How to Play a Melody on the Guitar

[Jozsef]

Who needs to transcribe power chords?

[FunkyFingers]

Enough gain and it all sounds much the same right? Get the vide and the attitude right and you’re sweet.

[Ledmond]

I agree. This is the hardest lesson I have encountered to date. Incredibly frustrating. I feel completely stuck.

[MrPB]

Really interesting video this one, obviously Justin makes it look easy but now I’m confused where the lines are drawn between chords, melody lines and solos and what to play where

eg if I’m playing for my friends at a party I guess a mixture of chords and melody line is going to work best

[ringo_mp]

I’m glad I’m not the only one to be struggling. Justin’s lessons have been great and scaffolded nicely but this one seems a little out of place and more advanced. Maybe I need more ear training.

[jBreck]

Hey Ringo, nice to meet you. Here’s a good place to start:

Trust Your Ears

View the full lesson at Trust Your Ears | JustinGuitar

Justin has really pumped up transcribing. I jumped into the dedicated course to dive in a little deeper and I’m finding this course extremely helpful.

[Richard_close2u]

@joh1988

Does this have to be done with fingerstyle?

The notes are important, the means of playing them is not. Use a pick.

@CorynF

For example in the song ‘Let it Be’ he starts playing certain kind of notes, however there is no guide on what and more importantly why he is playing that certain note.

Is it just improvisation and always playing the root note on the first ‘beat’ ?

In the Learn more section Justin writes to start using the open position scale. By this he means the scales you have learned in Grades 1-2 namely C major scale and E minor pentatonic scale. If you then learn pattern 1 of the G major scale (a closed pattern, not open) and more patterns beyond, you can use some or all of those.

[aliomenti]

Justin talks in the video about adding vibrato. I don’t remember covering this yet, unless I’ve somehow skipped over it?

[roger_holland]

Hi Matt, @aliomenti

Vibrato (Hand Style)

I can’t find where it is taught for the first time in the course, but there is a lot of attention for it in the Technology section that you have to can do in between

https://www.justinguitar.com/classes/technique-study

Greetings,Rogier

[jjw]

There is a Grade 3 lesson that comes later than this one. Here’s how to find it (teach a man to fish, and all that):

1. Go to Justin’s site and do a search on “vibrato”.
2. You will get results from different categories like “Modules”, “Lessons”, “Songs”
3. The lesson you want is visible in the “Lessons” category. There are several, but you can see the one labeled “Grade 3”.

You could also google “Justin guitar vibrato lesson”, which also works.

[jpedro_AM]

I have a quick question. When practicing for this module, are we supposed to just solo with the melodies or try to arrange a full chord melody? I find nailing the melodies not that hard, but trying to identify what chord goes over it and in which beat it goes super tricky.

[Stuartw]

Had a view of this lesson as well tonight and it appears to me that you have to know how to sing to get this. As I couldn’t hold a tune in a bucket I’m not seeing the benefit of the practice for this!

Also it appears that we need to know the notes on the neck to be able to do this. I can work them out but couldn’t point to a string/fret and know what note it is straight away. Are we supposed to know this at this point of the beginners course?

Lastly is it just the vocals of a song that is the melody?

[stitch]

You’ve missed the whole point of the lesson @Stuartw. You don’t need to sing or know the notes on the neck. But you do need to be able to hear a melody. Practice humming the melody then try and figure it out on the guitar using single notes. I know you have a hard time hearing but I think you would benefit from learning to hear melodies of songs.

[Stuartw]

@stitch

You’ve missed the whole point of the lesson @Stuartw. You don’t need to sing or know the notes on the neck

You may well be right but he does talk about singing and notes on the neck!

@stitch

Practice humming the melody then try and figure it out on the guitar using single notes.

I can do the first bit but trying to figure out what notes are being played/hummed I’m not so sure about. I know it’s about finding the first note and that knowing the chords will help with this but not being able to sing (in tune) wont help.

@stitch

I know you have a hard time hearing

Correct and not getting any better!

[TheMadman_tobyjenner]

Stuart

To help with the note you hum compared to the note you pick, try reverse engineering.
I’m sure you will be familar Julie Anrews and do re me fa so la ti do. You should also have learnt the C Major.

Try playing the scale and humming each note or even go full Julie and sing the solfege scale note by note.

Pick C sing Do then hum tbe note.
Pick D sing Re then hum the note etc

Get used to how the hummed note sounds against the picked note. Practice until you can hum the scale, then try again finding melodies.

Hope that helps.

[Stuartw]

@stitch

but I think you would benefit from learning to hear melodies of songs.

So is this the singing bit of a song or the lead notes?

[Stuartw]

@TheMadman_tobyjenner

Try playing the scale and humming each note

I’ve tried this but it’s really difficult with humming as I hear what’s in my head and not the noise coming out (if you understand what I mean) due to my plastic ears. Tried the singing option but that’s not much better as by ‘do’ sounds more like a croak!

A bit like transcribing I may just have to admit that I’m not going to get this, but thanks (both) for your help.

[stitch]

The melody is what makes the song. Have you ever noticed there are 1000’s of songs with the same chords but they all sound different?
What makes them different is the melody. This is what Justin wants you to learn to hear. Without the melody every song would sound the same.

[jjw]

The vocal melody.

[andpot]

Hi, I just tried this using Happy Birthday as the tune. Was slow but super rewarding to end up with a tabbed version…I feel I have got the idea of what Justin is asking so ready to start on his suggested tunes now! Up to this point, they were a bit daunting. The basic start helped keep my enthusiasm for doing this - hope it helps a bit…