we will concentrate on this in a minute. What you should concern yourself with is learning some chord
'progressions' in order to develop your musical ear.
This first tune, since I am from the N.E. of England, is an appropriate ditty. The House of the Rising Sun, made famous by the Animals.
The chords for this tune are...
(Am) (C) (D)
E---------0------ E---------0------ E---------2------
B---------1------ B---------1------ B---------3------
G---------2------ G---------0------ G---------2------
D---------2------ D---------2------ D---------0------
A---------0------ A---------3------ A---------X------
E---------X------ E---------X------ E---------X------
(F) (E) And... (E7)
E---------1------ E---------0------ E---------0------
B---------1------ B---------0------ B---------3------
G---------2------ G---------1------ G---------1------
D---------3------ D---------2------ D---------2------
A---------X------ A---------2------ A---------2------
E---------X------ E---------0------ E---------0------
The progression, as a strum type thing would be something like...
Am . . / . . C . . / . . D . . / . . F . . / . .
Am . . / . . C . . / . . E . . / . . E7 . . / . .
Am . . / . . C . . / . . D . . / . . F . . / . .
Am . . / . . E7 . . / . . Am . . / . . E7 . . / . .
In order to 'count' the timing of this song you should count in 3's, i.e.
1 2 3 2 2 3 3 2 3 4
2 3 etc.
OK, here is another one. This isn't a song, as such, but more of a progression. It is the first important progression that everyone should know and is known as the '3 chord trick.'
There are only 3 chords (as you might guess) in the 3 chord trick and I'm going to show you it in the key of C to begin with.
Your 3 chords are...
(C) (F) And... (G)
E---------0------ E---------1------ E---------3------
B---------1------ B---------1------ B---------0------
G---------0------ G---------2------ G---------0------
D---------2------ D---------3------ D---------0------
A---------3------ A---------X------ A---------2------
E---------X------ E---------X------ E---------3------
You could play the progression in a lot of different ways and I would advise you to experiment to find
different ways to 'mix up' the chords. The most obvious way to play it is, as a 'turnaround.' This means that when you get to the end of the progression, you should turn around and do it again, like so...
C . . / . . G . . / . . F . . / . . G . . / . .
C . . / . . G . . / . . F . . / . . G . . / . .
Use the same counting technique as in the last song.
This is OK, so long as the song is sung in C, theoretically speaking, but what if your singer wanted it
played in a different 'key.' Well here are the chords, arranged in groups of 3, to allow you to play this in a lot of different keys...
Here it is in the 'key' of D...
(D) (G) And... (A)
E---------2------ E---------3------ E---------0------
B---------3------ B---------0------ B---------2------
G---------2------ G---------0------ G---------2------
D---------0------ D---------0------ D---------2------
A---------X------ A---------2------ A---------0------
E---------X------ E---------3------ E---------X------
D . . / . . A . . / . . G . . / . . A . . / . .
D . . / . . A . . / . . G . . / . . A . . / . .
in the key of G...
(G) (C) And... (D)
E---------3------ E---------0------ E---------2------
B---------0------ B---------1------ B---------3------
G---------0------ G---------0------ G---------2------
D---------0------ D---------2------ D---------0------
A---------2------ A---------3------ A---------X------
E---------3------ E---------X------ E---------X------
G . . / . . D . . / . . C . . / . . D . . / . .
G . . / . . D . . / . . C . . / . . D . . / . .
in the key of A...
(A) (D) And... (E)
E---------0------ E---------2------ E---------0------
B---------2------ B---------3------ B---------0------
G---------2------ G---------2------ G---------1------
D---------2------ D---------0------ D---------2------
A---------0------ A---------X------ A---------2------
E---------X------ E---------X------ E---------0------
A . . / . . E . . / . . D . . / . . E . . / . .
A . . / . . E . . / . . D . . / . . E . . / . .
And finally, in the key of E...
(E) (A) And... (B)
E---------0------ E---------0------ E---------2------
B---------0------ B---------2------ B---------4------
G---------1------ G---------2------ G---------4------
D---------2------ D---------2------ D---------4------
A---------2------ A---------0------ A---------2------
E---------0------ E---------X------ E---------X------
E . . / . . B . . / . . A . . / . . B . . / . .
E . . / . . B . . / . . A . . / . . B . . / . .
This last chord,
B, brings up the idea of (barre) bar chords. The idea being that the first (index) finger of the left hand makes a bar across ALL of the strings at the 2nd fret. The other three fingers then make up
the rest of the chord.
Bar ChordsIn order to practice bar chords, you should begin like so...
Place the index finger across ALL
of the strings at a given fret. Press down all of the strings and practice playing each string individually, from bottom to top. If you hear any rattles or buzzes on any of the strings then your bar will probably need adjusting.
Here are some hints to make things a little easier. Most beginners, play a bar in the middle of a fret (looking at it lengthways,) thus they need to exert extra pressure down on the strings causing pain. By
readjusting your bar so that it is as far up the fret as possible, i.e., behind the fretwire of the following fret, you will find that you need to exert very little pressure to hold down the strings. See the enclosed diagram.
Play an E chord and look towards the top of your guitar. The nut of the guitar, for an 'open' chord, takes
the role of the index finger of a bar chord. This should suggest to you, many different variations of bar chords based upon the 'open' chord variety. As an example, the bar chord that is 'implied' by the open E
chord might look like this...
(G) Or... (A) Or... (C)
E---------3------ E---------5------ E---------8------
B---------3------ B---------5------ B---------8------
G---------4------ G---------6------ G---------9------
D---------5------ D---------7------ D--------10------
A---------5------ A---------7------ A--------10------
E---------3------ E---------5------ E---------8------
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