This of course applies to any type of impromptu singalong at any time of year.
Like many of you, I suspect, my guitar got a fair bit of action over the festive holiday period.
āGet your guitar outā. ā Bring your guitar alongā was the cry from family and friends.
All well and good. I played a few of the songs from my repertoire and people joined in if they knew the words or looked up the lyrics on their phones.
Those of you whoāve listened to my AVoYPs will know I lean towards Bob Dylan/early Beatles/Eagles type songs. Great stuff of course but not everyoneās cup of tea (especially the younger generation) and not particularly āsingalongā. Inevitably you then get ācan you play thisā¦ā¦can you play thatā¦ā¦ā.
Iāve got American Pie (not all the lyrics ) and Summer of ā69 up my sleeve but thatās about it. My attempts at Blues licks/riffs played to a backing track are of course for my ears only and not even in the equation .
Some songs you can look up on your phone and have a go at. Others are too difficult to play on the spot. But your confidence takes a nose dive. You are amongst family and friends of course so it doesnāt matter. But stillā¦ā¦
Then the karaoke goes up on the tv screenā¦ā¦
Learn songs, learn songs, learn songs (thanks Richard) is an oft repeated mantra on this site. The 1,4,5 progression helps but trying to work it out for songs you donāt know while others are belting out the lyrics two verses and a chorus ahead of you is difficult! It doesnāt help that youāve just eaten a huge meal and the alcohol is kicking in!
Answers/solutions (other than learn more classic multigenerational singalong songs) on a postcard pleaseā¦ā¦
According to my calendar you still have a couple of weeks before senility kicks in, my friend
Besides the above-mentioned mantra, you do know itās all just practice. Just need to go to more party singalongs
and
I didnāt invite anyone here so there was no chance for that , but the unsolicited sharing of āSilent Nightā in a group of friends did generate a few sweet comments although it could well be that they have the same standards of decency in this area that you people have here, so it probably doesnāt say much
Well, you could come and be with my family. Not once did I get asked to play anything for anyone. Thatās the kind of thing that will help your problem.
Iād have a look at some of Justinās grade one songs. There are some up-to-date oneās in there. Or there is Ultimate Guitar, a lot of those seem to be simple chord progressions. Then have a few practices and load them up on your ipad so you donāt have to really remember them.
Hi Gordon, there was a thread called Campfire Songs, maybe check out that thread. You could also start putting together a list of chord progressions that would work for several / many songs each, and either include the lyrics or know that you can get the lyrics from your phone. You might end up with 10 pages back and front that would be good for 40 or 50 songs. Leave that in your guitar case and youāre ready to play! Iād focus on building up a repertoire first, strumming only, then when youāre comfortable with that start adding in some of the identifiable riffs.
For other song ideas, type in ācampfire guitar songsā or something like that in YouTube. You could also go through Justinās early grade songs and pluck out quite a few.
I do think that knowing typical chord progressions is very useful, but you also need to know the song (a bit anyway) to be able to use those progressions. If you work on some simple songs too Iām sure at your level if you know the song to hum along / sing in your head when you hear it you will also have a good idea of what the next chord will be and when the change is when youāre playing. Iām not talking about F#m Aug 7th kind of chords, Iām talking about standard CDEFGAB major and minor chords, open, bar 5&6 root, and triads on the first 3 strings.
Hopefully this answer is not exactly what youāre not looking for, learn more multi generational songs! I did have an idea about how to use the chord progressions, but I do think part of it needs to be learn more songs. Thatās what works for me anyway
About a year ago we had a little sing-a-long, that I knew was coming, so what I did was to build a little playlist of 10 songs in the Justin App songs. The songs were fairly easy songs that most people, at least of my/our generation would know.
That evening when the time came, I streamed the audio/video from the app to the big screen TV. Using the Band without the vocals setting in the app we had karaoke like visual on the screen as well as the chords to play along with. By adjusting the volumes on the app and the guitar, any flubs on my part were at least masked.
I donāt use the app any more to actually learn songs but for this use it was ideal ā¦ I didnāt have to remember the chords, the lyrics or even the tempo so I could just follow along and just concentrate on getting all the changes in the right place.
This is the right answer. Learn the 3 most common 4 chord progressions and youāll add thousands of songs to your play list. Think Axis of Awsomeās song medolies
Thanks for your replies. First prize has to go to Rogier who actually posted his reply on a postcard!
Some interesting posts from you all, including donāt invite anyone to your house or donāt take your guitar.
The general consensus however is of course to learn more songs and as Mari and Rick said become more familiar with some basic 4 chord progressions that can then be used for loads of different songs. The difficulty is to recognise the pattern and put it all together quickly as your āaudienceā quickly loses interest as you mess around.
Thanks for your input here Mari, youāve given me much food for thought.
As Glen suggests, we did have karaoke on the tv but even for the songs I knew they were often in a different key from the one I knew and by the time Iād messed about with capo positions etc. the song was over.
I suppose the key thing is are you playing for people or playing with people. If itās for people then you have your list of songs that youāve practised and know. Youāre in control of the songs.
The more difficult one is playing with people who want to sing along and make suggestions as to what songs you should play.
The bottom line in my case of course is itās family and friends so itās all good fun.
Thanks again to you all for your contributions. And I mustnāt forget to thank Brian for reminding me that I reach senility in just over two weeks. Of course that means by next Christmas Iāll have forgotten where I put my guitar so all this will cease to be an issue.
This is where knowing basic chord progressions works really well. No capo needed get a chord chart with all the keys and practice playing different keys with open chords.
I get the point, but this really isnāt true, is it? I can play the G-Em-C-D Axis of Awesome progression, but I canāt play thousands of songs or even dozens. Beyond learning how to play those 4 chords in a row, Iād have to do this:
Know which songs use that progression.
Most of those songs donāt use only that progression. I might have to learn different progressions for the bridge, chorus, etc. for all those songs.
Iād have to learn the lyrics to thousands of songs.
Iād have to learn the song structure: how many verses, chorus, where the bridge(s) are, intro, outro. Etc.
Iād have to learn a strumming pattern or groove, which can be quite different for different songs.
Of course, learning the I-V-iv-IV progression is very useful, especially when you can start to recognize it when you hear it. But letās stop saying that learning a 4-chord progression will add many songs to your repertoire. Itās a good first step.
Itās all about learning how to play the guitar. You can learn song or you can learn how music is constructed. Itās up to you. I prefer to learn how music is constructed.
Thatās a really good point and one which Iām going to take on board this year. Thanks Rick.
@Richard_close2u perhaps we can have ālearn songs, learn songs, learn songs and take note of how there is a similarity in their constructionā. Cue a Vintage Club lesson.
Uuhā¦ What a great idea and most thrilling topic @sairfingers. If there ever will be such a session @richard_close2u. If there would ever be such a session, could I please get an invite?
FWIW I just stripped this out of my Practice Schedule Spreadsheet and highlighted the open chords to help less experienced folk here. For F if barre chords are beyond you Fmaj7 will set you straight.
) and Summer of ā69 up my sleeve but thatās about it. My attempts at Blues licks/riffs played to a backing track are of course for my ears only and not even in the equation 
.
All above my playgrade.
and 
, but the unsolicited sharing of āSilent Nightā in a group of friends did generate a few sweet comments 
although it could well be that they have the same standards of decency in this area that you people have here, so it probably doesnāt say much 
