Lick By Neck

GSCC Lesson 20

Past Lessons Summary and Links

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

Lesson 9

Lesson 10

Lesson 11

Lesson 12

Lesson 13

Lesson 14

Lesson 15

Lesson 16

Lesson 17

Lesson 18

Lesson 19

We had covered all the family chords and their siblings in key of C and G Major:

Key of C Major
Key of 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
73/4 Strum
86/8 Strum

And we had explored some basic pluckings.

18 beat pluck #1
2Double string pluck
33/4 Pluck
4“Alternate Bass” Pluck
56/8 Pluck
6Slap Rhythm

And of course, we had fun learning all these songs !! They are specially produced “Karaoke for Guitar” videos (only vocal and metronome count) for you to practice your strumming / plucking:

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”)
Lesson 9Song #1 (English: “Hey Jude”)
Lesson 9Song #2 (Chinese: “小幸运”)
Lesson 10Song #1 (English: “Sway”)
Lesson 10Song #2 (Chinese: “可可托海的牧羊人”)
Lesson 11Song #1 (English: “Edelweiss”)
Lesson 11Song #2 (English: “Que Sera Sera”)
Lesson 12Song #1 (English: “What A Wonderful World”)
Lesson 12Song #2 (Chinese: “新不了情”)
Lesson 13“Happy Birthday” melody on guitar in key of C and G Major
Lesson 14“Happy Birthday” Solo Guitar Playing
Lesson 15“Can’t Help Falling In Love” Solo Guitar Playing
Lesson 16“月亮代表我的心” Solo Guitar Playing
Lesson 17“Let It Be” Solo Guitar Playing
Lesson 18“What A Wonderful World” Solo Guitar Playing
Lesson 19“Over The Rainbow” Solo Guitar Playing (Key Of G)

Last week, we looked at the chord melody guitar GYM for key of C and G (1st position):

All possible combinations for C chord in key of C (1st position)
In motion
All possible chord melody shape of C chord in 1st position (key of C)

For all other combinations for other chords, please refer to last week’s lesson:

Lesson 19

We also played “Over The Rainbow” solo guitar in key of G .

Click here to ask a question …

How can we improve last week arrangement of “Over The Rainbow”?

For last week arrangement, the lowest note is this:

Lowest note of “Over The Rainbow” in key of G

As you can see, beside the melody note, there’s only one other note to define the “chord”, which in the case is C, it is also the bass note of the chord. If we discount the bass note, there’s no other note to define the “chord”.

Can we shift the lowest note to other string , so that we can have extra string to put note for chord definition?

YES! We can! We can transpose(change key of the song) the entire song, then the lowest note will be shifted.

Before we do that, let’s look at the highest note of the song:

Highest note of “Over The Rainbow” in key of G

The lowest and highest notes are:

If we look at it, we still have lots of space for the higher notes to reside:

In this case, the highest note can afford to go higher . Thus the key of G (the original key we used last week) is not the best key for this song because the fretboard is not fully utilized. The fretboard coverage is not optimized.

If we shift the highest note to a higher fret(5 frets up) , the lowest note will be shifted too:

Let’s take this moment to look at the structure of guitar fretboard:

At the adjacent string, those are the frets which have the same note as the other string.

If we apply the same calculation, the lowest note in “Over The Rainbow” can be shifted to the adjacent string:

Earlier on, we learned that the highest note has been shifted 5 frets up. So the key has changed from G->G#->A->A#->B->C key.

So, the chord for that moment is F (up 5 frets/semitones from C chord C->C#->D->D#->E->F).

The chord melody shape for A note on a F chord is:

In this case, we have 2 notes to define the chord!!

Problem solved!

Click here to ask a question …

To arrange a Chord Melody Guitar song, try to put the melody notes on 1st 2 strings (or 1st 3 strings)

When you are putting together a chord melody guitar song, try to put the melody notes on 1st 2 strings(or 1st 3 strings):

By putting melody on those strings , you have more strings to define the chords.

Let’s look at how all these work out.

Melody on the 1st string

When the bass is on the 6th string, we have 4 strings to define the chord

When the bass is on the 5th string, we have 3 strings to define the chord

When the bass is on the 4th string, we have 2 strings to define the chord

Melody on the 2nd string

When the bass is on the 6th string, we have 3 strings to define the chord

When the bass is on the 5th string, we have 2 strings to define the chord

When the bass is on the 4th string, we have 1 string to define the chord

Melody on the 1st string

When the bass is on the 6th string, we have 2 strings to define the chord

When the bass is on the 5th string, we have 1 string to define the chord

When the bass is on the 4th string, we have 0 string to define the chord

As you can see, melody on 1st 2 strings are the better option.

Let’s rework the “Over The Rainbow” arrangement in key of C, as the notes had been shifted up 5 frets.

Click here to ask a question …

“Over The Rainbow” with melody notes on 1st 3 strings

Now , let’s try to improve the arrangement!

With the previous section’s exploration, we learned that key of C is a good choice because the lowest will have “chord” note and the highest note is within comfortable range(below 12 frets).

Again, we will go through the following steps:

Step 1: Play the melody

Step 2: Find out the chords

Step 3: Combine the melody and the chords

Step 4: Add in the accompaniment

Click here to ask a question …

Step 1: Play the melody

First, transpose all the melody to key of C (shift all the notes up 5 semitones/frets):

Verse
Chorus

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Step 2: Find out the chords

Transpose all the chords from key of G to key of C!!

Key of GKey of C
GC
AmDm
BmEm
CF
DG
EmAm
C#mF#m
F#7B7

Verse 1
Chorus

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Step 3: Combine The Melody And The Chords

Let’s combine the melody and the chords.

As we mentioned before, the trick is to play the chords “below” the melody notes. The melody note will be the higher notes of the “chord”. This means we are gonna play part of the chords, below the melody.

Verse (The melody is in RED)
Chorus (The melody is in RED)

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Step 4: Add In The Accompaniment

Yeah! We have the melody and the chords!!

Let’s make it more complete by filling in the gap between the melody.

We can fill in the gap by playing the plucking accompaniment just like we are accompanying someone to sing:

Verse (The blue box is the accompaniment)
Chorus(The blue box is the accompaniment)

Click here to ask a question …