Thanks for you input, had a look at your video, not the easiest of songs to work on, well done the final version sounds great.
You asked, can I play the melody by ear – I think the answer to that is probably no.
I know I am not tone deaf, my singing teacher agrees, and I can match a single note pretty well but that is not the same as following the melody notes. However interestingly over recent weeks the teacher says I am getting better with the pitches to match a song, so might be it is coming slowly.
I can play all the parts of HB and can also play it slowly by looking at the tab, but not really from memory with any accuracy, the next day. It was getting better but over the next few weeks I have other guitar prioritises need to concentrate, nine songs we are going to do at the Guitar Club Summer concert.
I think the issue for me is that I am using fingers for both hands and getting them to work together. I have just learned quite a complicated riff for a song which extends over 8 bars involving strings 3 to 6, picking and strumming, slides and if I could do it hammer ons (can get away with just pick the string). The difference is that I am using a pick. I suppose in a way you do learn the movement from a tab but I did get to a point where I knew the melody, if that is the right word, so could see where I was going and if I got it wrong.
I will get back to Happy Birthday and I am sure with practice I will get it done.
You know how they say…Rome wasn’t built in one day! Skills need time to develop…So good you’re taking part of a Guitar Club which keeps you fully engaged!
Cheers,
Silvia.
Hi all, I couldn’t believe how difficult this is, it seems such a simple thing to learn at first glance, the reality being somewhat different ! at least I know I’m not alone with this, must keep chipping away at it, hopefully it’ll get easier
Here is my recording of Happy Birthday, done for my Grade 2 consolidation, 20 months after learning in this module. Since I haven’t played or practiced since then, I had to relearn and you can see my notes on learning the song again along with my annotated tab that uses many of the hints for approaching the song given in the discussion above.
I’m just having a go at this now. It’s certainly taxing my brain!
Just a small point- Below is a screenshot from the Learn More page of the lesson. Should the F in the red box be moved to the right? The open B string isn’t a note in an F chord.
Hey @jacksprat , that B note is not in the C/E chord, either. The point is the melody notes don’t have to necessarily be in the chord, although they often are. In this tab, there are a couple of cases where they differ: the A note in bars 1 and 3.
Thanks for the reply @jjw. I understand that melody notes don’t have to come from the chords. But I think it would be less confusing if the F was placed above the start of the F chord notes. Since posting I’ve noticed that is how it’s annotated in the tab on the video. It seems to have migrated left on the tab in the notes.
However, if I just strum the chords and sing (or imagine) the melody, it feels to me like the F chord change is on beat 1 of that bar (from the pdf tab above). If I continue with C/E (or just C) on that beat, it doesn’t sound right.
However, in terms of playing it fingerstyle, you definitely don’t want to change to the F chord on that beat, since you have to play the open B string. In that case, you put the F chord down on beat 2.
This melted my brain the first time through. I came back after some time playing other fingerstyle stuff, and realized part of my original problem was the TAB on the video is in 6/8, but the downloadable TAB is 3/4. Not a big deal for me now that I know the difference, but man it was confusing the last time.
This is challenging, isn’t it? It took me a long time become comfortable playing it (and I still goof it up regularly!). Regarding the numbers on the tabs: Those refer to the fret where you depress the string, not the finger used to depress the string. So yes, Justin uses his pinky in spots – see from approximately 4:00, then again around 5:40 on the video on the website – sometimes for comfort, and sometimes because the third finger is already being used to depress another string. Hope that helps!
In addition to what Judi said, if you are looking at the bottom row of numbers in the ‘learn more’ section, those are the count for the beat. The TAB says this is in 3/4 time, so three counts of quarter notes for each bar.
Justin’s fingering is usually what he has found easiest for students, and yes, you want to watch the video (and often listen) to see what he recommends.
I just got to this module and downloaded the Guitar Pro file. It seems to be locked so that it needs a password in order to edit. Is that deliberate? I’d like to edit it to add in the chord names. Is that possible?
Hi Brent @brentrambler, you’ve made me feel so much better! I’ve worked on that for a very long time and was surprised how difficult I found it. And I haven’t been playing for a very long time! Speaking of which…if you’re the social type, consider heading over to the Introduce Yourself topic and tell us about your guitar journey and what brought you here!
Like @Tbushell a couple years ago, I had a hard time getting motivated to spend a lot of time on this song (and then unavoidably have it running through my head all the time). One of the things I love about Justin’s program is how he uses real songs, that I like, from the very beginning.
But I could see that it was a useful exercise so I hated to skip it. I’ve been using House of the Rising Sun for fingerstyle practice, but I’m kind of stuck on that and not improving much, getting a little frustrated, so I wanted a simpler fingerstyle exercise. I jumped ahead to Greensleeves even though it’s in Level 3, and I’m making good progress (except that one place where my pinky can’t stretch down to the 4th fret, but I’ll figure that out eventually) and I’m much more motivated now.
So Level 2 people who are unmotivated by Happy Birthday: don’t be afraid of Greensleeves!
I’d love to see a list of other Level-2-easy fingerpicking songs.
