Wonderwall by Oasis Lesson

Haha! Well if they play in Stockholm and need to rest a couple of minutes, I’ll be there. :sunglasses:

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Balls.

This “simple beginners song” has a strumming pattern that I find about as simple as juggling flaming chainsaw’s… Not sure I’ll ever be able to remember it, let along do it.

I had serious problems with this as well.
For me, the trick was to break it down into smaller pieces. Like only the first bar to start with, reading lound (like Down, Down, down-up-down etc.) while my hand moved and slowly strummed where I should. I counted it like eight notes (1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +) and I did this really slow like 25-30 BPM for 3-5 minutes. Only the first bar.
And when i got the hang of it I moved to the next bar. Same procedure as the first bar. Ridiculously slow and reading out loud while my hand moved 3-5 minutes. Then I played something else and started over the next day.
I realised that keeping the frustration at a minimum (only a couple of minutes each practice session) is a big key for me when I learn. After a couple of days it just fell into place and I could connect the first and second bar, and later on slowly speed up the movement.

Give it time and don’t be so hard on yourself (for more than a couple of minutes every session) and you will beat this strumming monster in just a couple of days.

Cheers!

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Funnily enough, I had a break from it for about 6 weeks and then went back to it and it just clicked!
I’ve not got it memorised so I have to see it and listen to it but then I’ve got it. Although I must say, the timing isn’t quite right so it does need a bit more practice…

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It was a song that I started much too soon in my guitar playing journey and really got bogged down with it. It’s definitely harder than people give it credit for. All you can do is break down into chunks and gradually build it up. You need to be relaxed to be able to strum it at full speed.
One bonus thing is that Do you know what I Mean, also by Oasis uses the same chords as Wonderwall but is a little easier, so you’ll be able to learn that quickly if you can play Wonderwall

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Thanks mate, I never noticed that about the chords with the song. I’ll have a listen out for it now.

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If you look at my latest learning log post I’m playing that song with the Wonderwall chords… there’s only the pre-chorus that’s different and that’s just (E D A)x3 followed by C D A and then into the chorus which again is just cycling the Wonderwall chords

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Proud beginner guitarist moment: Practicing this song and my Google Pixel phone thought a Wonderwall recording was playing instead of me. Thank you, Justin!

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I think the issue with putting it in the beginner course is it has a tempo of 187 bpm, which is just too much for a beginner. One thing that is severely lacking from your video is the use of the metronome, it makes it seem as though a beginner just has to learn the chords and the strumming pattern but still it doesn’t sound quite right, because there is no metronome being used. Your technique of counting the ands might work for you, but if I go take lessons at a local school, there is no way my teacher would make me do this, they would instead use a metronome, and they’d go with songs that have a slower tempo first. With that said, I think it’s fine to use this tutorial to simply learn the chords and memorize them and it does kind of sound like the song even without the right tempo.

I meant 175 bpm, though some sites say 90, I wonder why.

Thank you. This really makes sense the way you pit in the spreadsheet

This is a tough one. It does feel a bit difficult for the start of Grade 2 but I’m enjoying the challenge and making more progress than I thought I would.

I’ve been working on the strumming a few days and it’s mostly clicked without the chord changes. I’m just trying to layer bits up and increase the difficulty once I’ve figured something out by either upping the tempo or adding in the chord changes. It’s going okay. I’ve been struggling to play the pattern over the chord changes when Liam’s singing kicks in, it puts me off. So still some work to do to commit the pattern to memory.

I feel like if I can crack this it’ll be a huge milestone.

I’ve cracked the pattern at 100% tempo and can do it over all the chord changes (apart from the fast bar that includes 4 changes). However I’m having real trouble keeping time when I play against a track. I don’t know what it is about this song, perhaps the fact the chord changes are happening inbetween beats and it’s throwing me off.

I’ve noticed my foot is unable to keep to the beat and when I try and concentrate on tapping my foot to the beat I lose the ability to strum the pattern. If I ignore the foot tapping I eventually stray off and go out of sync. It’s generally ok until the singing starts and the other instruments kick in. I’ve had to modify the track in Moises to turn the volume of the singing down as it’s putting me off. I even tried playing with a loud metronome and I’m still struggling.

Anyone have any tips, or is this just one I’m going to have to keep drilling?

Are you making use of Moises to loop sections or not? Like you I reduced the vocals but also played sections again and again and again.

I wouldn’t even know where to start with foot tapping for this one because the strumming pattern is so varied and also pretty quite fast so I don’t.

Moises does also have a smart metronome feature. I haven’t tried it for this song but might be worth a try

So I can only say that I got there through repetition, maybe someone else will have better advice but it took me ages to get this one (not least because I started it too early in my journey expecting it to be easier than it is).

A bonus tip is that Do You Know What I mean uses the same chord progression (with a capo at fret 2) so you might want to give it a go… and it’s a little easier than Wonderwall

Is the original lesson still available too? You did some interesting things moving from chord to chord, A to Em, in the intro and verses, for example. I like the transition strumming pattern as well as the chorus which I don’t think was covered before.

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The name of the US talk show host who interviewed Noel Gallagher slipped @JustinGuitar ‘s mind late in the video… it’s Howard Stern.