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
1 Like
Happy Birthday recording for Grade 2 consolidation - SteveL
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.
Why is the counting on justin’s video and the give tab in description is different?
Simple good idea but I didn’t think of it
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. 
That’s a good point.
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 really tough but it seems that the notes Justin plays don’t always match the tabs.
I learnt the majority of these from the tabs but then watched the videos and can’t really fathom some of it.
Isn’t the pinky a 4 on tabs? And yet near the end he clearly is using his pinky and there’s a few other parts too.
Have spent weeks struggling to learn it, it’s a touch fustrating when there are these variances.
Hi James @James_Liv ,
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!
Judi
hi @James_Liv
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.
2 Likes
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?
Thanks,
Ben
This song is a trap!! Been playing guitar for a very long time and i’m befuddled, hahaha.
1 Like
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!
1 Like
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.
2 Likes
Although I’m not motivated to learn finger style (right now, at least), I have definitely found it is often better to work on a hard song that you really want to learn as opposed to an easier song that you don’t like.
Also, I think the song “dust in the wind” by Kansas is often recommended as a first finger style song.
1 Like
Oh, wow, really? “Dust in the Wind” is on my “if I could some day get good enough to play that …” bucket list. Never occurred to me it was even worth trying this early. I’ll try it and report back. 
Wow, “Dust in the Wind” really is easy enough for a beginner, and sounds great! Justin doesn’t have a lesson for it, so I’m following https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxmWRVZ3vo0 (GuitarZero2Hero). Thanks so much for the suggestion!
1 Like
What makes Happy Birthday much harder than Dust in the Wind, is that the former is a chord melody arrangement. You are playing the melody and the chords at the same time. This is not easy! You’re really playing two different pieces of music with your thumb and fingers, respectively.
Dust in the Wind is based on a set fingerpicking pattern. The left hand holds down the chord, while the right hand executes the set pattern. The left hand could be used for embellishments, but the melody of the song is not played in this sort of arrangement. This makes it much easier to play. This may seem surprising, since the fast picking in Dust in the Wind does seem rather more impressive than the Happy Birthday arrangement.
Chord melody arrangements are great for non-singers (like me), because they can be played as standalone instrumental pieces. Fingerstyle songs based on a fixed pattern aren’t really standalone pieces.
2 Likes