Songs for Intermediates Lessons

These lessons take the next logical step moving from being a strict beginner to being a well-rounded guitarist. This covers a lot of different topics. If you've read any of the Easy Songs For Beginners pieces, you already know that I prefer to teach lessons by using specific songs as examples.

Babylon - David Gray - Songs for Intermediates # 1 By David Hodge Being a pop song, Babylon is full of hooks, catchy bits of music and words that do precisely what the word says. They reel you in. The question is, how do you as a solo performer take this song and play it so that fans of the songs are happy because they recognize it and you are happy as well, because you've claimed it as your own?

Blackbird - The Beatles - Songs for Intermediates # 2 By David Hodge Today we're going to start with that concept and then kind of warp it around a bit. The song is Blackbird by Paul McCartney (but being a Beatle at the time, it is officially a Lennon/McCartney piece). Not only is this a good showing-off song for the solo guitarist, it is also a great exercise for stretching one's fingers.

Moondance - Van Morrison - Songs for Intermediates # 3 By David Hodge Quite often, the next step is nothing more than relearning things you already know. To illustrate this, let's look at the song Moondance by Van Morrison. It's an intriguing piece in that while it is very easy to play (chord-wise), it does take a little thought to make it sound good.

Give A Little Bit - Supertramp - Songs for Intermediates # 4 By David Hodge Sometimes you sit down with a written piece of music and end up being disappointed because it doesn't sound like the record. You may have the right chords, but you're playing them in the wrong place on the fretboard. Give A Little Bit by Supertramp demonstrates this concept.

Scarborough Fair - Simon and Garfunkel - Songs for Intermediates # 5 By David Hodge Paul Simon's version of Scarborough Fair is something I try to teach my students fairly early on in their studies. Like Blackbird, it seems daunting at first, but it's truly not hard at all. Most of the song involves simple patterns that get repeated during the course of the verses.

Yesterday - The Beatles - Songs for Intermediates # 6 By David Hodge The version I intend to show you is not the original recording. While it is based on the Beatles' original song, my arrangement also incorporates elements that I like to use in my own playing, such as moving bass lines and the use of inverted thirds and chord shapes to use as vocal cues.

Fields of Gold - Sting - Songs for Intermediates # 7 By David Hodge I hope you're ready for a work out! We'll take this four chord song and make a breathtaking solo guitar arrangement for it. Lots of finger-style work and voice leading will teach us the importance of the guitar as an accompanying instrument. If you want to learn the secrets of finessing an arrangement, this is a great place to start.

Losing My Religion - R.E.M. - Songs for Intermediates # 8 By David Hodge We continue on with another look at arranging a song you might normally just strum along with the chords. Here you are the guitar, mandolin and even the bass with one instrument. And believe it or not, this is way easier than some of our recent intermediate lessons. Did I mention that it also contain MP3 examples?

Simple Twist of Fate - Bob Dylan - Songs for Intermediates # 9 By David Hodge Simple Twist of Fate offers a lesson in chord progressions for those would-be songwriters, and one on chord construction in open tuning for those of you still needing a challenge. While we're at it, let's throw in a little bit about string muting and maybe even touch upon strumming.

America - Simon and Garfunkel - Songs for Intermediates # 10 By David Hodge It's a travelogue so, appropriately, we take you all over the place with this lesson! There's something for everyone in this single guitar arrangement - walking bass lines, a mixture of strumming techniques and it's a waltz! If nothing else, increase your vocabulary by learning the word gabardine...

Like a Hurricane - Neil Young - Songs for Intermediates # 11 By David Hodge After spending the past few lessons developing bass lines, let's turn our attention to the melody. This Neil Young classic lends itself nicely to learning how to integrate a song's melody into your strumming. Plus we'll continue our work with arpeggio and partial chord picking.

Driver Eight - R.E.M. - Songs for Intermediates # 12 By David Hodge This is a fun and easy to play arrangement of an old REM song, Driver Eight. We'll look at incorporating a riff into the strumming and switching our strumming around with different patterns for different parts of a song.

Wish You Were Here (The Intro Solo) - Pink Floyd - Songs for Intermediates # 13 By David Hodge Let's kick off the year with a bit of a challenge. Here you'll find step by step instructions for playing the second acoustic guitar part of this terrific song. Since this particular guitar part involves the four basic guitar techniques (hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides and bends), you'll find it a great way to start learning how to play solos.

Your Song - Elton John - Songs for Intermediates # 14 By David Hodge The classic Elton John song gets the Guitar Noise treatment. We've a terrific finger style arrangement for you, good enough to make you think you're playing a piano! And, of course, I make sure to throw in enough interesting theory bits to remid you that it is, indeed, after all, a lesson! Play it for your sweetheart next Valentine's Day!

The Needle and the Damage Done - Neil Young - Songs for Intermediates #15 By David Hodge On the surface, there's not an awful lot to this short, yet powerfully moving song. Because of the structure of the song, it's very much up to the single guitarist to make this an interesting arrangement. And that's what we'll do with an arrangement that is interesting, challenging and also gives us some things that we can use in our every day guitar playing.

Julia - The Beatles - Songs for Intermediates #16 By David Hodge Here's a wonderful arrangement of this beautiful and haunting song from the pen of John Lennon. While we won't be using the straight-from-the-record Travis picking style, we will more than make up for it by using many aspects of chord melody playing to make this both easier and challenging at the same time.

Imagine - John Lennon - Songs for Intermediates #17 By David Hodge Welcome in the Chinese New Year with a song of peace and hope! Here is a thoughtful arrangement of this John Lennon classic for the single guitarist.

Don't Panic - Coldplay - Songs for Intermediates #18 By David Hodge ...we live in a beautiful world... Yeah, we do! Don't let the Intermediates tag discourage you from trying out this cool single-guitar arrangement of the opening song from Coldplay's Parachutes CD (also featured in the Garden State Soundtrack). It's not at all hard and you might even learn a few things!

After The Gold Rush - Neil Young - Songs for Intermediates #19 By David Hodge Here's a short lesson that uses the chord melody approach to come up with a nice song arrangement that you can play either as a chord melody or as a single guitar accompaniment for a singer (or yourself).

Time After Time - Songs for Intermediates #20 By David Hodge There are seemingly limitless ways of playing any one song, so why should someone ever say I can't play a song? Or worse, I'm waiting for someone to show me how to play a song... In this lesson, we'll start out with a simple strumming arrangement, spice things up a bit with arpeggios, and then wind up with an arrangement that's close to chord melody.

Cinnamon Girl - Songs for Intermediates #21 By David Hodge It's been ages it seems since we've had an intermediate song lesson. It also seems like it's been ages since we've done something with an alternate tuning. And when was the last time we did a Neil Young song? And don't let the intermediate label put you off - even beginners (with some practice, of course!) can make this song sound sweet...

Walk Of Life - Songs for Intermediates #22 By David Hodge This is more of a mini-lesson, taking a song you know with fairly easy chords and coming up with an arrangement that will work for the single guitar. And with a simple strumming pattern and the strategic use of a capo, even beginners can have some fun with it.

Cat's In The Cradle - Songs for Intermediates #23 By David Hodge There's a little bit of everything in this lesson, from easy arpeggios and strumming to some basic Travis style finger picking patterns. As always, David picks the song apart into small pieces that even many beginners can get with some concerted practice. Have fun learning this Harry Chapin classic!

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