Lick By Neck

GSCC Lesson 09

Revision of Lesson 01-08

We had covered the common chords in key of C Major:

And their counter parts in a new key : G Major

Key of C major and G major are common keys used by guitarist to play sing-along guitar.

We also looked at the guitarist best friend – CAPO , and it’s application.

CAPO

When we use the CAPO in conjunction with chords from C and G keys above , we are able to play almost every pop songs we wanted to play.

We have also looked at some basic strumming patterns:

1One strum per beat
2Up-stroke strumming
3Strumming lightly on first few strings
416 beat strum
5Campfire Strum
6“Chuck” Strum

And of course, we had fun learning all these songs !!

LessonSong
Lesson 1Song #1 (English: Because I Love You) Lesson 1
Lesson 1Song #2 (Chinese/Cantonese: 喜欢你) Lesson 1
Lesson 2Song #1 (English: Happy Birthday)
Lesson 2Song #2 (Chinese: 月亮代表我的心)
Lesson 3Song #1 (English: Let It Be – Beatles)
Lesson 3Song #2 (English: Perfect – Ed Sheeran)
Lesson 3Song #3 (Cantonese: 海闊天空)
Lesson 4Song #1 (English: Deperado – Eagles)
Lesson 4Song #2 (Chinese: “最长的电影” – 周杰伦)
Lesson 5Song #1 (English:”Creep” – Radiohead)
Lesson 5Song #2 (Chinese: “你要的愛”)
Lesson 5Song #3 (English: “Last Christmas” – Wham)
Lesson 6Song #1 (English: “Reality”)
Lesson 6Song #2 (Chinese: “刻在我心底的名字”)
Lesson 6Song #3 (English: “Auld Lang Syne”)
Lesson 7Song #1 (English: “Country Roads”)
Lesson 7Song #2 (English: “Time of Your Life”)
Lesson 7Song #3 (Cantonese: “朋友”)
Lesson 8Song #1 (English: “Sweet Child O’ Mine”)
Lesson 8Song #2 (English: “I’m Yours”)
Lesson 8Song #3 (Chinese: “简单爱”)

If you are new to this series, here’s the links to past lessons:

Lesson 1

Lesson 2

Lesson 3

Lesson 4

Lesson 5

Lesson 6

Lesson 7

Lesson 8

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If Strumming is the KING, now I give you the QUEEN – Plucking

Strumming guitar produces aggressive/happy/uptempo feel . Plucking allowed us to play song in a mellower mood. It is great for ballad and slower paced music.

Basic Mechanism: Using your finger to “pluck”(play) individual guitar strings separately (instead of playing all strings at once like in strumming).

Diagram – C Chords <-> Right Hand Fingering : T 1 2 3

Thumb(T) is for the bass string, the 1 2 3 (index, middle, ring fingers respectively) are for the treble strings which define the chord/harmony. For a start, finger 1 2 3 take cares of the top 3 strings respectively, the thumb play the bass string of the target chord.

Bass string is different for each chords. Check out the diagram below.

Bass strings of all primary chords in key of C and G (red circle):

The RED circle shows the BASS notes

Here’s are the bass strings for all the chords we learned thus for:

Key of C Major
Key of G Major

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Basic Guitar Plucking –

8 beat Pluck # 1

Let’s start our plucking practice by learning this very first plucking pattern.

For strumming, we strike all strings for all beat in “1n2n3n4n”. For plucking, we play a singer string using right hand finger for each beat in “1n2n3n4n”.

Practice#1: Try to listen to the counting beat (the Tok-Tok cowbell sound) below and try executing the plucking pattern above:

Press a “C Major” chord and pluck the above pattern

Practice them with chords (pay attention to the changing BASS strings where right hand thumb has to switch to different string)

Follow the indicated plucking pattern.
* Pay attention to the changing bass strings.

We always start a new chord by playing the bass string. This produce the strong definition of that chord because the bass is often the ROOT of the chord. eg. “C” note for C Major chord, “A” note for Am chord.

*Chord is a group of notes. Bass is only a single note for now.

Practice #2: Follow the chords changes and pluck with the beat count

Practice #3: Using this plucking pattern (8 beat pluck #1) , listen to the practice songs in lesson 1-8 and pluck together with the counting beat

LessonSong
Lesson 1Song #1 (English: Because I Love You) Lesson 1
Lesson 1Song #2 (Chinese/Cantonese: 喜欢你) Lesson 1
Lesson 2Song #1 (English: Happy Birthday)
Lesson 2Song #2 (Chinese: 月亮代表我的心)
Lesson 3Song #1 (English: Let It Be – Beatles)
Lesson 3Song #2 (English: Perfect – Ed Sheeran)
Lesson 3Song #3 (Cantonese: 海闊天空)
Lesson 4Song #1 (English: Deperado – Eagles)
Lesson 4Song #2 (Chinese: “最长的电影” – 周杰伦)
Lesson 5Song #1 (English:”Creep” – Radiohead)
Lesson 5Song #2 (Chinese: “你要的愛”)
Lesson 5Song #3 (English: “Last Christmas” – Wham)
Lesson 6Song #1 (English: “Reality”)
Lesson 6Song #2 (Chinese: “刻在我心底的名字”)
Lesson 6Song #3 (English: “Auld Lang Syne”)
Lesson 7Song #1 (English: “Country Roads”)
Lesson 7Song #2 (English: “Time of Your Life”)
Lesson 7Song #3 (Cantonese: “朋友”)
Lesson 8Song #1 (English: “Sweet Child O’ Mine”)
Lesson 8Song #2 (English: “I’m Yours”)
Lesson 8Song #3 (Chinese: “简单爱”)

Click here to ask a question …

Song #1 (English: “Hey Jude” – The Beatles)

Normal speed

Slower

Slowest

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Song #2 (Mandarin Song: “小幸运” 田馥甄)

Normal speed

Slower

Slowest

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