Case in point – this lesson on the old Christmas carol Away in a Manger started out as a very simple lesson on melody movement, but, well, you’ll see!

These files are the author’s own work and represent his interpretation of this song. They are intended solely for private study, scholarship or research.

Away in a Manger is a beguiling, simple yet beautiful melody built on a descending major scale line, but starting on the fifth note of the scale. In the key of G, it would be like this:

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When I was working this out, I was indeed playing in G. This led me to thinking, what if I raised the melody up an octave so that I could play it mostly (almost entirely, in fact) on the high E (first) string and then use the open B, G and D strings as a drone, kind of making the guitar more into a dulcimer. That turned out like this:

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I liked this a lot, especially since it opened up some many possibilities for concentrating on the single notes of the melody. One could, for instance, use a single finger and slide from note to note. Or you could place your index finger on the B note at the seventh fret of the high E (first) string and set up the C note (eighth fret) with the middle finger and the opening D at the tenth fret with the pinky and then using pull-offs to sound the first three notes of the melody. Being able to focus on the tone of each note of the melody, how playing it even with different fingers creates a different tone, can keep me occupied for hours!

As much as I enjoyed being able to play around with the melody, I found myself missing having a low G note in the bass. But the thought of trying to have one finger on the G note at third fret of the low E (sixth) string while simultaneously playing the D note at the tenth fret of the high E (first) string, well, let’s just say that I didn’t think it being a good idea and leave it at that.

But there are all sorts of ways of getting around these kinds of challenges if you have an open mind. Since I wanted to have a low G note for my bass, why not tune my low E up to G just for this song and give myself nothing but open strings for my bass accompaniment, like this:

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Now, you might wonder why I didn’t tune my A string down to G instead, and you certainly can do that. But I was worried about the fact that, Away in a Manger being in the key of G, the song would primarily contain G, C and D chords and tuning the A down to G would make the C chord problematic, whereas changing the low E string wouldn’t change the C chord at all.

Away in a Manger, like many songs, has four lines and the melody line of the first and third lines are the same. Let’s tackle that first line with our newly tuned guitars:

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You’ll notice that I changed the accompaniment in the third measure, using the C note at the third fret of the A string as the first bass note but not changing the other two notes. Technically, this creates a Cadd9 chord instead of a regular C, but I liked the way it sounded, slightly dissonant but in an interesting way. After trying out using regular C and this one, I ended up liking the open D string much more.

Although I didn’t realize it at time, keeping the A string tuned to A made the first full measure of the second line much easier to deal with:

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This is simply a C7 chord (x32310) slid up two frets, creating a D9 chord (x54530) and the use of the F# (fourth fret of the D string) and C (fifth fret of the G string), mixing with the ringing tones of the D (third fret of the B string) and E (open high E (sixth) string) in the melody, makes this sound much more interesting than if I’d used a regular D with just the open high E string (xx0230).

The “regular” open position D chord does have its place, though, as it’s the perfect choice for the second measure. Some people might find this measure easier to play by making a partial barre at the second fret, covering the three high strings with the index finger. Doing so should allow you to play the initial D note (third fret of the B string) of the melody with the middle finger and the A note (fifth fret of the high E (first) string) with the pinky.

Using a partial barre also puts you in a position to simply stand up your index finger onto the second fret of the D string for the Cadd9 chord (x32030) in the following measure. The middle finger would get the C note in the bass (third fret of the A string) and the ring finger would play the D note at the third fret of the B string. You would then slide that finger up to the eighth fret to get the G note of the melody and hang onto it so that it could ring out while you play the B note (seventh fret of the high E) to end this phrase.

Since the melody of the third line is an exact copy of the first line, I thought it might be nice to do something different this time around. Adding a bit of additional harmony is always nice:

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These are basic double stops, and shouldn’t give you too much trouble provided you remember to keep the G note of the melody (eighth fret of the B string) the same while changing the harmony note from F (tenth fret of the G string) to E (ninth fret of the G string). And you don’t have to release the B note (fourth fret of the G string) in favor of the open G string if you prefer not to. This was something I thought was nice.

The final line has a few slightly complicated challenges to it involving a few partial barres:

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Begin the first measure here with your index finger barring the first four strings at the fifth fret. This, along with the open A string in the bass, gives you an Am7 chord for your harmony. Your pinky should be able to reach the C note of the melody (eighth fret of the high E) without difficulty and you can use either your ring finger or your middle finger to get the B note (seventh fret) that follows.

You remove the barre in the second measure but replace it, this time using your middle finger to barre, in the third measure. That frees your index finger for the F# note at the fourth fret of the D string. This chord, x04555, is D9/A by the way. Use your ring finger or pinky to get the F# note at the seventh fret of the B string and then slide that finger up a single fret to play the final G of the melody line.

Okay, let’s put this all together, shall we?

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I hope you’ve enjoyed working out this Christmas carol with me. Even though it’s fairly simple, I think we’ve managed to come up with an arrangement with some flair of its own.

As always, please feel free to post your questions and suggestions on the Guitar Noise Forum’s “Guitar Noise Lessons” page or email me directly at dhodgeguitar@aol.com.

Until our next lesson…

Peace

And that’s just as well, too, for there are certainly more than enough versions of just about every single holiday song known to civilization. Today, I’d like to offer up a “fingerstyle / chord melody” take on I’ll Be Home for Christmas, a song from the 1940’s that’s been sung by almost everyone, it seems. Hopefully our Guitar Noise arrangement will become part of your holiday song repertoire.

These files are the author’s own work and represent his interpretation of this song. They are intended solely for private study, scholarship or research.

Before we start in, though, I have to digress slightly concerning two things. First, I’ve been playing this song for ages, but when I first started to work up an arrangement of it, I had no sheet music as a guide. Instead, I relied on memories of the various versions I’d heard. As a result, there are all sorts of ‘freedoms” taken, particularly with the time signatures in this arrangement. But I’m hoping that will make it an even more interesting lesson.

The second thing is that I incorporate the “verse” of the song, and you may not even be aware that it exists. We know many pop songs from the middle of the 1900s simply from their choruses, which actually seem to be whole songs. But quite often, these songs had a single verse that served more as what we’d think of today as an introduction. Then everyone would join in on singing the chorus. And, more often than not these days, it’s only the chorus that most of us know.

Our arrangement of I’ll Be Home is in the key of A. And though the song is written in 4/4 timing, we’re going to be approaching it in a different manner. In 4/4 timing, the two lines of the verse goes like this:

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Back when I was putting this all together, the phrase of lyric gave me a strong impression of 3 / 4 timing. More like this:

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Because I’d gotten this rhythm into my head all those many years ago, I pretty much think of the whole song in terms of threes and triplets instead of fours, as you’ll see when we get to the chorus.

For now, though, let’s take a look at those first two lines again, done up in a “fingerstyle chord melody” way:

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First things first – I’ve moved the melody up an octave to place it totally on the first two strings of guitar. This means that you’ll have a bit of work ahead, changing chords at various places on the fretboard. But even this early in the verse, we’ll be running into two important chord shapes that will recur throughout the song. The initial Dmaj7 chord is made by placing the index finger at the ninth fret of the high E (first) string, and then forming a diagonal line with your middle finger on the tenth fret of the B string and your ring finger on the eleventh fret of the G string. The open D string serves as our bass note.

We then switch to full-barre Em7 chord shapes for the next three measures. Using this fingering of barring across all the strings with the index finger and then adding the ring finger to the A string two frets up, we create C#m7 (barre at ninth fret, ring finger on the eleventh fret of the A string), Bm7 (barre at seventh fret, ring finger on the ninth fret of the A string), and F#m7 (barre at second fret, ring finger on the fourth fret of the A string) and our free fingers to get the other melody notes. Your index finger will easily reach the tenth fret of the B string when playing the C#m and your pinky should have no problems with either the tenth fret of the B when playing Bm7 or the fourth fret of the high E (first) string when playing the F#m7.

The “diagonal line shape” of the Dmaj7 chord shows up again in first measure of the second line for the Bm7/D chord, although you may not immediately recognize it. Before you worry about playing the notes shown in the tablature, set your fingers for a typical “beginner’s Bm” chord – index finger on the second fret of the high E (first) string, middle finger on the third fret of the B string, and ring finger on the fourth fret of the G string. Once you’ve gotten those fingers in place, then put your pinky on the fifth fret of the high E (first) string to get the A note of the melody line. Once you’ve played it, you simply remove the pinky and all your other fingers are in place for the last chord of that measure.

Being able to read chord shapes as tablature is not something that many guitarists pick up easily and we’ll be spending a bit of time throughout 2010 working through this subject. Hopefully, though, this shows you why it’s an important skill to develop.

Recognizing chord shapes can often make changing from chord to chord easier as well. For instance, just looking at the chord charts and tablature for switching from this “beginner’s Bm” to the following E7 may seem daunting, all it really involves is moving two fingers. Your middle and ring finger are already where they should be, so you shift the index finger to the second fret of the D string and then drop your pinky onto the fourth fret of the high E (first) string.

If you want to add a bit more bass, you can also flatten out your index finger across the second fret of both the D and A strings, giving you the fingering of 022434, which allows you to play the chord across all six strings. You want to be careful with this, though as you need the note of the open high E (first) string as part of the melody line. You can achieve this by tilting the index finger into the middle of the fretboard, clearing the first string completely, or you could always reach the same note at the fifth fret of the B string with you pinky.

The second half of the verse starts out the same but then finishes with a group of interesting chords, not to mention a brief change of time signatures:

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Something both cool but somewhat frustrating and unnerving about is that any one specific combination of notes can turn out to be a part of many, many possible chords. If I were to give you the notes C, E and G, as an example, you could say that they are a C major chord, but they could also be part of Am7 (A, C, E and G), Fmaj9 (F, A, C, E and G) or many other chords. Most jazz players use only three or four strings in order to create chords, so there are all sorts of ways to identify them.

Since Bm, or Bm7 if you will, is the focal harmonic point of the first measure in the second line here, I’ve named each of these chords as extensions of Bm or B. Shifting from chord to chord may seem difficult at first, but using your index finger as an anchor on the lowest fret and shifting it up the neck (from the second fret to the fourth and then to the seventh) will help you make smooth transitions. Having your index finger on the seventh fret for the B13 also puts you in perfect position for the E9.

This part of the verse can be done very freely in terms of timing. You can make it incredibly melodramatic if you’d like, especially if doing so helps you buy time between the chord changes!

Part of the charm of this arrangement, of most chord melody style arrangements for that matter, are getting ringing strings and overtones wherever possible. That’s why you’ll find many times I’ll opt for a chord voicing involving open strings when I can.

With the “verse” out of the way, we can concentrate on the “chorus” part of I’ll Be Home for Christmas, which is the part you’re probably really interested in, anyway. Like the verse, the original chorus is written in 4 /4 timing. But while there is a strong pulse on each beat, and again this is to my ears and may not work for you, there is also a distinct feel for triplets in the accompaniment. It’s got the same kind of feel as The House of the Rising Sun. So I’ve worked out the chorus in 6 / 8 timing to accommodate this feel. If nothing else, it keeps me from writing out a lot of triplet notation!

I could have just as easily written this out in 12 / 8, the way many blues songs are written out, but I simply found 6 / 8 more convenient. And, as you’ll see and hear, it does make coming up with an easy, yet interesting accompaniment a breeze.

Essentially, the chorus can be broken down into four parts, each of which goes with a line of lyric:

I’ll be home for Christmas you can count on me
Please have snow and mistletoe and presents on the tree
Christmas Eve will find me where the lovelight gleams
I’ll be home for Christmas if only in my dreams

To make matters even easier, the first and third lines are, essentially identical in terms of melody and chords. So we’ve only three parts to learn! Here’s the first:

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The first measure involves what some people call the “classical guitarist’s A chord,” although folks like Pete Townsend use it a lot. Essentially, it’s a partial barring of the second fret, covering the four high strings with the index finger, and then adding the pinky to the fifth fret of the high E (first) string to get the A note of the melody. You then slide the pinky down to the fourth fret at the end of the measure.

For the most part, I tried to make the accompaniment be a simple “down and up” arpeggio, again much like the lesson on The House of the Rising Sun. There will be places where this will have to be changed, but if you can get used to starting with your bass note and (including that bass note) play three strings down and then three strings back up, you should be fine.

An Adim7 sets the stage for the second measure. Slide your index finger, still barring the first four strings, up to the fourth fret and add your middle finger to the fifth fret of the G string while dropping your pinky onto the seventh fret of the high E (first) string. Use your ring finger to fret the A note at the fifth fret of the high E later in the measure.

The E note of the open first string is the melody note for the word “Christmas,” so I use most of the barre chord version of the Bm chord but leave that first string open. This is actually fairly easy to do if you don’t think of it as a barre chord, but rather as an Am chord slid up two frets. Plus, then your fingers are in shape for the E chord that comes next.

If case one of the subtle subtexts of the many lessons here at Guitar Noise may be eluding you, let me make it clear: you don’t have to let chord names freak you out. There is very little about music that you can’t figure out, provided that you keep your head and don’t panic. For instance, you may look at the chord in the next measure, C#m7(b5) and have a heart attack. But there’s no reason for it. C#m is C#, E and G#. Adding the “7″ means adding the note, B, to the chord. “b5″ indicates that you lower the fifth of the chord, G# in this instance, a half-step, turning it into G. So the notes of “C#7(b5) are C#, E, G and B. That’s three open strings plus a C# thrown in somewhere. No reason whatsoever to panic that I can see.

You could make this more interesting, not to mention slightly harder to finger by going with a fingering of X42000, but since you’re fingerpicking arpeggios, make it easier on yourself by skipping the D string entirely.

Likewise, the following chord, F#7(b9) may seem unwieldy, but all you’ve got to do is to barre across the second fret again with your index finger and then add your middle finger to the third fret of the G string and your ring finger, just for a moment, to the third fret of the high E (first) string. Then you only need stand the index finger up at the second fret of the A string to put you in perfect position for the Bm7 of the last two measures.

Let’s move along to the second line of the chorus:

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Things start our relatively easy, with three simple open positions before moving up the neck for the F#m7 in the fourth measure. But even this isn’t that hard if you stop to think and prepare for a moment. The chord immediately before it, Amaj7, shares the same shape and fingering on the B, G and D strings, so if you set yourself up to play that Amaj7 without your index finger (pinky on the second fret of the B string, middle finger on the first fret of the G string and ring finger on the second fret of the D string), then you only need slide the whole shape up to the sixth and seventh frets and drop your index finger down on the fifth fret of the high E string to complete the chord.

And if you plan out your arpeggios, you don’t have to play the whole B7 barre chord, either. For all intents and purposes, you can get away with leaving the A string clear (other than the index finger needed to barre the seventh fret, of course!) and just use your middle finger on the eighth fret of the G string. Plus your ring finger for the melody note at the ninth fret of the B string when it comes along. The last two measures of this section are a repeat of the third and fourth measures of the first line.

After repeating the first line again, you’ve only one more to go:

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This brings us back to the two basic chord shapes we covered in the “verse” section. The Bm7 (based on the Em7 shape but barred at the seven fret) we remember as the third chord of the song. The “diagonal line” chord is played across the fifth, sixth and seventh frets of the high E (first), B and G strings, respectively, to create Dm. Adding the pinky to the seventh fret of the high E (first) string will give you the melody note.

Then comes our old friend C#m7(b5) and since that’s nowhere near as scary now, why not try stretching our hand a bit and using the x42000 fingering for it? Follow that up with a full F#7 (index finger barred across the second fret, middle finger on the third fret of the G and ring finger on the fourth fret of the A), another Bm7 and another diagonal Dm and you’re just about finished. We’ll close with a nice open string version of Amaj9, fingering the sixth fret of both the D and G strings.

If you want to have an ending with a little more pizzazz, try replacing the final two measures with a reprise of the first four measures of the “verse” section, only try it in 6 /8 timing to give it a little more interest. I’ve not tabbed this out, but I play it in our final version. And just in case you were wondering, I’m playing all the MP3 examples for this lesson on a classical guitar.

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As always, I hope that you had fun with this arrangement of I’ll Be Home for Christmas. It’s one of my favorite seasonal songs and I hope you enjoy it as well. It may take you a little longer to get confident about playing it, but I’m sure you’ll manage it with just a little bit of practice, patience and perseverance.

And, again as always, please feel free to post your questions and suggestions on the Guitar Noise Forum’s “Guitar Noise Lessons” page or email me directly at dhodgeguitar@aol.com.

Until our next lesson…

Peace

Taking a person outside of the comfort zone is an excellent way to grow in skills. That’s a basic principle in teaching that often is overlooked. We tend to focus on the practice-until-proficient part. But at the same time one is becoming proficient at one skill, new skills are introduced to continue progress. Otherwise, one hits that dreaded plateau. One of the main functions of a teacher is to keep moving the student past the point of comfort by presenting new challenges.

The whole concept of chord melody as a playing style has been around for ages. And, like most aspects of both music in general and the guitar in specific, there is no end to the variations you can come up with playing in this particular manner. You can have full chords, such as in our recent lesson on Christmas carol Joy to the World, you can use one extra note to accompany your melody, as in O Tannenbaum, or almost anything in between.

The variations multiply even more when you factor in the use of alternate tunings, even one as common place as Drop D. And that’s where we’ll be spending this particular lesson, on a Drop D arrangement of the perennial New Year’s Eve standard, Auld Lang Syne.

GN Moderator and Contributor Graham Merry has already written a wonderful piece on this song, not to mention on the whole concept of chord melody in general, in his lesson entitled, Birth of a Chord Melody – you might want to give that one a read before we proceed. In the meantime, I’ll deal with the pesky “disclaimer” part:

These files are the author’s own work and represent his interpretation of this song. They are intended solely for private study, scholarship or research.

Of course, the first thing we’ll want to do is to get our guitars in Drop D tuning. As you undoubtedly know from reading an old (but timeless!) Guitar Column called On the Tuning Awry, or from any number of song lessons such as the classic Neil Young tune, Harvest Moon, all we have to do is to tune our low E (sixth) string down a full step to D. While you’re doing that, I’ll put together the melody and chords of our lesson for you:

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Since Graham’s lesson on Auld Lang Syne is heavy on the “chord” aspect of chord melody, it seems that going with a sparser, more open arrangement that relies on bass lines and chord arpeggios (at least to start with!) would be an interesting take. Plus, as you’ll see and hear later, it opens the door to some interesting chord substitutions. So let’s get going with the first two lines of our song:

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Even though we start out with a simple D chord to hold both melody and accompaniment easily, I’d like to suggest using your index finger to barre the first three strings at the second fret as this will make playing the C# note (second fret of the B string) a lot smoother for you. The E minor chord is fingered 222000 in Drop D tuning and shouldn’t give you any trouble, but if you prefer, Em7 (220000) makes a perfectly good substitute.

My main reason for using A7 instead of A is to allow me to play harmony notes on the G string for the last beat of the second measure. You can, if you like, use a double hammer-on to get the F# (second fret of the high E (first) string) and A (second fret of the G). That will sound very nice, and I’m sure you’ll agree if you try it.

The Bm that starts the third measure is more implied than played in full, as we’re only picking out the B (second fret of the A) and D (third fret of the B) notes. You could flesh this out by playing the strings in between, either as Bm (X2443X) or even as G/B (X2003X). Each has a different character, so try them both out before deciding.

I made a substitution of D7, technically a D7/F# since I’m playing the F# note on the fourth fret of the low D (sixth) string, instead of a regular D for the last chord in Measure Three for two reasons. First, I like the way it sounds. It makes the transition from D to G more interesting and intense, especially when using the F# as the bass note. And it’s an easy shape to make when adding said F# in the bass. As a further plus, it puts me in great position, finger-wise, to make the G chord with the high B note (seventh fret of the high E (first) string) in the melody.

And position can be very important when working out a chord melody arrangement. In fact, being where I am on the finger board at the end of the second line of the verse puts me in great shape for the start of the third line:

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It even allows me a chance to make a very interesting chord substitution by simply sliding my G note up a half-step to G# (sixth fret of the low D (sixth) string), which plays very nicely when I use D/A instead of just plain old D at the start of the next measure. The G to G# to A in the bass is definitely more interesting than just using root notes, and the G# diminished chord that we create in the process is one of those magical touches that make the song more alive, and only we have to know that it’s an incredibly easy chord change to pull off!

It gets better. Being up in the middle of the neck allow us to play the voicing of the D chord we’ve used in other song lessons (even Christmas song lessons, such as Silent Night) before moving back down to our “regular” open position D chord.

The bass line gets center stage again for a while, making an E to F# to G run en route to the open A string. But why stop there? Using A# (first fret of the A string) gives us an implied A# diminished chord, that carries us to the Bm at the start of the next measure much the same way the G# diminished chord did two measures earlier. You’re getting a lot of bang for your buck just by using chromatic half-steps between chords.

And you can also create more tension-and-release moments, just by lifting off a finger here and there, as at the end of the verse. Sounding the open G string, right after playing two notes of the D chord, creates Dsus4, which then gets resolved by playing the F# note at the fourth fret of the D string. You could also just go back to the A (second fret of the G string) if you’d like, although that will sound a little more ambiguous.

Since we’ve gone relatively sparse during the verses, focusing on full, vibrant chords during the chorus will make a nice contrast. We can even use some interesting extensions to jazz things up a bit:

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Even though the original melody-and-chord chart didn’t call for it, starting out the chorus with a resounding A chord makes a lot of sense, both to the head and, more importantly, to the ears. But remember that the melody note is B (seventh fret of the high E (first) string), so the melody is actually giving you the ninth. So we oblige by playing an A9 (X05657), which is best accomplished by using the index finger to barre across the first four strings at the fifth fret.

Once again, being around the fifth fret makes playing that voicing of D, now making use of all six strings (000775) a breeze.

I like what we did with the A9 so much that not only do I use it again at the end of the second measure, it inspires the use of a D9 (technically D9/F# – 400555) for the final chord of the third measure. Here I’d recommend using your pinky or the ring finger for the barre of the first three strings at the fifth fret.

We’ve created a grandiose feeling with the chorus so far, so seems reasonable to continue on through the rest of the chorus in the same manner:

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Using the A# note (first fret of the A string) against the rest of the A7 chord above, with the F# note in the melody, sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? So much so, in fact, that I can’t help but default to the “two note Bm” that starts the next measure, simply for contrast. Again, you should feel free to use a fuller chord at this point if you so desire.

And it also seems appropriate to make a slightly fancier closing statement to end the chorus. Not all that fancier, mind you, just opening up the G string again but then going for the A note at the second fret before finishing with the F# at the fourth fret of the D string. You can certainly use a hammer-on to get that penultimate A note. It will sound very cool.

So let’s put everything together and wrap up our 2008 series of holiday lessons:

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This arrangement, while not terribly difficult, will give you some challenges that should require a bit of practice (note how stiff I sound!). But the important lesson is to try out chords and ideas that you may not have had on your radar until now. Work out each line in terms of positioning and listen to how the individual notes of the chords play against and then into each other. Hopefully you’ll be mesmerized enough to try out some chord melody arrangements of your own. Doesn’t have to be this particular song – almost any song can be performed in this manner.

And I hope that you enjoyed not only this lesson, and not only our group of holiday song arrangements, but all the various lessons here at Guitar Noise this past year. It’s been fun writing them and I hope that you’ll enjoy the many lessons coming up right around the turn of the calendar page.

As always, please feel free to email me (dhodgeguitar@aol.com) with any questions you might have. You can also reach me at the Guitar Noise Forum pages, either on a thread or by dropping me a PM.

Until our next lesson…

Peace

And I had to laugh. I’m sure that some of you have read one of my old Guitar Columns called Christmas in June, or if you’ve ever heard me teach a beginners’ class on the importance of timing, you know that it takes the simplest changes to turn any descending major scale into the first line of a very, very popular Christmas carol:

Well, and stop me if you’ve heard this one before, I thought why not come up with an arrangement for Joy to the World in this tuning? After all, it would certainly give me something new to work out and it never hurts to explore a familiar tune in a new setting.

Anyway, before we get into this lesson, I do want to say that this arrangement may not be for everyone. I can’t tell you how many different ways I know to play this particular song – how many different tunings and how many different keys. I think it’s one of the reasons it’s so popular.

But I do hope you like this take on an old favorite. One advantage to it is that you can play this arrangement with a pick, and I know that appeals to quite a few of our readers here at Guitar Noise. Using just your fingers is perfectly okay, too.

These files are the author’s own work and represent his interpretation of this song. They are intended solely for private study, scholarship or research.

Okay, first things first! In case you don’t know about Double Drop D tuning which, by the way, you can read about in our Guitar Column called On the Tuning Awry or in the Songs for Intermediates lesson on Cinnamon Girl, we should take a moment to get you and your guitar in tune.

Assuming you’re in standard tuning to begin with, all you have to do is to tune both of your E strings – the high (first) and low (sixth) ones – down a full step from E to D. You can obviously do this with a tuner or simply match the two new D strings to the regular D (fourth) string by comparing octaves. Whichever, you will now be tuned, from lowest to highest strings, to the following notes: DADGBD.

And now that you’re set, here’s the melody and accompanying chords, written out, as all our examples for this lesson are, in Double Drop D tuning:

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That’s fairly easy, isn’t it? One thing to remember is that you can play your D notes in the melody with either your new high D (first) string or at the third fret of the B string as you do in standard tuning, whichever way seems most comfortable.

Before we add some accompanying chords to our melody, let’s remember that our basic chords are going to be different now because of our tuning. For instance, here are two ways of making a G major chord:

There are, of course, all sorts of ways to finger these chords. For starters, you might want to use your index finger on the sixth (low D) string, your middle finger on the A string and then your pinky or ring finger on the first (high D) string. Some of you might like not playing the A string at all, instead flattening your index finger slightly, which will mute the A string when you make a full strum. It’s a great way to practice that particular technique. You could, instead, use your middle and ring fingers on the sixth and fifth strings, respectively, which would mean using the pinky on the first string.

The full D chord also needs a little change of configuration:

And we’ll talk about the fingering for this one after we’ve taken a look at the first four measures of Joy to the World, written out in chord melody fashion:

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In this case, it makes sense to start out by fingering what you currently think of as a “normal” D chord (middle finger on the second fret of the first string, ring finger on the third fret of the second and index finger on the second fret of the third) and then add your pinky to the fourth fret of the first string. Doing so puts you exactly in place to play the second and third notes of the melody with the chords attached. It definitely makes things easy in the first two measures.

The third and fourth measures will require a little accuracy in your strumming (as noted earlier, you can use either a pick or your fingers in this arrangement) and some of you might prefer to not even play the F# note (fourth fret of the regular D (fourth) string) in the second chord of the third measure. That’s okay; the open D (fourth) string will sound perfectly fine as a substitute. One of the things you may be noticing is that we’re kind of going whole hog with the chord melody approach so far. Joy to the World has a kind of a majestic sound, almost like a processional you might hear at a royal event, and using full chords that employ the entire range of the guitar help bring this out.

We continue with this approach in Measures Five through Eight, but I also offer a bit of a break to mix things up when we reach the long, drawn out G in Measure Seven:

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Now, some of you may be asking, “Where did the Am7 come from? That wasn’t with the original chords!” And, you’d be right to do so. Normally, the C chord would be played there, but since Am is the relative minor of C and Am7 contains all the notes of the C chord (Am7 is A, C, E and G and C is, of course, C, E and G), it made sense to make this substitution for the sake of easier playing. If playing Am7 doesn’t work for your ears, then just don’t play the A string. You’ll have all the notes of your C chord and the only difference is that you have an E as your bass note instead of C. And that works out fine with D coming as the next chord.

Some of you may also not like all the space spent waiting between the G chord that starts Measure Seven (the word “king” when being sung) and the G note at the end of Measure Eight which, pardon the pun, heralds the start of the next line. Making use of a short arpeggio, such as the one shown in Example 3A, will certainly fit the bill. It’s totally your call.

Measures Nine and Ten (“…let every heart…” get repeated as Measures Eleven and Twelve (“…prepare Him room…”). The melody could be played totally over a G chord, but I like tossing in the C (or Am7 if you’ve come to like that chord) right before the end of each phrase:

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Now comes the fun part, the “heaven and nature sing!” line that gets repeated until the end. This is a great place to work with the dynamics of the song and switching from full chords (or as full as possible) to double stops seems to work well for the first two times through the phrase:

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Again, if you have problems with reaching both the F# (fourth fret of the regular D (fourth) string) and the A (second fret of the G), as shown in Example 5A, you can go with the open D (fourth string) note instead of the F#. But I do recommend you giving it a try. This is a stretch that you’re going to run into in a lot of songs, whether you play chords or lead lines, and it will be good practice for you. Notice the use of single bass notes to fill in the spaces.

We get back into the full chord accompaniment for the finale of our Christmas carol:

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Since you’ve been playing all these chords for a while now, you’re probably getting good at striking just the strings you need to in order to make the melody ring out.

Okay, let’s put the whole thing together! And please forgive my falling apart right at the very end on the MP3 file!

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I hope that you enjoyed this lesson and that you forgive our getting it online after the Christmas holiday! But it is pretty easy to learn, so you should still get the chance to play this lovely carol during the rest of the holiday season. There are twelve days of Christmas, no? If not, then start in on it whenever Christmas season officially starts in your neck of the woods. Some of our readers swear that’s September 1 and that seems almost around the corner!

As always, please feel free to email me (dhodgeguitar@aol.com) with any questions you might have. You can also reach me at the Guitar Noise Forum pages, either on a thread or by dropping me a PM.

Until our next lesson…

Peace

No, I’m not trying to pull you leg here. Way too often, and for some reason it seem especially more true nowadays than when I was learning guitar way back in the primordial ooze, people learn a song without realizing that the techniques they’ve picked up in learning this one piece can easily be applied to many, many other tunes. Good musicians are constantly expanding on what they’ve learned, using those skills as the groundwork on which to build new ones.

Since we’ve covered a lot of ground in both bass lines and Travis-style finger picking in the past two years here at Guitar Noise, it makes a lot of sense to try to incorporate these ideas and techniques in our exploration of chord melody arrangements of holiday songs, no? So let’s get to it!

These files are the author’s own work and represent his interpretation of this song. They are intended solely for private study, scholarship or research.

Today we’ll work up an arrangement of Angels We Have Heard on High, a traditional French carol. And since we’re basically concerned about playing a chord melody version, how about we start out with the melody and chords?

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The verse of our carol is laid out in the first two lines, which are repeated. To make matters very simple, all of our melody notes are either on the open high E (first) string, or on the first or third fret of the high E (first) and B strings.

As far as the chords go, it also helps to see that we only use C or G for this section, even though we’ll be changing that in just a moment! Why? Well, the purpose of this lesson is to work on bass lines, and what better place to start? Let’s take the first two measures of the melody and add a very simple moving bass line:

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Since we’re going from a C chord in the first measure to a G chord in the second, we can use the standard descending bass line, going from our first root, C, to G. Well, we could except that if we use one note per beat, we’d end up on G at the end of the first measure. That certainly doesn’t sound bad, but instead we’re going to stop at A (the open A string) on the third beat and hold that note over the fourth beat. Part of the reason this will work is because Am is the relative minor of C major. The two chords are very similar: C being made of the notes C, E and G while Am is made of the notes A, C and E. Since there will be a G note in the melody on the fourth beat, we’re technically creating an Am7 chord (notes are A, C, E and G), which contains all the notes of the C chord we started with.

And speaking of chords, it’s time to fill the spaces between our melody and our bass line with those chords. Keeping with the spirit of giving, I’m going to offer you some choices:

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First thing I’d like to mention is that no matter how you usually finger your G chord, you’ll probably have a lot easier time of the second measure if you go with your ring finger on the low E (sixth) string, your middle finger on the A string and your pinky on the high E (first) string. This frees up your index finger to get the F note in the melody (first fret of the first string) while still hanging on to the G chord in the accompaniment. This fingering will help you with all three versions of Example 3.

That being said, Example 3A is almost standard chord melody, with the melody note lying atop the accompanying chord. The notation and tablature are arranged for finger style guitar. The optimal technique would be to play the bass notes (the ones with the down-turned stems) with your thumb and either plucking the melody and accompanying partial chords with your fingers or playing them by sweeping a finger or two in an upward movement. At this point in the arrangement, you could also certainly play full chords here, as opposed to the partial chords I’ve written out. Just be very careful of letting the melody note ring out when you strum.

But I earlier mentioned that I’d like to also do a bit of review of Travis finger picking. So Example 3B gives us an arrangement of this carol in this style. Essentially it’s all pinches of the melody and bass notes on the beat, with a strike of the open G string on the off-beat. Again, I can’t stress enough that using the fingering we discussed just a moment ago for the G chord will help you to make the stretch to the first fret of the high E (first) string when the melody calls for it.

Of course, some of you might ask, “Why can’t I do both chords and picking?” No reason that I can think of! That’s why there’s an Example 3C. In the final MP3 example of this lesson, you may even hear me reverse the two, playing some Travis style picking in the first measure and chunks of chord melody in the second. What’s life without a little variety, eh?

Since this workman’s approach has served up well for the first two measures (and remember that these two measures will be both the first and the third lines of the verse), it makes sense to do the same for the next two measures, which will be played for both the second and fourth lines of the verse:

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You might notice something interesting here. In Example 4A, I went with the same descending bass line I used in Example 2, going from C to B to A in the first measure. But somewhere in playing around with filling in the chords, I decided why not change back to the original C chord, if for no other reason than to be different the second time through the changes of the verse? So you’ll see that the bass note on the third beat of the first measure in Examples 4B, 4C and 4D is C (third fret of the A string) and not the open A string. This is purely a choice of my own. You can still use the note of the open A string if you like.

Also, the fingering we discussed twice already for the G chord that starts the second measure becomes moot here, since the first melody note of this measure is the open high E (first) string.

Okay, we’ve gotten through the verse. Now comes the fun part – all those Glor-or-or-or-or-or-or-or-or-or-or-or-or-or-or-orias! It is going to be a bit of a challenge, but I think you’re up to it. Here in the chorus, we’re going to go for some separation and interplay between the melody and bass lines, much as what happens when this carol is sung by a choir. It basically boils down to one part moving while the other stays still:

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I deliberately left out the chords in Example 5, but you may actually find it easier to play this part by keeping the chords intact and then strumming them as they occur in Example 5A.

Remember that we’re going to be starting out the chorus on a C chord, so start out by fingering a typical open position C chord (ring finger on the third fret of the A string, middle finger on the second fret of the D and index finger on the first fret of the B string) and add your pinky to the third fret of the high E (first) string in order to play the G note of the melody.

The bass line of C to D back to C and then to B won’t be all that difficult if you maintain the C chord, or at least the idea of it, in your head. The tricky part comes when we want to change to an A chord at the third beat. It’s even trickier because the melody note is the A located at the fifth fret of the high E (first) string. But fortunately you can deal with this by playing what I call a “classical style” A chord, which involves barring the first four strings at the second fret when playing the aforementioned A note with your pinky. This will allow you to get the G note (third fret of high E (first) string) with either your ring or middle finger, whichever feels more comfortable to you.

We could leave it at that, but going from the bass note of the open A string to C# (fourth fret of the A string) sounds too nice to pass up. But we luck out again as the melody note is F and we can easily find that note at the sixth fret of the B string. So, using our index finger on the A string and either the ring finger or pinky on the B string makes this work out very easily. The E note that finishes this measure can then be played either at the fifth fret of the B string (using either your middle or ring finger) or by simply plucking the open high E (first) string.

The second measure begins with a D minor chord, which will eventually take us to a G chord. I liked the shape of the first bass phrase, so it certainly bears repeating. This will actually give us a G/B at the third beat. “G/B,” as you probably recognize as a “slash chord” from many of our lessons here at Guitar Noise (such as Eleanor Rigby), is just a fancy way of saying play a G chord with the B note (second fret of the A string) in the bass instead of the regular G, which we use at the fourth beat of the measure anyway.

In the third measure we start out with our C chord again, but this time we run the bass notes straight down from C to F (first fret of the low E (sixth) string). You could do a full barre chord of F here, but it sounds perfectly fine if you just get the F notes on both E strings at once. There are all sorts of ways to finger this. But I’d like to recommend you try using your middle finger on the low E (sixth) string as you can then slide it up to the second fret at the fourth beat (using your ring finger and index fingers, respectively for the D and C notes on the B string) and also use it for the G note at the third fret that begins the fourth measure.

I cannot stress enough that these past four measures are tricky and will require patience on your part. Work slowly and always keep the chord shapes in your head and fingers. Those shapes will help you get your fingers where you want them to be (and when, too).

A little concentrated effort and persistence on your part is all that is required. Don’t be afraid to just work on these four measures all by themselves for an hour! You’ll be rewarded for your efforts!

Compared to what you’ve just done, the rest of Angels is going to be a piece of cake, so it’s going to be up to us to make it more or less interesting. I took the liberty of giving you four options of bass lines for the next two measures. Oh, and ignore the fact that I call “Example 6″ by the name of “Example 7″ in the MP3, will you?

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Of these four, I’m probably most taken with the fourth version, especially since it uses the low F again and does a little teensy bit of Travis finger style in the last measure. Let’s fill these out to demonstrate both the middle of the chorus (measures five and six) and the final two measures as well:

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All right, then! Here’s the whole enchilada! And, as always, please pardon the (many) mistakes!

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As I mentioned, this piece is going to pose some challenges. But it is not beyond your capabilities. Far from it! Remember that the chord shapes are your friends in that they will give your fingers an anchor as well as direction. Practice, persistence and patience are your allies.

I hope that you enjoyed this lesson and that you get the chance to play this lovely carol over the holiday season. As always, please feel free to email me (dhodgeguitar@aol.com) with any questions you might have. You can also reach me at the Guitar Noise Forum pages, either on a thread or by dropping me a PM.

Until our next lesson…

Peace

I’ve really missed writing for Guitar Noise, so I’ve put together a few lessons for Christmas. This first lesson is a simple DADGAD arrangement of a very well-known, traditional French Christmas Carol titled “Il Est Né,” which translates to “He Is Born” in English. David tells me this is one of his favorites.

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A few quick performance notes: You’ll notice that throughout the arrangement I’ve used a few Celtic-style ornaments, particularly the quick pull off (also known as a “cut”) on the top open D (first) string.

This is a beautiful tune and it begs to be played slowly, so I’ve suggest a BPM of a quarter note at 118, but you may want to set your metronome to 59 or 60 for the tempo on the half note.

Note the double stops in the B Section; the slow, easy tempo will make this section easier to play.

Once again, I hope you’ve enjoyed playing this tune as much as I have. I hope to get at least one more lesson out before Christmas, so stay tuned!

These files are the author’s own work and represent his interpretation of this song. They are intended solely for private study, scholarship or research.

Fool that I am, I’ll assume that we’re all on the same page when we’re talking about chord melody arrangements. If you’re kind of not sure about that, just pop over to the lessons on the Song Arrangements page or any of our other Christmas song lessons.

For this lesson, I want to try to keep things as relatively simple as possible. You should be able to play our arrangement of Silver Bells with either a pick or your fingers. In fact, I’m using a pick in all of the MP3 examples. Let’s see, other things you might want to know – the song is in 3 / 4 timing, and we’ll be playing this in the key of G and will pretty much be using versions of simple G, Am, C and D chords you already know. We’ll also toss in a few interesting voicings to help us out in playing the melody.

Like many songs, the chords and melody of Silver Bells involves a number of repeated patterns and phrases. That makes it a little easier to learn. Let’s begin with the very first line, actually just the first part of it:

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If you’ve never tried a chord melody before, this is as close to as easy as it gets. Silver Bells begins with two eighth notes played on beat three. This, as we’ve learned in other lessons, is called a “pickup.” So, for instance, if we were counting aloud for our bandmates, we’d call out “one, two, three, one, two” and start in on “City sidewalks…”

Here in the first half of the first line, we strum an open G chord and then remove whatever finger you usually use on the third fret of the high E (first) string and strike that now open string. We’ll then place a finger (most likely the one you took off the first string) on the third fret of the B string and strum down only to the B string. Then take that finger off the B string and strum the G chord once more, this time again only going as far as the B string, which is now an open string. So far, so good?

Okay, then. We’re good to move to the rest of this line (the “…dressed in holiday style…” part):

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The melody note at this point moves way up to the B note found on the seventh fret of the high E (first) string, so that means we’re not going to find an open position chord that allows us to easily reach that note. So we’ve got to make an adjustment. Fortunately, the accompanying chord with this part of the melody is G7, so this adjustment turns out to be a very simple one that uses just two fingers.

In case you’re interested in such things, or if you’re someone who might like to learn something that you can use later on in your musical and guitar life, what we’re going to do is use a different voicing of G7 that is derived from our open position D7 chord. Basically we’re moving the D7 chord five frets further up the neck, where it becomes a G7 chord. We can simplify this even further by opening up the G string since G is, after all, part of the G7 chord.

But since the A note that is located at the fifth fret of the high E (sixth) string is the next note in the melody, it makes sense to try to finger this part of the song in a way that will allow you to get all the needed notes. I suggest getting your middle finger onto the sixth fret of the B string and also having your index finger in place on the fifth fret of the high E (sixth) string. Now use either your ring finger or pinky to get the B note at the seventh fret of that same string.

If you do want to read up a bit of the use of open shapes up the neck, then mosey on over to the Guitar Column titled Moving On Up and hopefully this will make a bit more sense.

The first full measure of this section starts out with a slightly different voicing of our normal open position C chord. Just use your pinky to get the G note at the third fret of the high E (sixth) string and you’ll be fine. You can strum the full E7 chord, but I like the sound of the descending bass line, going from C to B and finally to A for the Am chord. Another option would be a different voicing for E7/B (x22130) that brings the D note out on the B string. Try both out and see which you prefer. Then be sure to try them out at tempo to see if you can make the changes from chord to chord!

Example 3 deals with the line “…in the air there’s a feeling of Christmas…”

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Once again our melody note, the A at the fifth fret of the high E (sixth) string, is a little out of the stretch of our open position chords, but simply laying your finger of choice across the first four strings at the fifth fret gives you an Am7 chord. You might want to use your ring finger for this as that will give you time to shift to the G note (third fret of the first string) with your index finger. The rest of this phrase consists of careful strumming of the D, Dmaj7 and D7 chords. Take your time practicing this. Listen to yourself play and bring out the melody note with your strumming, especially if you’re using a pick. With fingers, it’s somewhat easier in that you can strum down with your thumb until just before the string with the melody note and then pick that string on the upstroke with a finger. Either way, though, let the melody be your guide. If you can’t hear the melody as you play, then you need to concentrate on being accurate with your picking.

At this point, Silver Bells repeats the opening phrase that we covered in Examples 1 and 2. The last line of the verse (“…and on every street corner you hear…”) is almost an exact copy of Example 3, but it does have a slightly different melodic ending:

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As you can see and hear, this final phrase mirrors our last example up until we get to the D9/A chord. This isn’t all that different from the Am7 used to start the phrase. Use your ring finger to cover the first three strings at the fifth fret and your index finger to play the F# note at the fourth fret of the D string. The open A string serves as your bass note. This is a particularly cool sounding, jazzy sort of chord that you’ll need again in this song. But that shouldn’t stop you from using it in other songs as well. It can serve as a wonderful chord substitution for D7, so be sure to try it out.

I also throw in a little ending for the verse in the final two measures, just to fill in some space. If you’re going strictly with your fingers, try pinching the D and B strings and leave the G string alone. You might find it more to your liking.

Shall we move on to the chorus? One of the inherent challenges here is that there is a lot of time between the first singing of “Silver Bells” and the second. So I’ve taken the liberty of throwing in a simple little fill:

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Now, there are a lot of different ways we could have gone with this. Many arrangements simply repeat the melodic phrase of “silver bells” twice, but I wanted to try something a little different. Plus, I wanted you to have something that was somewhat challenging for a beginner but certainly not, pardon the pun, out of his or her reach.

The trick here is to fret your G chord at the start of the chorus differently than many of you probably do. Use your ring finger for the low E (sixth) string and your middle finger on the A string. This frees up your index finger for the C note at the first fret of the B string and also keeps your pinky ready for the D note at the third fret of the B string. Then your index finger is ready to get all the non-open string notes in both fills. You’ll be able to pick this up faster than you think.

If this sounds a little weird, it’s because I made a chord substitution in the second half. Normally you’d want a C chord there, but I’m using Am7 in order to maintain relatively easy fingering for the melody notes along the high E (first) string. The notes of a C chord, as you know (or can find out by reading any of our easy theory articles here at Guitar Noise are C, E and G. The notes of Am7 are A, C, E and G. That’s pretty close. You could even argue that it’s a C6 chord with the A note in the bass.

But the main reason I choose to make this substitution was, as I mentioned, to keep the fingering of the melody simple. Try using a C chord and see which way you like best.

As with the second and fourth phrases of the verse, the second and fourth phrases of the chorus are almost identical. So let’s tackle them together:

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I told you we’d run into that D9/A chord again. Both these phrases are relatively simply. You just want to be careful with the timing differences in the second measure.

In Example 6 we end with a single-note walking bass line, starting from the D note of the open D string down through C, B and A on the A string to G on the low E (sixth) string. For Example 7 we end with a repeat of the closing phrase from the verse.

All right, then, let’s try out putting the verse and the chorus together:

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I guess we can officially declare the holiday season open, as we’ve now got two song lessons online already. And, as always, I hope that you’ve enjoyed this little exercise in chord melody arrangement and that you get a chance to play it for your family and friends during the upcoming holidays.

Until our next lesson…

Peace

I now have quite a few students who play finger-style, and some who use a guitar pick. So, I decide to write an easy arrangement that either one can play. It’s a short little arrangement of “The First Noel.”

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If you master this quick, you could add more and build upon it. Each one of the chords is played as a chord with the melody note being the highest pitch. Whenever you play a chord, the highest pitch is the most distinct. So keep this in mind when you start to try and put melody and chords together.

The D6 and F#m chords should have an independent finger per string. The Bm7, Bm, Gmaj7, Dmaj7, D (except for the ending chord), and A7 chords require a barred finger somewhere.

This is more of a Christmas Song Arrangement present for you guys other than an actual lesson. Please take a listen to the audio that is available here:

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I do have a quick video that matches the audio. E-mail me at petersimms.guitarman@gmail.com and ask for it. I will be happy to send it to you. If have questions about this song, please e-mail me and ask. I would also be happy to help you. Enjoy!

Case in point: this particular arrangement of Blue Christmas, the holiday classic penned by Billy Hayes and Jay W. Johnson. While most people will forever identify this song with Elvis (whose 1957 rendition is perhaps the best known cover), Blue Christmas was already a country holiday staple, thanks to Ernest Tubb, who made it a hit almost ten years earlier. Since then, it’s been recorded by more artists than you can shake a candy cane at – from the Beach Boys to Billy Idol, from Jon Bon Jovi to Brian Setzer, from Sheryl Crow to the Partridge Family, from Lawrence Welk to Collective Soul, from Fats Domino to the Ventures to Anne and Nancy Wilson of Heart. I guess it’s time to add your name to the list!

As we’ve discussed in other chord melody articles, there are many, many ways of coming up with arrangements. You (obviously) need chords and a melody, plus the occasional hit of inspiration. The arrangement for this lesson grew out of a gig I played last Christmas, where I was given the task of soloing over half a verse of Blue Christmas. After trying out a few ideas, I found myself coming back over and over again to the melody itself, mostly because it’s so wonderfully expressive, it doesn’t need a lot of frills. To give it a little more body, I used pairs of notes, much in the style of our lessons on Bookends or, to keep in the holiday spirit, O Tannenbaum. The simple addition of a few bass notes made the arrangement a little more complete.

The other aspect of this song arrangement that I enjoy is the use of sliding pairs of notes to fill in space. There’s a lot of space in this song and it’s silly to fill every lull with as many sixteenth and thirty-second notes that you can squeeze out. Especially when an elegantly placed slide will say things a lot more gracefully.

These files are the author’s own work and represent his interpretation of this song. They are intended solely for private study, scholarship or research.

We’ll be playing Blue Christmas in the key of C. I honestly don’t know what key it was originally written in! C seems to work well for what we want to do today. Structurally, the song is eight lines long, with the melody and chords of the first two lines repeated in Lines Five and Six. Line Seven follows most of Line Three (the last few notes and last chord are different). So it shouldn’t take us all that long to work all this out.

And right in the very first line, we’ll see how using slides as an option can make the melody a little more expressive:

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In Example 1 (A), we play the first line straight, with no frills and sticking with open chords. Most people find it easiest to use their ring finger and pinky to fret the third pair of notes, but since you’re going for the open high E and G in the next pair, almost any fingering will do. The tricky part here is the G7 at the very end where you need to finger the F note at the third fret of the D string. But if you use that ring finger and pinky combo just mentioned (ring finger on the third fret of the D string and pinky on the third fret of the B), you should find yourself playing it cleanly and with no problems.

Now, though, let’s take those fingers of the third pair of notes and slide them up from the third fret of the B and D strings to the fifth frets, as shown in Example 1 (B). You want to hit this pair of notes on the third pickup beat and then hit them once again, at the first beat of the first full measure (the word “Blue”), before making the slide. Your index finger is now free to play the C note in the bass (third fret of the A string) in that measure. Repeat the slide at the first beat of the second full measure (on the first syllable of “Christmas”) if you’d like. Some of you might even find you like sliding back to the D and F notes on the second syllable. Be my guest! The object is to experiment with expressiveness, so have some fun!

One thing to note is that as the embellishments, the sliding notes in this particular case, get more involved, I try to take out a few things in order to keep the arrangement fairly simple. So instead of the three bass notes in the first full measure of Example 1 (A), there are only two in Example 1 (B). This gives you a little more breathing room to pull off the slides without getting your fingers all in a tangle!

We drop down to a single added bass note (the open G string) in Example 1 (C). Here, the timing is a little tricky, using a quarter note triplet at the end of that first full measure. You want those last three slides to be played evenly over the third and fourth beats of that measure. It takes a little practice, and it also sounds fine if you cheat a little here and there. At the end of the line, I tack on a final triplet of sliding pairs of notes (and they are slides, not hammer-ons and pull-offs, as mentioned in the MP3 – sorry about that), just to embellish things a little more. Overkill? Possibly. But then again, you can certainly just leave it out…

One of the main reasons behind these embellishments is that the song will repeat this line later on. Line One and Line Five are the same, so I’ll play Example 1 (B) for Line One and then use Example 1 (C) for Line Five when it comes around. You’ll hear this in the final MP3 example.

Moving on to the second line, let’s throw in some hammer-ons and pull-offs create our embellishments:

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Here, I need to apologize a bit for the notation. The first bass note (G at the third fret of the low E (sixth) string) should come on the second beat. It’s not the easiest thing to read and again, I apologize that the software wouldn’t do what I wanted it to…

But getting beyond that, there’s not all that much here to give you any anxiety. Double hammer-ons (or single hammer-ons, for that matter) are not easy if you’ve not tried them before, so please don’t get discouraged! Many people find that exaggerating the hammer aspect of the hammer-on truly helps them get a good ringing note and it does help you get used to the amount of finger strength you’ll need (pardon the pun) to pull it off. Another thing to remember is that you really want to land the tips of your fingers on the strings and let them stay there. Some folks will make a fine initial hammer and then slack off on the notes for some reason. Don’t! Keeping your fingers in place for the full duration of the notes will help you to achieve full sounding hammer-ons.

Likewise with the pull-off in the second full measure of this example (the second syllable of “thinking”). Don’t be afraid to exaggerate the technique in order to get comfortable performing it. Once you can do it, then you can work on finesse. Ideally (and once you get more adept at these techniques), hammer-ons and pull-offs are subtle embellishments, but it’s kind of hard to concentrate on being subtle when you can’t hear yourself! So first things first – get the technique down and then fine tune it.

At the very end of this line, I toss in the first of a couple of walking bass lines that are there to simply fill in a little space. You’ll hear, again in the final MP3 example of this lesson, that instead of playing what’s written, I use Example 1 (C), which I play as Line Five, as a template for Line Six. That’s just one of many possible things you can do, so please give yourself some freedom and kick around as many ideas as you can handle.

It’s a good thing that we’ve done a bit of embellishment so far, because the chords of the third and fourth lines dictate a return to simplicity:

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Some versions of Blue Christmas use a C7 chord throughout the first two full measures of this section. Since there’s not all that much difference, note wise, between Gm (G, Bb and D) and C7 (C, E, G and Bb), and even less between Gm and C9 (C, E, G, Bb and D), I use that knowledge to create a relatively simple game plan for my chord melody arrangement. Laying my ring finger across the third fret of the first three strings gives me the notes I need for melody and harmony line (I could even pluck the B string to fill it out a little more – try it for a really nice touch) and I can get the bass note with my index finger or even my thumb if I’m so inclined.

The D note (third fret of the B string) in the melody (on “green”) technically makes our F chord an “F6″ if you want to be a stickler for details. You can also just think of it as a passing note. Notice again that using the ring and pinky method on “green” frees up your index finger for the F note in the bass (first fret of the low E (sixth) string). Some of you might find it easier to have your thumb play that note. Either way, it’s good to have options. In the measure of “tree,” you can use a descending chromatic walking bass line to go from F to the D root of the D7 chord that starts the next measure.

Speaking of that D7 chord, I’m going to borrow a trick we used way back in the Jolly Old Saint Nicholas, that being to make a C7 chord and slide it up two frets. In the “full song” MP3 file at the end of this lesson you’ll hear the slide of the bass note from C (third fret of the A string) to D (fifth fret of the A string) quite clearly. This fingering of the D7 (which is technically a D9 chord for those of you interested in such things) allows for a lot of ringing strings in these two measures (“…won’t be the same dear…”) that provides a bit of a contrast to the sliding around we’ve done on the first two lines.

We wrap all this up with an ascending chromatic walking bass line (“…if you’re not here with me…”), very similar to those we’ve looked at in our last lesson on walking bass lines, Connecting The Dots, Part 3. We’ve taken the typical G to C bass line and stuck in an additional step (A# and C#) between the A and B notes.

As we noted earlier, the last two lines start out exactly like Lines Three and Four:

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The main difference here is the F#dim7 chord that is used on the word “white.” Fortunately, this chord can be played very easily up on the fourth and fifth frets (XX4545), which it great since the melody note is the A at the fifth fret of the high E (first) string. Because that note is held a bit in the melody line (the symbol that looks like a raised eyebrow (complete with eyeball) is called a “fermata” and it means to “hold” at your discretion), you can give this chord a bit of a slow strum for a nice, effective change of pace in your arrangement.

We’ll follow this up with a series of slides to echo our Line One and (especially) Line Five and then end with a short walking bass line that finishes up at a Cmaj9 chord. When you put it all together, you should have something like this:

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As always, I hope that you’ve enjoyed this little exercise in chord melody arrangement and that you feel free to play it for the upcoming holidays. More importantly, I hope that the main idea of this lesson, embellishing a simple melody with occasional slides, proves to be a technique you use in other songs in your ever-expanding repertoire of songs and/or bag of tricks.

Until our next lesson…

Peace.

As you know from reading any of my lessons here at Guitar Noise, I’m a big supporter of using songs to teach both the basics of music and guitar techniques in general. The logic being that you’re going to be playing songs (at least one supposes so) for your own enjoyment if nothing else and it’s great to make music that sounds like music and not just noodling around.

One of the things I love about this time of year is that holiday songs and Christmas carols fill the air once again. I know that many groan about hearing these songs over and over again (something easily remedied by simply turning a radio off) but I find the melodies of many holiday songs quite captivating. And many of these songs can make great exercises for the beginning or early intermediate guitarist.

Case in point: Today’s carol, O Come All Ye Faithful (also known as Adeste Fideles), offers a host of chord changes that may pose a challenge to the beginner without being beyond his or her abilities. Better yet, these are chords that any guitarist is going to have to come to terms with at some point, so why not now?

These files are the author’s own work and represent his interpretation of this song. They are intended solely for private study, scholarship or research.

Let’s take this apart piece by piece, shall we?

O Come…

We’ll be playing this hymn in the key of C (for “Christmas”) major, if for no other reason than to make this lesson both challenging and pertinent. Many, many songs are in the key of C and the three main chords of this key, C, F and G, are going to be seen time and time and time again in your guitar lives. Getting used to making these particular chord changes cleanly and in time can only help you become a better guitarist.

This is also a great key to play this song because it will involve two versions of the open G chord:

The first is your standard G, while the second is often misnamed “G5,” because of the substitution of the D note at the third fret of the B string for the open B string. This is simply a different voicing of the G chord. If it helps, think of your guitar as a small choir with six singers (your six strings). Normally, singer #2 would be singing a B note and you’ve simply instructed him (or her) to sing D instead. They’re both notes in the G chord, and you still have all three notes (G, B and D) being sung, so you haven’t created a new chord. Nor have you created an inversion (where the bass note of the chord is not the root note). All you’ve done is alter the voicing of the chord. We’ll be doing this with both the G and C chords at some point in this lesson.

In the music notation software that I use, this G chord may be labeled “G2” and you can ignore that as well. Computers can be so stupid sometimes…

To make matters more interesting, we’re using this new voicing of the open G chord voicing in order to get that D note into the melody line. So, in this song arrangement anyway, we’ll not be playing the high E (first) string anytime we play the “G (high D)” chord.

This decision will also make fingering this “G (high D)” chord a little smoother when played with the other chords in the songs. Most of the time, you’ll want to use your pinky on the D note (third fret of the B string), your middle finger on the B note (second fret of the A string) and your ring finger for the G in the bass (third fret of the low E (sixth) string). Playing the “G (high D)” chord with this fingering will leave your index finger free, and that will be very helpful in a couple of places in the song.

Okay, if you’re square with this new chord voicing, then let’s get going and look at the first line:

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You’ll hear, in the MP3 files accompanying this lesson, that mostly I’m playing this carol with my fingers, actually just strumming down with the thumb to get a kind of “shimmery” effect. Later, in the full MP3, I’ll also use my thumb for the bass note and my fingers (ring, middle and index) to pinch the other notes of the chord and melody. You can certainly play this song with a pick as well. I tried to make this arrangement so that it could be played in any number of ways.

We’ll start out nice and easy, using half notes (two beats each) for the accompanying chords. In the second measure we immediately find the “G (high D)” chord and it should be an easy transition from the C chord in the first measure. Starting with the C chord, simply shift your ring finger from the third fret of the A string (C) to the third fret of the low E (sixth) string (G). At the same time, move your middle finger from the second fret of the D string to the second fret of the A. Now you place your pinky on the third fret of the B string and there you have it!

Measures 3 and 4 (“…joyful and triumphant…”) give you a chance to really work on these chord changes, throwing in an F on the fourth beat of Measure 3 just to make things interesting. Here I like to use F/C, simply to pound out that C note in the bass and make the song a little more driving. Also, it’s easier for most folks than going with a fully barred F chord. The full F is fine, as is a “beginners’ F” (XX3211). You need to have that F note at the first fret of the high E (first) string in the melody, so Fmaj7 (XX3210) wouldn’t work here.

And, just to drive the point home, you should find that it’s easy to get the C note (first fret of the B string) at the end of Measure 4 if your index finger is free. That’s one reason why we discussed how to finger the “G (high D)” chord in the first place!

Moving on to the second line (Measures 5 through 8):

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Here we add a smidgen of a walking bass line (can’t get away from those, can we?) by going from the A (open A string) of the Am chord that kicks of Measure 5 and then playing the G (third fret of the low E) en route to the F# at the second fret of the low E (sixth) string. Since the B note is the melody at this point, we technically have a D6 chord (okay, D6/F# since the F# is in the bass), but most folks would just say it’s a D chord with the B in the melody being a “passing tone.” Whatever makes you happy…

To get the F# in the bass, many people would wrap their thumbs over the top of the neck of the guitar. When doing so, remember that you just need as much (read “as little”) of your thumb to get the note cleanly. But because this D chord has one other fretted note (the A at the second fret of the G string), it’s also feasible to use your middle finger to fret the F# in the bass, especially since you can then simply slide that finger up a fret to get the G note of the G chord.

In Measure 6, there’s also a walking bass line, a la You Are My Sunshine, although we stack chords on top of it each step of the way. The “G (high D)” at the third beat should technically be labeled “G (high D) / B” but my feeling at this point is that I shouldn’t turn the chord charts into an encyclopedia!

And here are two quick note concerning Measures 5 and 6: Sometimes I find myself playing the D6 chord along with the melody on both the third and fourth beats of Measure 5, simply strumming it all the way down to the B string on the third beat (“ye”) and only down to the G string (“O”) on the fourth. In Measure 6, Am is a perfectly acceptable substitute for the D7/A, which is played on the second beat. Totally up to you…

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The third line, Measures 9 through 12 (“…come and behold him / born the king of angels…”), begin with quick C to F to C chord changes. Again, I’m thinking that using the F/C is a good way to deal with this. As mentioned earlier, you can certainly go for either the full barre F or the “beginners’ F” if you prefer.

In Measure 10, I stick in a single B note (second fret of the A string) in the bass to give the song another tiniest bit of a walking bass line.

Measure 11 has the trickiest chord progression thus far in the Christmas carol, but when you look at it from chord to chord, it’s not all that hard. If you’re using the fingering for the “G (high D)” chord that we agreed upon earlier, then your middle finger gets to sit tight when you change from that “G (high D)” to E7. All you have to do is to pick up your pinky while placing your index finger on the G# at the first fret of the G string.

Going from the Am to the D/F# is probably the most complicated switch and there are many ways to go about it. I find myself playing using either my thumb or first finger or middle finger on the F# in the bass (second fret of the low E (sixth) string) while my ring finger gets the second fret of the G string and the pinky frets the third fret of the B string. Taking a very informal survey while working on this lesson, the middle finger seemed to require less thinking. As they say, “your mileage may vary…”

Regardless of which way I finger the D/F#, I want to make a big effort to use the same fingering I use for the G chord of Measure 12 that I use to play the “G (high D)” throughout the song. Why? This fingering frees up my index finger to easily play both the A (second fret of the G) and C (first fret of the B) that pop up in this measure.

Okay, ready for the big finish?

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The first two lines of our “Finale” section, Measures 13 through 16, have a lot of chord changes, but nothing that should pose any kind of problem for you at this point. At least, not with a little bit of concentrated practicing! It’s mostly a matter of strumming down to the correct melody string. You’ll notice that I use the B note (second fret of the A string) as the bass note for the “G (high D)” chord at the fourth beat of Measure 13 and the second beat of Measure 15. Also the F/C comes into play on the fourth beat of Measure 15.

In Measure 17, though, I’m opting for the full barre F chord in order to make the bass line climb from F to F# (in the D9/F#) to G. This is probably the most complex chord change of the entire song and you’ll want to take your time to work it out. One big thing in your favor is that this is the big climax of the song and you can take a little dramatic liberty by slowing the pace and making the whole passage very “triumphant” sounding.

And, not to leave well enough alone, I can’t resist throwing in one last little moving bass line, using G# (fourth fret of the low E (sixth) string) to climb from G to Am. Don’t be afraid to discard it if it’s not to your liking.

Remember, too, that you can have a lot of fun with the dynamics on this tune, especially during the “finale” section. Start out very softly and get progressively louder with each “O come let us adore him…” Have fun spicing up your arrangement of this arrangement!

And here, warts and all, is a finished version for you to work with:

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I hope that you’ve enjoyed this little chord melody arrangement of O Come All Ye Faithful and that you feel free to play it for the upcoming holidays. And I hope that all these lessons inspire you to try out making chord melody arrangements of your own. It’s not all that hard to do and there’s no end of satisfaction to coming up with a song arrangement all your own.

And let me take a moment to wish all our readers, their family and friends, a wonderful holiday season. We thank you for your continued support of Guitar Noise and look forward to bringing you even more lessons very, very soon.

Until the next lesson…

Peace

The verse and chorus are quite similar melodically, so I’ve created a composite melody for this lesson.

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This is a stark and simple arrangement, and I’ve provided only a single-line melody and the chords. There is a lot a room to add your own ornamentation, variations, and expressive nuances, but a tune like this still sounds wonderful played simply and unadorned.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this tune as much as I have. Have a Merry Christmas and a glorious holiday!

Fortunately, there was a great revival of the British carols in the Victorian era (in the first part of the 19th century), including the publication of new collections of the old songs and carols. And so, this is where our brief history lesson ends, and our guitar lesson begins.

One carol that has always caught my ear is The Sussex Carol (also known as On Christmas Night All Christians Sing). The words were originally published in 1684 by Irish bishop Luke Wadding in a collection titled Small Garland of Pious and Godly Songs. The words and melody sung today were collected in the early 20th century (1919) by Cecil Sharp and Ralph Vaughan Williams, who heard it sung by Harriet Verrall at Monk’s Gate in Sussex.

My arrangement is in standard tuning and offers few technical challenges. This tune is normally notated in 6/4, but I found 6/8 a little more readable when writing it out for guitar. The thumb plays the bass notes on the downbeats (beats one and four in each measure). I bar two I play the F# on beat six with my thumb, but you could also play it with your index finger. In bar nine, there’s a quick switch to 9/8, which moves back to 6/8 in the following measure.

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I hope to post a few more lessons in the coming weeks featuring Victorian carols, so I hope you have enjoyed this tune as much as I have.

One Christmas hymn that I’ve loved ever since I first heard it is Love Came Down At Christmas. I first heard it in church – it’s in many hymnals including the Methodist and Lutheran hymnals – but Shawn Colvin also did a wonderful job of covering this song on her Holiday Songs and Lullabies CD.

The melody used for Love Came Down is a traditional Irish tune titled Gartan, which can be found in The Complete Petrie Collection of Ancient Irish Music, Part II (1902). The words were written by poet Christina G. Rosetti (1830-94). Several of her poems were used for hymns, including In the Bleak Mid-Winter, which I covered in a lesson last year.

I did this arrangement in DADGAD, a tuning I often use when arranging Irish tunes.I used a capo on the third fret to put the melody in the key of Bb (I’m fingering the tune in G instead of D).

This arrangement starts with a descending bass line to contrast the upward moving melody. I didn’t notate it, but you’ll hear it on the recording – I like to add a quick little half step hammer-on and pull-off starting on the second fret on the first string on beat four. The tricky part of the arrangement comes in measure three, where I finger the C on the third fret of the fifth string with my first finger and the G on the fifth fret of the fourth string with my fourth finger, moving you quickly to third position. I put both fingers down at the same down even though they are played on separate beats. You do the same thing in measure four, playing in second position for the first two beats, and third position on the last two beats.

In measure five, I use an ascending bass line (suggesting E minor instead of G major) for a little variation. Measure seven has the quick jump to third position, just like measure three.

On my recording, I added a second guitar part on the third time through tune. The second part adds the melody played as harmonics using a slightly different tuning, DADGAB, to accomodate the melody.

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This is a beautiful Christmas hymn, and a fun one to play in DADGAD. I hope you’ve enjoyed learning this tune as much as I have.

The lyrics are based on a poem written in 1849 by Dr Edmund Hamilton Sears (1810-1876), a Unitarian minister who lived in Massachusetts. Sears, a champion of the disadvantaged and downtrodden, wrote the poem while preparing for a Christmas sermon. The poem was published shortly thereafter in the “Christian Register” in December of 1849.

Several melodies have been associated with this carol, including the tune Noel by Arthur Seymour Sullivan (1842-1900), who is perhaps better known as one half of the popular musical writing team of Gilbert and Sullivan. However, the melody now associated with Midnight Clear is Carol, which was written by Richard Storrs Willis (1819-1900). Willis, also from Massachusetts, studied composition in Germany and was a friend of composer Felix Mendelssohn. Willis returned to American in 1848 and later served as a music critic for the New York Tribune and The Musical Times (where he also worked as an editor). Willis somehow came across the Sears’ poem (probably in the Christian Register) and discovered that one of his melodies fit the poem perfectly.

It Came Upon the Midnight Clear was sung during the holidays in World War I by American soldiers in the trenches of France. Midnight Clear was also a holiday favorite at the U.S.O shows of World War II, Bing Crosby being one notable entertainer who sang it for the troops. The song’s message of “Peace on Earth” was one of great poignancy.

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Most of this arrangement is in first position and uses familiar chord shapes in the key of C. I use my left hand thumb in a few spots to fret the bass notes on the low E string. In measures three and four, I use my thumb to fret the bass note F, my second finger for the F#, and my thumb again for the G. In measure 11, I use my thumb for the bass note G, and then my second finger for the F# and the subsequent G in measure 12. I also use my thumb for the bass note F in measure seven. In measure nine, I play the second fret E on the fourth string with my third finger. I slide from the E to the F# on the fourth string with my third finger and then stretch with my first finger to play the G# on the third string. In measure 11 I create a harp effect by letting the melody notes ring into one another, which is why I chose to play the C on the fifth fret of the third string instead of on the first fret of the second string.

I hope you’ve had as much fun learning this beautiful Christmas carol as I have. Have a very merry Christmas and happy holidays to all.

One technique that I’ve used in my DADGAD arrangements is a “harp-like” effect that is produced by allowing two or more notes to ring together. This effect can also be used in standard tuning, and I’ve used it in a few spots in this arrangement.

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In most cases this shouldn”t cause you any trouble – just let the adjacent notes ring together. Spots where you can do this are in measure one (F# and G), measure three (B and A), measure five (G and F#), measure seven (B and A), and measure 10 (B to A).

But there are two spots that may prove to be a little more difficult due to the fact that the higher note is played on the lower string, contrary to what we”re used to doing. In measure six, instead of playing the melody note ‘A’ on the second fret of the third string, I’m using the ‘A’ on the seventh fret of the fourth string so I can let it sustain while playing the adjacent open G string. In measure eight I play the ‘C’ on the fifth fret of the third string instead of using the first fret of the second string. Here I allow the ‘C’ on the third string to ring while I play the adjacent open B string. These are awkward maneuvers, but well worth the effort for the sound it provides. If you find this difficult, feel free to play those two notes in their first position locations.

I hope you enjoy playing this arrangement as much as I do. Until next time, happy holidays!

One that really struck me was The Huron Carol, a Christmas hymn written by Jean de Brebeuf (1593-1649) in Quebec in 1643. This carol is based on a 16th century traditional French melody Une Jeune Pucelle (A Young Maid). Brebeuf, a Jesuit missionary at Sainte-Marie, wrote the lyrics in the Huron language so he could tell the story of the birth of Jesus to the Huron people. Originally titled Jesous Ahatonhia, the carol was later translated to French (Jesus est ne) by another Jesuit priest. In 1926 the lyrics were translated to English by poet Jesse Edgar Middleton (1872-1960), where it became known as ‘Twas in the Moon of Wintertime.

The Huron Carol was recorded by Bruce Cockburn on his 1993 Christmas CD, and is still commonly sung in churches across Canada. ‘Twas in the Moon of Wintertime is included in many hymnals, including the Methodist hymnal, which is where I first remember seeing it.

The hymn is in the key of G minor, and I immediately tuned my guitar to open G minor to see how well the tune would fit in that tuning. I was quite pleased to find that the melody fit perfectly, and my arrangement fell into place quickly. Though I had never used open G minor before, I knew that English guitarist John Renbourn had used it, and might be a good tuning for a 16th century melody.

Open G minor (DGDGBbD) is similar to the open G tuning you may already be familiar with (DGDGBD), except that the B is lowered a half step to Bb. To get into open G minor, lower your first and sixth strings down a full step from E to D, lower your fifth string down a step from A to G, and lower your second string down a half step from B to Bb.

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Like playing in DADGAD, this piece is best played by letting notes ring together when possible. The arrangement is pretty straight forward, but there are a few spots they might trip you up. In bars five and six, the melody is repeated but the bass notes have changed, and so has the fingering for the melody. On beat two of bar five, play the Bb on the open second string and play the C on the third string. This may feel a little awkward at first, as typically you play lower pitches when moving to a lower string. In this case the melody note is a step higher. However, this makes it easier to play the new bass notes. I finger bar five using the index finger on the Eb in the bass, the third finger on the A, second finger for the C on the fifth fret of the fifth string, and the third finger for the C on the fifth fret of the third string. If you like, you can play bars five and six using the same bass notes from bars one and two. The new bass provides a nice variation, though.

In bar 13, slide up to C and G with your second and third fingers. You can leave the open third string (G) ringing instead of picking it again. Slide from F to Eb with your first finger in bar 14. I move my right hand index finger back to the third fret for the F note in bar 15. In bar 16, play the C on the fifth fret of the fifth string so you can play the G on the fourth string with your little finger.

I hope you’ve enjoyed learning this new tuning as much as I have.

My favorite hymns have always been those that use traditional Celtic melodies for the hymn tune. In some cases, the melody may be an original composition, but based on a traditional tune or folk song. That’s the case with In The Bleak Mid-Winter, a well-known hymn from the British Christmas tradition.

Perhaps best known for his orchestral masterpiece The Planets, Gustav Holst (1874-1934) also left his mark on hymnody by composing the melody to the hymn In The Bleak Mid-Winter. Holst’s melody, Cranham (named after the town in which it was written), was set to a poem written by English poet Christina Rossetti (1830-1894), which had been previously published in her posthumous collection Poetic Works. In The Bleak Mid-Winter was first published in The English Hymnal in 1906, and has always been one of Holst’s most popular compositions.

The melody Cranham was based on a folk tune, which is not surprising as Holst’s music was influenced by English folk song (to which he was introduced by lifelong friend Ralph Vaughan Williams). The beauty and simplicity of folk song struck a chord with Holst, inspiring him greatly.

This simple arrangement uses DADGAD tuning and should be played in a harp-like manner, that is, allowing notes to ring together where possible. This ringing of notes and open strings is a common technique used with DADGAD and is part of the tuning’s great appeal. The four-bar introduction, which is a simple repeated arpeggiated chord, and the ascending lines in measure eight and sixteen should be played in a harp-like fashion, allowing the notes to sustain and ring together. Another spot where the notes should ring freely is in measure five, where I’ve placed the first three notes of the melody on three adjacent strings. The first note of measure five (B) could have easily been played on the second string, but playing it on the third string allows you to sustain that note as you play the C on the second string and D on the open first string.

This is a simple, beautiful melody, so I’ve left the arrangement quite sparse. Allowing the melody notes to ring together is what brings this arrangement to life.

Is there any particular reason for choosing this song over the thousands of other holiday pieces that would like our attention? No, there truly isn’t. I was thinking about this carol the other day because I was remembering playing at a Christmas party last year when, totally off the cuff, we came up with a terrific version of this. Since that version involved Anne’s amazing conga playing, we won’t be doing that. But we should have a very fun time with this.

Just about every copy of We Three Kings I’ve seen places the song in E minor and I think that will work out well for us, particularly since we’re going to try to make use of a lot of open strings for our bass notes. And we’ll also get a chance to put into practice some of the things we learned about chord shapes in the Moving On Up column I wrote ages ago. If you’d like to take a moment to go over that piece, please feel free to do so and we’ll start in when you get back.

All right then, let’s first take a look at our melody and the accompanying chords, at least according to most of the arrangements I’ve read:

There isn’t anything here that should frighten us off. Perhaps a quick review of some our chords (and the notes that make them up) would be in order:

My reason for doing this will become apparent in a moment because what I’d like to do now is to move the entire melody of We Three Kings up an octave. So now it will look and sound like this:

And now that the melody is up there, what are we going to do to accompany the melody? The first thing that comes to mind is to use barre chords but you all should now by now that I’d like to find a different solution. After all, the guitar is a pretty versatile instrument and there are a lot of possible ways to tackle this. Also, the key of E minor is very guitar friendly, offering lots of opportunities for open strings and easily made chords that can be played up the neck.

So, let’s think. The first two lines involve Em and B7 chords. An Em chord consists of E, G and B. We’ve got the B note in our melody. The E note could always be played by striking the open sixth (low E) string. All we need is a G. We have an open G string or we could also play it on the eighth fret of the B string. Let’s try both:

These both will certainly work. And, as you can see, I’ve even come up with a third idea! Using the top three strings will give us some more harmony and it’s easy enough to do.

All of these ideas sound fine. The second and third choice seem a little more interesting to me so I’m thinking why not see how they work out in the first two measures? I’ll use the low E (sixth) string as our bass note on the first beat of each measure and see how it works:

In Version One, I use my index finger for the notes on the first (high E) string. Usually I’ll use my middle finger for the G note (eighth fret of the B string) and my ring finger for the F# and E notes which follow. Some people prefer to use the ring finger for all the notes on the B string. Obviously you remove your fingers, whichever ones you decided to use, to get the last pair of notes in measure two.

Version Two is a great example of the chord shapes we explore in the Guitar Column Moving On Up, where you’ll find both of these chord shapes I’m using to make the accompaniment. The first set of notes is our A minor shape (or B minor, if you prefer) and I use my index finger on the first (high E) string, my middle finger on the B string and my ring finger on the G. The second and third sets of notes use the D minor configuration. For this shape, I shift my fingers slightly, keeping the index finger on the high E (first) string, placing my pinky on the B string and moving my middle finger to the G.

That second set of notes, by the way, is an F#m chord, which becomes F#m7 when we stick the E note in the bass. You could also just call it F#m/E. I think it sounds good so I’ll keep it in my pocket so I can pull it out to play when I’d like.

Now let’s add the B7 chord in measure three and finish off this line. As usual, we’ve a few choices open to us:

I don’t know about you but I find this very interesting. The “full chord voicing” is made by taking your open position B7 chord and then shifting your pinky up to the G note (third fret of the first (high E) string) and then back down to the F# again. Shade of The Little Drummer Boy! Personally, I find the “implied chord voicing” easier to finger; it’s actually a Bm7 chord with the ring finger on the second fret of the high E (first) string, the middle finger on the second fret of the G string and the index finger on the second fret of the A string. This leaves the pinky free to get the G note in the melody line.

Now that we’ve gone over all this, and since we know that the first four measures repeat themselves in measures five through eight, let’s do the first two lines of the song. I’m going to even write out the notation for both versions so that you can hear how it sounds. Do note that I’m also using the “implied chord voicing” of B7 in both cases. You, of course, can choose to use the “full chord voicing” if you wish:

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Now let’s tackle the rest of the verse of the song. Here it is:

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This looks like another exercise on chord shapes, doesn’t it? We start out with a standard open position G and then shift to a D chord (in the A major shape) at the fifth fret. We’ve used this chord before in many lessons. Last year’s version of Silent Night, for obvious seasonal reasons, springs immediately to mind. Then it’s back to the E minor (in the A minor shape) that we used in “Version Two” of the first measure of this song.

The next measure is simply three pairs of notes played on the first two strings. You could, if you wished, very easily add the open low E (sixth) string to this in order to fill out the sound a bit, but I think it works pretty well without it.

In the original chord accompaniment the next measure had A minor. We’re going to modify that slightly and play an Am7. The reason for this is that it’s very easy to do! Just barre your index finger across the first four strings, making certain to leave the A string open for your bass note. The ring finger or pinky can then get the B note of the melody that follows and removing that finger gets you back to the A note (fifth fret of the first (high E) string) that is still covered by the index finger.

Strangely enough, as much as I like playing the “implied chord voicing” of B7 in measure three, I prefer to do a full chord voicing here in this section of We Three Kings. A long, slightly slower strum allows me plenty of time to get my fingers set, especially the G note of the melody, which is fretted by the pinky.

Right before the chorus, there’s a measure of D7. Lyrically, this is the “…oh…..oh….” part. In order to make this slightly less dramatic (if you can believe that!), I like to use an easy implied harmony. Just start out by forming a D chord, but don’t play the note on the B string. Then slide the whole thing up to the fifth fret, like this:

When people sing this part of the song, the timing tends to get pretty screwy. So have fun with it! I came up with this second way of playing it by accident when working on the MP3 recordings, and I liked it enough to throw it into my “fun” arrangement, which you’ll hear at the end of the lesson. All you need do is slide up chromatically, one fret at a time, instead of going directly from the second fret to the fifth. It’s like taking the local train instead of the express…

Meanwhile the rest of us will start in on the chorus. Like the verse, the first four measures get repeated. Also, the last line of the chorus is the same as these two, so it makes a lot less work for us. Now that’s an added bonus, isn’t it?

In the original chord notation, the chorus starts out with two measures accompanied by the G chord, the third measure has C and G returns again for the fourth measure. Since the melody note is the G on the third fret of the high E (first) string, I figure why not have a little more motion and make the accompanying chord of the second measure Em? Because it’s the relative minor of G major, this isn’t a terribly dramatic change and you always have the option of just playing two measures of G. Anyway, here goes:

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This should pose few problems for you. Remember that we’re using versions of the Em and C chords that have the G note on the high E (first) string). This will probably involve using your pinky for most of you! The only tricky part is getting the D note (on the second fret of the B string) in the second measure. Simply take whatever finger you’re using to play the G note in the melody (third fret of the high E (first) string) and shift it down to the B string. Feel free to use big sweeping downstrokes on the first beats because this is certainly a joyful part of the song.

I know several ways of playing We Three Kings and, in the interest of giving you the chance to quickly learn this song I’m opting for an easy way of playing the third line of the chorus. Let’s take a look and a listen:

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Yes, it’s back to our chord shapes! And they are all ones we’ve already used so you should have no trouble putting them into play here. Using the Am7 instead of the C in the original notation allows us to play through this with relative ease. Barring the fifth fret, again with your index finger, you use your pinky to get the C note (eighth fret on the high E (first) string) in the melody and then slide that down to the seventh fret for the B note.

It’s also good to note that, here in the third line of the chorus, you’ll want to finger the two measures of the D chord in such a way to leave your pinky free to get the B note of the melody.

And now that we’ve got all the pieces together, how about we try to play the whole thing?

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I hope that you have enjoyed this season’s presentation of Christmas song lessons. And I also hope you haven’t minded, at least too much, my attempts at teaching you some things about music, music theory and guitar technique along the way.

I know that I’ve said this about a million times, not only in these lessons but throughout the entire Guitar Noise website, but sometimes the most important thing about learning any one song is learning how you can use a technique, a riff, a strumming pattern or any little thing, in another song. Once you have a handle on a song’s basics, it doesn’t take a lot to get into making your own arrangements. With your permission, here’s an example of that, using today’s song. How’s that for an incredible coincidence?

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A Happy Christmas to all of you and my wishes for a wonderful 2005.

Until our next lesson…

Peace

Here’s a short excerpt from my arrangement of Silent Night, a tune you will no doubt be familiar with and hear countless times over the next month or so.

First note, the arrangement calls for the guitar to be tuned to an open chord, I prefer D (DAD F#AD) given it’s so close to standard but any will do as long as from low to high you have (6)Root- (5)5 th -(4)Root 8ve – (3) 3 rd / 10th- (2) 5 th /12 th – (1) Root 2 8ve.

Play the melody very espressivo, the dynamic contour should move in waves, avoid playing at a fixed tempo as this will make the performance sound a bit starchy and uninspired. The powertab software is a bit limited when it comes to dynamic indications and specifics of standard notation (for example, the F# in bar two should be a dotted half note) so much of which would otherwise be included has been left out; just use your best musical judgment. Be sure to let all the notes ring together like a piano with the pedal depressed.

The melody, of course, should be the most prominent voice with the arpeggiations and counterpoint being played just a degree or two lower in volume.

I hope you have a great time playing through the tune. I plan on having a full book of holiday tune arrangements available for next year, if you’d like to know when it’s all ready to go feel free to contact me at myodice@excite.com and I’ll send you a notification letter specifically for that project.

Be well and happy.

Silent Night composed by Josef Mohr and Franz Gruber. Arrangement copyright 2004 Mark Yodice

Today’s lesson deals primarily with the use of chord arpeggios, as opposed to chord melody, I guess. Perhaps a better thing to say is that we’ll be looking at the use of spacing in an arrangement.

First things first though, and that means we should take a quick look at our melody and the accompanying chords. Virtually every copy of this song I’ve seen, whether in the dozens of versions I’ve here in my own books or in books I’ve leafed through at the music stores or the TABs I’ve seen place Greensleeves (and I think, for the sake of this lesson anyway, that I’ll call it Greensleeves if for no other reason than it’s simpler than writing out What Child Is This each time I want to mention it!) in the key of E minor. So I’m going to do the same, at least to start:

Now E minor tends to make the melody go a little lower than I’d like. It goes all the way down to the B note on the A string! So let’s say we try the song in A minor instead.

That’s a bit better. If you’d like to play this in E minor, then put your trusty capo up on the seventh fret and continue on in the lesson. At the end of the lesson I’ll even play it with a capo as well as without, just so you can hear how pretty it sounds.

And before we go any further, let’s talk about one note in the melody in particular, the F# that is the fifth note in the melody. I have been searching through more than a dozen versions of Greensleeves and there seems to be no consensus among the folks who arrange this song. Some use the F#. Others use F natural. Both work fine, as you can see and hear:

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I’ve included the accompanying chord along with the melody so you can hear the interesting change of tone that each note brings. I’ve been playing around with this for the better part of two months now and I still can’t make up my mind on which note I prefer. So I’m leaving it up to you. “Dealer’s choice,” we’ll call it. I’m going to stick with the F# here because I like the switch between it and the F chord that comes later on in the song. But whichever note you decide upon playing, it’s a good idea to use it consistently, at least throughout a verse. Now there’s an idea! Use the F# in one verse and the F in the next…

And since we’ve started to talk about how we’re going to plan our arrangement, now would be an excellent time to look at the melody of the piece. You might be saying, “We did that already! We know what the notes are, in two different keys!” But what I’m talking about is the sound or shape or even space of the melody. Greensleeves is very interesting in that, except for the pick-up note that starts us off, each measure starts out with a note of at least a beat and a half’s duration. This gives us a lot of options as far as accompaniment is concerned. Let’s try out a few, using the first two lines as our example:

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Each of these sounds pretty good, so it’s kind of hard to make a decision. In Version One we use the time-honored tradition of playing our chord on the first beat and letting it ring through the rest of the measure. If I was going to play this song at a relatively fast pace, I would seriously consider this to be the best choice of accompaniment. Version Two is a straightforward waltz arrangement with the root note on the first beat and the rest of the chord on beats two and three. I find this a little too busy for my taste as I found the first one a little static. So busy, in fact, you can hear I had a hard time with it!

Version Three strikes me as being a perfect balance. Doing a three-note arpeggio of the chord on the first beat and a half of each measure works very well with the melody line. It’s almost a “call and response” sort of approach. This is what I decide to work with for the rest of the arrangement.

And having decided that, I can plan out pretty much the whole song. But before I TAB it out for you, it might be a good idea to look at the basic accompaniment and get this set in our heads and fingers:

As you can see, we’re going to pick a three-note arpeggio of each chord, starting with the root note and then using whatever notes are on the next two strings. I recommend using your thumb to play these arpeggios while your fingers strike the notes of the melody. Practicing these measures (and you should play each measure twice in a row in order to get the flow of the first two lines of the song) will help you to get the rhythm down so that adding the melody will be a snap.

Speaking of the melody, why don’t I give you our full arrangement of Greensleeves now and then we’ll take a look at the possible trouble spots. Sounds like a plan!

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It occurs to me that this arrangement is yet another example of how keeping the chord shapes in place will hold the song together for you. We start out by getting our A minor chord in place. Our finger plays the pick-up note A (second fret of the G string) and then strikes the C note (first fret of the B string) of the melody. When our finger hits the C, our thumb simultaneously sounds the open A string and then strikes the D string (where we’re fingering the E note on the second fret) and the G string (where we’re fingering the A note on the second fret) to complete our accompaniment arpeggio.

We then use our pinky, much as we did in The Little Drummer Boy, to get the D note (third fret of the B string) of the melody for us. I bet you didn’t know that I was preparing you for this back in that song lesson! We’ll also use our pinky to get the F# in the melody (second fret on the high E (first) string) in the next measure. If you are opting to play the F natural note in the melody, then you’ll want to use your index finger, moving it from the C (first fret of the B string) to the F (first fret of the high E (first) string) to play it.

If you look carefully at Greensleeves, you’ll notice that each time we are using the G chord as our accompaniment, the two measures of melody are exactly the same! So once you get measures three and four hardwired into your system, you’ve gotten down a quarter of the song! Because we want to have the D note (third fret of the B string) to start our melody in these measures, it’s smart to use a “G6″ fingering and ignore playing the first (high E) string altogether.

How you’d play measures three and four depends a lot on how you make your G (or G6) chord. I usually finger it with my middle finger on the third fret of the low E (sixth) string, my index finger on the second fret of the A string and my ring finger on the third fret of the B string, which is where the D note of the melody is. Once I play the D note in the melody, along with the accompanying arpeggio, I remove my ring finger to get the B note of the open B string. In measure four, after doing the arpeggio, I’ll get the A note (second fret of the G string) by moving my index in order to play it.

If you normally fret a G (or G 6) with your ring middle finger on the third fret of the low E (sixth) string, your middle finger on the second fret of the A string and your pinky on the third fret of the B string, the only difference you’ll have is to remove that pinky from the D note to get the open B string. You should still use your index finger to fret the A note on the second fret of the G string, but since that finger is free anyway, you won’t have a problem.

Which brings us to measures five and six, the first two measures of F. If you can play the F barre chord, you will have little, if any, trouble doing this. In fact, you get an added bonus because the index finger, while barring the first fret, is covering the G# note you’ll need for measure six. Just lift off your middle finger, which is playing the A note at the second fret of the G string and voila! There’s your G#.

But for a lot of folks, that barre F might cause you some problems. If this is the case with you, let me recommend two ways around it:

Both of these alternate versions employ fingerings of the F chord that are much easier than barring the first fret. Because we don’t have a melody note on the high E (first) string, we don’t have to worry about covering it at all, which allows us to use these simpler fingerings. The trick, though, is to be ready with your index finger. As soon as you play the A note on the third beat of measure five, you’re done with playing any notes on the B string. So why not use that opportunity to move your index finger from the C (first fret of the B string) down to the G# (first fret of the G string) so you’ll be able to play the melody smoothly? Planning ahead like this certainly can’t hurt!

Some people might find the change from arpeggios to a straight chord a little too abrupt for their tastes. The best way around that is to play a slow, deliberate strum of the chord. Instead of sounding out of place, it actually sounds like a bit of a breathing space, which gives the song a little bit of variety. You’ll hear me play this phrase with both the barre F arpeggios and the “slow strum” chord in the last MP3 of our lesson and you should hear that any of these versions sounds fine.

In measure eight, where we are playing the E chord, I have to cut the arpeggio short since the E note (second fret of the D string), which would normally be the last note of the arpeggio, is the melody note. But this is also the end of the melodic phrase, so taking a little pause here adds to the mood of the song.

Believe it or not, we’ve covered almost all the aspects of playing Greensleeves. Most of the rest of the song involves slight variations on what we’ve done to this point. Measures nine through twelve are note-for-note copies of measures one through four. At measure thirteen we encounter our first slight change:

Measure thirteen is another place where you can use the “alternate fingerings” of the F chord we discussed in Example #7. In fact, they might prove easier than the full barre chord because so little is involved to go from the C note of the melody to the B note (the open B string) that follows it. If you do a full barre, keeping the F note in the bass (first fret of the low E (sixth) string) going might pose a slight challenge. It’s simply a matter of raising one side of the index finger a bit while keeping the tip of it on the F note instead of lifting the whole finger off. With (relatively) little practice you will find this comes fairly easily.

The hardest past of the song comes in measure fourteen. This is because of the melody’s movement from G# (first fret of the G string) to F# (fourth fret of the D string) and back.

Here I’ve decided to use two thirds of the E arpeggio, just as I did in measure eight, in order to create a little more space between the melody and the accompanying arpeggio. You could play our full three-note arpeggio here, but I find that going directly from the final E (second fret of the D string) of the chord arpeggio to the F# note of the melody seems a little cramped. You should try it yourself and if you find you like it then you certainly should play it that way.

Giving a little break here with the arpeggio also helps to be ready for the stretch our pinky will need to reach that F# note on the fourth fret. For many of you, I don’t expect that you’ll have any problems with it. Most of you, I suspect, can finger the note and that’s really the secret of playing it. Once you’ve played the F# note, get your pinky out of there! Trying to keep it on when you go back to playing the G# is what causes most folks to get dead sounding strings. Besides, you’re going to need that pinky in the next measure!

Speaking of which, measures fifteen and sixteen present us with a very interesting problem. Here the melody consists of two notes, each held for three beats apiece. That’s a lot of time to fill. What I have come up with in this arrangement is a compromise. In measure fifteen we play an A minor arpeggio, but one we’ve not used before. Since the A note (second fret of the G string) is the melody and we want to start our arpeggio on the open A (fifth) string, we don’t have the luxury of using the three-stringed arpeggio that we’ve been playing through Greensleeves thus far. But while we can’t use three strings, that doesn’t mean we can’t use three notes! What we’re going to do is to strike the open A string and then, using the (surprise!) pinky, finger the C note on the third fret of the same string to get the second note of our arpeggio. Once we’ve played that, we get the pinky out of the way again so that we can cleanly play the E note at the second fret of the D string. And because we’ve done all that exhausting work, we’ll simply play our two A notes again for measure sixteen.

We’re almost home now. The “chorus” section of Greensleeves (where the lyrics of the Christmas carol go, “…this, this is Christ the King…”) starts out with two measures of C, which replace the two measures of A minor in the first part of the song. This is the only musical difference between the first sixteen measures of the song and the last sixteen. Because the melody, in the first measure of C, lasts all three beats, we’re going to play a six-note arpeggio to fill up the whole measure and then revert back to our three-note arpeggio in the next measure. It will be like this:

Our pinky gets some more work here, fingering the G note on the third fret of the high E (first) string. The accompanying arpeggio is just down and up the other strings, as you can see. Sometimes simplicity can be the best solution. In the following measure, there are many ways to get the F# note. I tend to use my ring finger since this allows me to hang on to the E note in the accompaniment. As always, though, you should use whichever finger you feel most comfortable with.

And, as I’ve mentioned, this is essentially all there is to the song. I’d like to point out two things that I like to do. One of them is in the notation and TAB of Example #6. When we get to the E chord in the middle of the “chorus” section (measure twenty-four), I play what basically amounts to a “double-stop” arpeggio of an E major chord, like this:

With my E chord in place on the neck, I pick the strings in pairs – first the low E (sixth) and the D, then the A and the G and finally the D and the B. This is purely for a bit of dramatic flair. It gives the chorus a little push towards the final two phrases.

And in the very last measure, that is the very last measure, when I am ending the song and not just going on to do another verse, I like to make certain that everyone else knows that I’m done as well. So, I do my best to make it as obvious as possible:

Instead of finishing up with my two A notes (the open A string and the A note at the second fret of the G string), I make a complete A minor chord by barring the first three strings at the fifth fret and playing these along with the open A string. Let me play the whole song through once and then repeat the “chorus” section so that you can get a feel for it. As promised earlier, I’ll do this with my capo on the seventh fret in order to play the song in E minor.

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I think that this covers everything. I hope that you’ve enjoyed this lesson and this look into arpeggios and spacing. Next time out, we’ll try to come up with an arrangement of one more Christmas carol that uses most, if not all, of the concepts we’ve been discussing these past weeks.

Until next lesson…

Peace

Perhaps this would be a better explanation: today we’re going to do an arrangement of the traditional German Christmas carol, O Tannenbaum (known to many of us on this side of the Atlantic as O Christmas Tree), using only a melody line and a single line of harmony. That’s it, just two notes at a time. And yet these two notes will provide us with all the harmony we need.

And perhaps I should give you a little warning as well: while we will indeed be playing quite a bit in this lesson, we’re also going to be using our heads as often as, if not more often than, our fingers. Some lessons are just like that…

All right then, since we know we’re going to need the melody, let’s take a look at it, along with the chords that normally accompany the song. For the sake of making this lesson a little friendlier than it might otherwise be, we’ll do this in the key of G major. Also, since this song is learned easiest in terms of lines (lyrical lines, that is), I’ve indicated the start of each line of lyrics:

As we look as this, we should be making some assessments in regard to the piece. First off, being in the key of G, the chords are what I consider the “primary chords,” namely the I, the IV and the V. Perhaps this would be a great place to do a quick review of the key of G major. Here is its scale:

In the melody of O Tannenbaum, all of the notes belong to the G major scale. So it’s relatively safe to assume that the chord accompaniment is diatonic, meaning that all the chords are also made up solely of notes from this particular scale. Because we’ve all read The Power of Three, we can easily check that by taking each note and building a triad onto it like this:

These are all the chords that naturally occur in the key of G major. And they certainly do match up with the accompaniment that we used in Example #1. Please note that I took the liberty of making a triad for both D and D7, for reasons that will be very apparent in a short while. D7, after all, is just sticking the D note at the bottom of your F# diminished chord, or adding the C note to the D triad, whichever way you prefer to look at it. And, whether or not you know it yet, this lineup of triads is going to help us put together the arrangement for this song, so be ready to refer back to it whenever necessary!

The first note of the melody is what we call a “pick-up note.” It falls just before the first beat of the first measure. It’s also a D, which as we know is the fifth of the key of G. Going from V to I is, for most people, the aural definition of coming home (if you want to read more about this sort of thing, check out Five To One on our Guitar Column page). And the use of this interval to start the song does most of the work of establishing the tonal center of the key. What truly will nail it down, though, is the use of the third. Why is this note so important? Well, for starters, it determines whether or not we’re in G major or G minor, and that’s a fairly big difference in tone!

So what I want to do is to couple the G note at the start of the first full measure with a B note, which is its major third. Because I want the melody to stand out, I’ll use the B note below the melody note. That is, I’ll play the B found at the second fret of the A string instead of the one you get by playing the open B string. Try it out yourself and see which one you prefer:

As I mentioned, for the sake of this lesson I want the melody to ring out as much as possible, so I’ll keep the melody note higher in tone than the harmony note. This use of what I call “inverted” thirds (where the root is higher than the third) is done a lot on the guitar because the tuning of the instrument lends itself to this sort of voicing very well. We’ve used it in numerous lessons, such as Bookends.

Keep in mind that, since we’re using just two notes of any given chord and not the complete chord of itself, the harmony is, for all intents and purposes, implied and not spelled out for you. It’s going to be up to us to make the implications hold true to our ears.

Using the interval of the third in this way, that is, accompanying each melody note with a single third for harmony, does a great job of making our implied harmonies valid. What we’re doing here, by the way, this mirroring each note of the melody line with its respective third in the harmony line is called parallel thirds. Strictly speaking, you would want to consistently use either regular thirds or inverted thirds and not switch from one to the other. But, as you’ll soon see, that doesn’t mean you can’t!

I like the way the parallel inverted thirds sound so much that I’m going to write out the whole first phrase in this manner. To find each third, I first look at the note in question, find the note in the G scale that is two positions above it and then locate that note in on the neck lower than the melody note, thus inverting it. So, for example (and not counting the “pick up note” D), I see that A (the A on the second fret of the G string) is the second note of the melody. The third of A is C and the closest C to my A which is lower in tone than the melody is on the third fret of the A string. Let’s see what we come up with and have a listen as well:

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In Version One, I strictly stick with my parallel inverted thirds and it sounds pretty good. But, and believe it or not, this comes from having written out the notation as opposed to simply playing it or writing out the TAB, I’ve found something interesting in the last two measures of this phrase. If, when the melody note is the F#, I switch the A (inverted third harmony note of Version One) to D (which I’ll have to play on the fifth fret of the A string), I create a smooth and pleasant sounding “up-and-down” bass line instead of one that simply mirrors the melody line. Take a look and see:

I hope you take the time to follow this because you might find it fascinating. And it will certainly help you if you want to be able to do your own arrangements, instead of simply playing other people’s versions of songs.

Look at the harmony line in “Version Two” and see how it climbs from C to D to E and then gently glides back down to D and then to C and B. This is called voice leading, that is, finding a harmony line that flows more naturally, step by step, instead of jumping all over the place. As far as the harmony itself goes, we haven’t changed the chord in question, nor have we deviated from our use of thirds to define the harmony. We’ve simply altered which notes of the D chord (or D7) that are serving as our harmony line. And in doing so, we’re also creating a more interesting dynamic between our melody line and our harmony line.

We’ll come back to this concept in a moment. First, though, I’d like to walk our way through the third line of the song. Structurally speaking, O Tannenbaum is very simple. This first line repeats itself as the second and final line of any given verse, so all we need do to learn the complete song is to get the middle section down. I’m going to take the liberty of dividing this section in an unusual way in order to make it easier to play:

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In this section we also need to change our strategy of inverted thirds. Since the D note which starts us off is definitely part of the G chord, using the F# makes no sense at all. So we need to come up with a different note, preferably one from the G triad. We could just use the G (the open G string itself), but I think we’ll get better results from looking at our melody note and then adding whatever note of the G scale that happens to be a third below it. In other words, D is the third of B, so let’s use B as our harmony note. This will certainly work for the first part of this phrase (the third line of lyrics for this song).

When we get to the second half of this phrase (the fourth line of lyrics) though, ironically enough at the next appearance of the D in the melody line, we’ll need to revert back to our original use of inverted thirds in order to stay on the D7 chord.

The fingering of this can be difficult, so I’d like to recommend you also examine other ways to play it. I like to play the first half of this section, line three, on just the B and G strings and then switch to playing the notes that begin line four on the G and D strings, like this:

I find that this fingering of line four makes going from the “regular thirds” to the inverted thirds particularly smooth, especially since it means just keeping a finger on the F# note! You may find ways that work better for you. And you should definitely try anything that comes to mind.

Now that we’ve gotten this section of the Christmas carol worked out, we can play the entire thing. Shall we give it a try?

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Sounds pretty decent, no? But you know better than to think that we’re done with our lesson for today, don’t you? Of course, you do!

One of the fascinating things about working in implied harmony is how easy it is to change the “implied” part of the harmony. Do me a favor and play these notes:

Okay, what chord is this? You’re bound to say “D7,” simply because we’ve been using these notes in this context in this particular song. But, hearing these two notes just by themselves and not in the context of a song, what keeps us from saying “A minor” or even “F major?”

This is why context and voice leading can be incredibly important to an arrangement. Let’s throw out our “chord sheet” for a moment and look at two ways of playing Line Three:

That last pair of notes, the C in the melody and the A in the harmony line, definitely sound like A minor now, don’t they? We can find the reason for this back at the very beginning of O Tannenbaum. Remember the D that serves as the pick-up note and how that V to I drove home the G major tonality? There’s a reason that five to one is called a “perfect cadence.” And we’re doing the same thing here but in a more devious fashion. We’re temporarily giving the song a new tonality – that of A minor. This, in the terms of music theory, is called modulation. By using a G# with the D note of the melody, we create an E7 chord, which is the V in the key of A minor. Pretty cool, no? If you want to read more about this sort of thing, we’ve numerous articles on Guitar Noise that deal with it. Five To One (or “Home Home Again”) is a good place to start.

This modulation worked so well here, let’s do another one. How about during the last line of the song?

Here we’re making the song modulate to E minor by using, guess what! Yes, by raising the D note in our harmony line up a half step to D#, we are implying a B major chord and we all know that B is the V chord in the key of E minor. It’s amazing what tonal color you can add by changing a single note of harmony, even if your single note of harmony is the melody’s sole accompaniment! And it adds a bit of depth when you go back to the “normal” playing of the song. Your ears are now not hearing simple major chord changes because they are ready to accept implied minor chords, seventh chords and a host of other possibilities.

Just for the record (and kudos to those of you with eagle eyes!) I often “exaggerate” or stress this particular modulation when I play it. How? By simply altering the rhythm of the phrase into straight eighth notes! It’s a simple yet effectively dynamic device.

Most of the time, people don’t even bother to analyze things like these modulations and implied harmonies, and sometimes it’s probably just as well. Single line voice leading is a lot of fun but you can get so bogged down in the theory that you miss out on interesting chances. Here’s Line Four to give us an example:

In this phrase, I’ve used an F natural note to create an interesting chromatic bass line. It certainly fits in well and sounds terrific. But what implied harmony have I created? In the notation I’ve chosen to call it “Dm” but I could have easily called it “F” as well. This is probably best thought of as a “passing tone,” namely a note whose purpose is simply to get us from point A to point D, no pun intended. Well, maybe…

The objective in this example was not to create a modulation, but rather to have an ear catching harmony line that was both interesting and functional. You can get into all sorts of debates, theory-wise, as to the function of this note, but the important thing here is to listen to what you’ve created. Does it work? Does it seamlessly add to the harmony of your arrangement or bring things to a crashing halt? Well, let’s listen to all the chromatic variations we’ve come up with as part of the song:

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I think you’ll agree with me that we’ve done a great job of making the song more interesting without causing anyone to sit up and wonder what happened to good ol’ O Tannenbaum!

And I hope that you enjoyed this lesson, even if it was a little bit more on the cerebral side. Remember that the more you experiment and, far more important, the more music that you listen to, the more interesting the arrangements you might be able to come up with.

And until our next lesson, let me leave you with what is probably a lousy translation of the third verse of this carol:

O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree
Your faithful leaves will teach me
That hope and faith and constancy
Give peace and strength eternally
O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree
Your faithful leaves will teach me

Peace.

But the point is that there should always be something to learn or to work on. And that’s what brings us to today’s piece, The Little Drummer Boy . We already have a great lesson on this, written by Peter Simms, here at Guitar Noise, which you can find it on our new Christmas lessons page. It’s a great exercise on using Drop D tuning to come up with a wonderful arrangement of this holiday carol.

Our lesson today is going to concentrate on a totally different matter: the pinky. Way too often, guitarists tend to under-use or, worse, ignore the little finger when playing. Many beginners don’t start working with it until they absolutely have to and at that point it’s almost like learning to play all over again.

So I want to give your pinkies a workout today. I hope you’re ready!

This may also be a good time to chat about keys. Peter’s lesson, as we mentioned, places The Little Drummer Boy in the key of D in order to make use of the low D note in Drop D tuning. You, as the guitarist / arranger can place a song in any key. One usually does this for reasons such as accommodating a vocal or simply making the song in question easier to play. The “original” sheet music I have for this piece, for example, is in the key of D flat, which is not one of the friendliest keys for the guitar!

How you go about choosing a key depends largely on your own abilities with the guitar, coupled by what you’d like to do, stylistically, with a particular song. So I look at The Little Drummer Boy and think to myself, “This is a lesson for relative beginners. That means keeping things fairly easy and still being a bit challenging and, above all, having fun.” I look again at the song and see that, in the “original” form I have, the chords are Db, Ab and Gb. In Peter’s lesson, this transposes to D, A and G. Either way, that’s three chords to deal with.

But now I make a short trip into Theoryland. If I think of these chords in terms of their keys, I’m dealing with the root (“I” – D or Db in the two versions we’ve mentioned so far), the fifth (“V” – A or Ab) and the fourth (“IV” – G or Gb). So now that I know this, I can make a couple of leaps in logic. First, I can decide which key I’d like to play this in based upon which chords I know best. Besides D, which we already have seen will give us the chords of D, G and A, I personally feel most comfortable playing in C, G, A and E. Let’s take a look at which chords will be involved in those four keys:

Not dealing with either F or B also sounds like a good idea to me, this being a beginners’ lesson and all. So that leaves me with G and A. And now I’m thinking about something else. Believe it or not, I’m thinking about the blues! After all, the I, IV, V progression is the key to most blues playing. And, remembering some of the blues lessons we’ve done, particularly Before You Accuse Me, I see that the key of A will give me open, ringing bass notes for each of the chords being used in The Little Drummer Boy. Do you see this, too?

Open bass notes are godsends for the fledgling chord melody arranger, for the obvious reason that you have a good, clear ringing note without having to give up a finger! The second best thing that can happen to us is to have a lot of open position chords involved in the melody notes. So I write out our song, melody and chords, in the key of A and I look at it:

And it appears that fate is smiling on us once again. Most of the melody notes are either parts of the accompanying chords or very close by. As I’ve mentioned in numerous other song lessons, you’d think that someone actually went and planned it that way!

But now we’ve got another choice to make and that is how we want to use our accompanying chords. That may seem like a strange thing to worry about, but there are all sorts of ways of using the “chord” part of a chord melody arrangement. To illustrate, I’ve taken the first line of our song and done it three ways. Note that the notes of the melody line all have upturned stems while the chord accompaniment notes’ stems are downturned:

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In the first version of Example #2, I’m playing our chord, strumming it only down as far as the melody note, mind you, on the first beat of each measure and letting it ring out under the rest of the melody notes. That doesn’t sound bad at all. Version two has me striking the chords every other beat, that is, on the first and third beat of any given measure. This fills out the sound some more and also gives the rhythmic impression of a steady drumbeat. Not a bad thing for a song with this title, no? On the last version, I play a chord with every melody note. This fills things out even more but seems a little heavy- handed for my tastes. So I’ve decided that I’m going to go with the second option for this arrangement. Having decided that for myself, though, I should point out that you should (as always) feel free to work out other options. I find myself often playing a combination of these versions.

For now, let’s get down to work and tackle the first line of this song.

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Okay, let’s make it the first two lines, especially since they are both focused around the A major chord. Before we get going I’d like to recommend that, if you’re worried that playing the chords every other beat might be too hard, you start out learning this by playing the chord on the first beat of any given measure and then work up to playing it on the first and third beats. This will give you a chance to get comfortable with both the chord and melody fingerings. But playing them every other beat isn’t as hard as you might think and you possibly will find advantages to learning it the “every other beat” way, particularly when it comes to playing downstrokes and upstrokes.

Measure one starts out with a nice sounding of the A chord, played on just the A, D and G strings. Technically this is an A power chord, which some of you might recognize by the name “A5.” It’s only the A and E notes of the A chord and gives us a nicely resonant ringing that will continue while we go on playing single notes in the melody. I do this with a downstroke, by the way. Since the first note lasts for three beats, I hit just the A and D strings with a downstroke on the third beat and then play the open B on the fourth beat with an upstroke. Usually I start out by having all my fingers set on my A major chord before even striking the first note. This means I need to lift my finger off the second fret of the B string in order to sound the note of the open B. But if you’re careful about which strings you strike, you can start out by fingering Asus2 (X02200) and then you don’t have to worry about it. That’s totally up to you.

The second measure has us playing our A chord again, but this time we’ll strum down only as far as the B string since the melody note is the C#, which is on the second fret of that string. We play this with a downstroke and it lasts for two beats. Then we play the whole thing again for the third beat and catch only the C# note on the upstroke for the fourth beat. This is a good place to point out that, by having your chord in place, you don’t have to worry if you catch an extra string or two on your upstroke. It will sound fine. But do practice hitting only the strings you want. It’s a skill that’s easy to develop with practice, persistence and patience.

The pinky makes his first appearance in measure three. We place the little finger on the third fret of the B string to get the D note in the melody. Since this is on the first beat of the measure, we’ve got our A chord ready to go with it. This creates Asus4, just in case you’re interested in things like that.

I should mention that you can play this measure in a number of ways. For instance, you can you can pick the first three melody notes each time or you can use a pull-off going from the D to the C#. If you’re so inclined you can even hammer-on to get the second D note. When I’m playing this I don’t often think consciously about it. While I worked out this lesson, though, I noticed I tended to pick each individual melody note in order to give it a clear, distinct tone.

However you choose to play it, measure three ends with a downstroke on the A chord again, and again with C# as the melody note. We want to hit that hard enough to hold that note through measure four while we add two more rhythmic downstrokes just to tide us over.

The second line is simply a variation of the first. The difference between the two is the timing of the melody notes in the first two measures. To me, this is where the “every other beat” playing can help drive the song. Even though the melody rests on the first beat of the first measure, hitting just the A and D strings impels the piece along and this combination of downstrokes and upstrokes is great practice.

In the third line we switch our chord from A to E and this is when things start to get very interesting. If you’re like most people, you’re playing the E chord with your index finger on the first fret of the G string, your ring finger on the second fret of the D and your middle finger on the second fret of the A string. So far, so good! Let’s see what we’re going to try and do:

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Hit the E chord on the first beat of measure nine with a downstroke to either the D or G string. That’s your choice. Then catch the open B string on the upstroke for the second beat. Now, while holding on to the E chord for dear life, place your pinky on the C# note at the second fret of the B string and strum down only that far with a downstroke on the third beat. Then slide your pinky up to the third fret of the B string (the note in the melody is D) and catch that note on the upstroke. If you’re not used to using all your fingers at once, this may take a little practice.

But in measure ten you can give yourself a break. The first note is simply a full-bodied E chord struck across all six strings. Then you catch the open high E (first) string on the upstroke and then play another full chord on the downstroke of the third beat. Adding the pinky to the second fret of the high E (first) string gives us the F# note that ends this measure. Use an upstroke to play this. And again, notice that if you hit more than that single note things will still sound fine because the rest of your E chord is still intact.

We’re not quite out of the woods yet, though. The melody pretty much goes down the way it came, so begin measure eleven with one more solid downstroke of the E chord. Then add your pinky for the D note (the third fret of the B string), hit that on your upstroke and then slide it down to the C# note (second fret of the B) and hit it with a downstroke. Finally, again using a downstroke, strike another E chord but this time only down to the open B string as that’s where the melody has come to a rest.

Are you still with us? The next two lines are the hardest but, believe it or not, you should be able to work through them now after having done what we’ve accomplished so far. Let’s tackle measures thirteen through eighteen at once, shall we?

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Measure thirteen is an exact replica of measure nine, so we should have no problems with it. And while measure fourteen is, melodically, a mirror image of measure ten, it’s pretty important to note that we’re playing an A chord as our accompaniment instead of E. This doesn’t let the pinky off the hook, though! We use the little finger to get the F# note at the end of this measure as well as to play the G natural (third fret of the high E (first) string) and the F# (second fret of the high E (first) string) that lead off measure fifteen. Removing the pinky will give us the open E note that follows and then we switch our chord from A to D and this will give us the D note (third fret of the B string) in the melody. You’ll note that I’m using the open A string as the bass note of this D chord in order to give it a little fuller sound.

Changing our accompanying chord to D also plays right into how the melody goes. The F# (second fret on the high E (first) string) which starts the next measure is all ready to go! We strum the whole D chord with a downstroke and then remove our finger from the first (high E) string to get that melody note and then strike the D note, still in place at the third fret of the D string before changing back to our A chord, which we strum just down to the C# note at the second fret of the B string.

Our A chord also allows us to continue on with the melody without skipping a beat. The open high E (first) string is our next note, and then we bring our pinky back into play again, using it to fret the D note on the B string. We take it off again to get the C# (still in place because we’re still holding on to the A chord) and then we change from A to E in order to get the B note of the open second string. And now you can take a breath because you’ve done all the hard work! It’s smooth sailing now!

I’d like to take a moment to point out that, in this section of the song we’ve just gone over, I find myself playing downstrokes on the chords and upstrokes on the individual melody notes, as I’ve indicated in the notation. And this might be a good time to discuss the use of strokes. Some people might find it easier to use the alternate picking technique. This is when you alternate your down and upstrokes no matter what. There are times, especially when you are trying to achieve either speed or smoothness, that this approach is certainly key. But here, in this song, I think that it’s a matter of taste. I’ve tried picking it in different ways, but when I’m not consciously thinking about it, I find that I play the up and downstrokes pretty much the way I’ve spelled out for you in the notation.

And speaking of notation, please understand that what I’ve written here is not perfect. On some occasions you will play, say for example, the open B string as part of the E chord, only to cover it with the D note on the third fret. The notation says to hold the B, the whole chord in fact, for two beats, but this is obviously impossible since you’re going to need that string for a different note. I’ve written the notation in this manner to give you the chords on their proper beats and to encourage you to let them ring as long as you can. Preferably until the next sounding of the accompanying chord!

The last section of The Little Drummer Boy starts out much like the first two lines:

It’s only at the final two measures that we encounter a small change. Here we switch to our E chord in order to get the first strum. Then we employ our pinky one final time, using it to finger the A note at the second fret of the G string. Finally we hit the open B string again and then finish with an A chord strummed down to the A note of the G string. Et voila! We’ve gotten through the song! Let’s hear it all at once, shall we? I use a few measures of A to get me started:

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The Little Drummer Boy is one of those songs that allows for a lot of a performer’s personality to come through. You can go through a wide range of dynamics in terms of volume and intensity. I gave into temptation and went a little overboard in my use of the E chord in measure eighteen. So much so, in fact that I threw in another measure! You have to be careful about being too enthusiastic sometimes!

And for those of you who might ask me about this, I played all the MP3s on my Seagull S6 Folk guitar (cedar top) using a medium pick.

I hope that you’ve enjoyed this little exercise in chord melody arrangement and that you feel free to play it for the upcoming holidays. And I hope that the main idea of this lesson, that is, getting your little finger involved, is something you all get to work on.

Next week, we’re going to do something both easier and harder! If you need a hint, then brush up on your German and reread the Easy Songs for Beginners lesson on Bookends and we’ll see you here soon.

Until the next lesson…

Peace

Take the whole concept of chord melody. You get a melody you know (hence the “melody” part) and then, basically, add the proper chords (the “chord” part) with it and there you go. And while it may not always be that straightforward, there’s certainly no reason that it can’t be on occasion.

And perhaps nowhere is this more apparent than in some of the songs we’ve known since we were able to speak. We’ve already demonstrated this in fact with some of our earlier lessons, such as Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. And when we get into this time of year, the realm of Christmas songs, whether religious ones such as Silent Night or sacrilegious one such as, well I’ll leave it up to you to pick one, the truth is that most Christmas music lends itself very nicely to the practice of chord melody.

So let’s kick off the season with a very easy piece with which to develop our skills. I’m picking Jolly Old Saint Nicholas to lead the way because it is definitely a perfect example of how easy playing a chord melody piece can be.

For those of you who might not be familiar with this particular song, allow me to give you the melody, which I’ve taken the liberty of writing out in the key of C major:

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Those of you with eagle eyes (or ears) will notice two things right off the bat. For starters, the third line of this song is exactly the same as the first one. And then the fourth line, with the exception of the very last note, is the same as the second one.

If this melody is new to you, then please take the time to play it enough so that you feel comfortable and (relatively) confident with it. Whenever possible, you should approach a chord melody project in this way. The better you feel you know the melody the better your sense of the “rightness” of the chords will be. By this I mean that you will develop an ear for which melody notes are part of the actual chord and which are merely passing tones. If you recall our lesson on Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star , you probably remember that all the melody notes were part of the accompanying chords. That certainly isn’t always the case. Will it be so here with Jolly Old Saint Nicholas ? We’ll have to see about that…

Something that I hope you’ll see immediately is why I chose the key of C Major for this song. Let’s take a look at the chords we’ll be using, at least at first:

If all these chords are familiar to you (and please do not worry if you can’t play an F yet – trust me on this one), then let’s press on. Play a standard C major chord and listen to and/or look at the note that you strike last in that chord. Guess what? It’s the same E note that starts off our melody line. How’s that for planning?

Now you’ve got a few choices here in terms of interpretation. You can play the whole C chord four times, like this:

Or you can strum the entire C chord on the first beat, letting it ring out while adding the three additional single E notes to complete the measure, like this:

Personally, I prefer the second approach and I plan to use it throughout this particular lesson. You should feel free to do otherwise. You can also do any of the variations that may pop into your mind, such as playing the whole chord on the first and third beats and the single E note on the second and fourth beat, or one of many other possibilities. All I ask at this stage is that you try to be consistent in regard to your rhythm, if for no other reason than to give yourself one less thin to worry about right now.

Our first measure taken care of, let’s look at the second one. We’ve got G as our chord and D, which is indeed a part of the G chord, as our melody note. Playing this is certainly within our abilities. It requires that we finger the G chord in such a way as to have the D note (the third fret of the D string) covered and it also requires that when we strum this chord, that we only strum down as far as that note. In other words, we don’t want to hit the high E (first) string when we strum. I like to use G6 here, since that leaves the high E (first) string open and makes me concentrate on not hitting it! Also, you’ll see that the G6 chord will serve us well at the very end of this song.

Likewise, when we play the A minor chord in measure three, we should strum only as far down as the B string, where we’re fingering the C note on the first fret. We can strum the high E (first) string again when we play the C chord of the fourth measure.

So our first line should be played something like this:

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And I’d like to take a moment here to wander over to “Theoryland,” and you’ll be correct in guessing that it won’t be our only excursion this lesson! Since measure five starts out with F major, I find that I like to use C7 instead of C in measure four. If you’ve never played C7, then it’s high time you did. Start with your normal C chord. If you’re like most people, your index finger will be on the first fret of the B string, your middle finger on the second fret of the D string and your ring finger on the third fret of the A string. Now simply add your pinky to the third fret of the G string. This gives you the Bb note, which, when added to C major (C, E and G), creates the C7 chord. Using the seventh chord of the root (in this case, C major) to change to the fourth (F in this case) is very pleasing to the ear.

I’ve actually a far more interesting reason for choosing this. Ahead in measure five I see that dreaded F chord and I’d truly like to avoid playing it. And I’m sure that most beginners feel the same way. But let’s first notice that we’re only going to play as far as the A note at the second fret of the G string. That means we won’t be playing the B or E (first) strings. Now we also already know that our F chord consists of the F, A and C notes. When we’re playing our C7 chord, we’ve already got the C note covered with our ring finger on the third fret of the A string. To change to the F chord, all we have to do is to move our pinky from the third fret of the G string (Bb) to the third fret of the D string (F) while shifting the middle finger from the second fret of the D string (E) to the second fret of the G string (A). Let me chart it out for you:

I know that some of you might be tempted to use a “beginner’s F” – you know, the one with the open A string in the bass – but I highly encourage you to give this voicing a try. I think you’ll find it sounds fuller and, as you’ve seen, it’s not at all hard to do.

And you’ll also find that going back to the C chord for measure six is also a snap. Here our biggest concern will be making sure we strum the correct notes in our melody. So we’ll want to go only as far as the open G string for the first note. Since this is one of the few places where we change strings, I like to strum the whole C chord, down to the C note at the second fret of the B string, when we hit the third beat of this measure. It’d read like this:

In measure seven we run into what might look like a bit of a snag in terms of putting a chord melody together smoothly. We want to play D but the melody line is D, C, D and then E. This is where a little imagination, a modicum of guitar knowledge and a touch of theory will help out a lot. Since we know that this D is going to resolve to G in the very next measure, we can opt to use D7 instead of D. This means that our D7 chord will contain two of the three melody notes, namely D and C. But I’d like to go a little further. After all, I’ve read an article on this site called Building Additions (and Suspensions), so I know that any ninth chord contains the root, seventh and ninth. D9, then, will be made up of D (the root), F# (the third), A (the fifth), C (the seventh) and E (the ninth). Those are all the notes in this section of melody!

So what I need to find here is a voicing of D9 that allows me to use all three notes with (hopefully) relative ease. And in this case, the guitar is ready to oblige. Remember our C7 chord that we used only a few measures ago? Well, what if we slide that whole chord up two frets on the neck of the guitar? The high E (first) string will be open, giving us the E note. Then our index finger will be on the third fret of the B string. There’s our D note. Our pinky should be on the fifth fret of the G string and by golly if that isn’t the C note we need! How about that? Our middle finger has moved to the fourth fret of the D string, giving us F# and the ring finger now rests on the D note at the fifth fret of the A string.

Having solved how to get the notes we want, all we need do now is be fairly careful with our strumming. Let’s take a look:

At the end of measure six we should be playing a C chord. Let’s slide that up two frets and add our pinky to the fifth fret of the G string. Now, on the first beat of measure seven, we’ll strum our D9 chord from the A string down to the B string. This gives us the melody note of D along with the D9 chord (it’s the point of that whole “chord melody” thing, remember?). Then we’ll pick the G string to get the C note, then pick the B string again for the D and finally we’ll play the open high E (first) string for the E note. After doing this, we set up the same G chord we used in measure two and we’re done with the second line. Shall we look and listen?

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We’re almost home now! Line three is the same as line one, so there’s no need to worry about it. And in line four, the only difference from line two is the last two measures. Here we simply want to condense things a little. When we reach measure fifteen, we want to play our D9 for the first two notes and then switch off to our G (really G6) chord voicing to get the last two, like this:

And then we end with a big confident C chord, ending on the C note at the first fret of the B string to wrap it all up. Shall we try to put the whole thing together?

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I hope that you’ve enjoyed this little exercise in chord melody arrangement. And please don’t fall into thinking that just because this is an easy song that there’s no lessons to be learned from it. As I said in my very first column, “Everything begins somewhere…” and why not start out with something that you can make sound like something accomplished?

This is something we’ve discussed this often in our “Easy Songs for Beginners” and “Songs for Intermediates” lessons. Once you have the basics of a song down, there’s no end to the fun you can have arranging it to suit your own style and taste. If you don’t believe that it can be done, even with a very straightforward song like Jolly Old Saint Nicholas , then let me offer this up as an example. I was in a bit of a giddy mood when I was recording the MP3s for this lesson, so I wheeled this off:

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With the exception of two arpeggios and a short run of notes at the end of line two, this is pretty much the arrangement we just made for today’s lesson. All I’ve done is snazz up the rhythm a bit. It’s nothing you can’t do on your own.

Over the next few weeks, I’m hoping to put up quite a few holiday pieces, so get yourself ready for them.

Until the next lesson…

Peace

And we’ll start off with Amazing Grace, a simple three-chord spiritual that I’m sure pretty much everyone knows. The song’s history is incredibly interesting enough to be a book of its own, which it is! John Turner has written a wonderful and insightful book called, appropriately enough, Amazing Grace, which traces the song from its African and Scottish roots all the way to modern recordings of it by artists such as Judy Collins, Elvis Presley, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Al, Green, Rod Stewart, Chet Baker, Tiny Tim, Destiny’s Child and Johnny Cash. By the way, if you want to hear what I think is the definitive arrangement of this song, get a copy of Jubilation by the Holmes Brothers and have a listen. Even better, see them live whenever you get the chance!

Our version, while much, much simpler, will have some charms all its own. We’ll first explore how to go about picking a key and then use the song as an exercise in developing the “voice” of your guitar. And, of course, we’ll also throw in a bit of theory, not to mention a look at chord voicing and a slightly altered tuning. After all, this is one of my lessons, right? Intrigued? Then, by all means, let us proceed…

Since Amazing Grace is a relatively short song, I think that the best approach will be to take it line by line. But before we even get to that, let’s decide upon a key in which to play. I’ve seen (and heard) this piece played in almost every possible key. Opening a nearby book (and woe to the guitarist who doesn’t own any books!), I see it done in the key of G. Let’s look at the melody in that key, broken down line by line:

This certainly seems simple enough. But if you’ve read my other pieces on arranging, you already know I’m going to have a problem with it. Namely, there’s too much of the melody going on below the G string. This will mean a bass-y arrangement, which, in and of itself, is not necessarily a bad thing, but I’d like to get more of the higher strings of the guitar involved. Using this version, we won’t even touch the high E (first) string! And where’s the fun in that?

I’ve also got another bee in my bonnet. Somewhere, in a corner of the incredibly vast, invariably cluttered warehouse I call my mind, I’ve got a thing about bagpipes. Usually I can ignore it, but something about Amazing Grace triggers this reaction. It may simply be that I was exposed to way too many repeated listenings of that pipe band version of this song, which was a big hit when I was (somewhat) younger. I’m sure that I’ll get a lot of emails telling me the name of the band, so I’ll try to remember to pass the word along to those of you who might be interested in this sort of thing.

Be that as it may, I know that I have stumbled upon an idea that I’m not going to let go until I work it out of my system. I guess that means you’re stuck with it, too! Maybe it wasn’t the bagpipes at all as much as it was a rereading of an old article of mine, A Celtic Air, which gave me this craving. I don’t know.

But I do know, after spending the better part of the day trying out various permutations of this song, that there are a lot of fun things we can do with Amazing Grace. And the very first thing we’re going to do, as I mentioned before this digression, is to choose a key in which to play it.

And I’m opting for D major for three reasons. First, you might have noted that the melody line of Amazing Grace spans the range of one octave. In the example we just saw, it goes from D (open D string) to D (third fret on the B string). Since D is the fifth in the key of G and since I’d like to keep things fairly simple, using the key of D will mean our melody will range from A on the second fret of the G string to the A note on the fifth fret of the first (high E) string. We (hopefully) won’t be fumbling around looking for our melody notes! Here they are:

The second reason concerns my Celtic preoccupations. Being in the key of D, there’s no reason I can’t use Drop D tuning to create a cool drone on my lower strings. For those of you who may not be familiar with Drop D tuning, you can take a moment and go read another of my old articles, and one, I might add, with a terrific pun for a title, On The Tuning Awry. There you’ll find that changing from standard tuning to Drop D simply requires you to lower the tone of the low E (sixth) string down one step to D. You can do this with a tuner or even by ear.

Being in Drop D, your three lowest strings will now be tuned (low to high) D, A and D, which some of you might recognize as a D power chord. Power chords, as we’ve noted in many articles here at Guitar Noise, are chords containing two notes, the root and the fifth. This interval of a fifth is the basis of many an instrument throughout history, bagpipes being one of the many that’s been around a bit longer than the electric guitar. It creates a drone over which you can play a melody line. And having those resonating open strings as our bass notes will, no pun intended, give our guitar much more body than if we were in standard tuning.

But it’s the third reason for choosing this key that I’d like to dwell on for our lesson today. Playing in the key of D allows us to use a lot of flourishes, that is, hammer-ons and pull-offs, that will give our arrangement style and character.

And you can hear that right from the very first notes:

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Quite a difference between those two styles, no? The first one is very much in the style of playing we’ve worked on in pieces like Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and it certainly will service this song well. But there’s a lot more movement, more drama, more panache if you will, in the playing of the second example here. We’re allowing our guitar to have a voice. We’re letting it sing ! We’re giving it some soul !

And it’s not all that hard to do! You can start out by fingering your typical standard open position D chord, with your middle finger on the second fret of the first (high E) string, your ring finger on the third fret of the B string and your index finger on the second fret of the G. Once you’re set, slightly raise your index and middle fingers off their respective strings, leaving the ring finger in place. Now, with your picking hand, simultaneously pluck the open A string with your thumb and the open G string with your index finger. As soon as you do so, hammer the index finger of your fretting hand back onto the second fret of the G string. You should hear the A and G notes start out together, with the G becoming an A (albeit an octave higher) almost immediately after.

This style of playing evokes many emotions, mostly because you’re giving your guitar an almost human-like quality by letting it have a “voice.” The notes aren’t spot on. They can seem either hesitant or confident, depending on how you strike the strings. So take the time to experiment with just this one set of notes. You’ll find that you can get a fairly wide range of expressions depending upon many factors such as how hard (or how softly) you strike the string or how “immediate” your hammer-on follows your initial striking of the two open strings. Chances are likely that you may not always be able to duplicate what you did the moment before and that is precisely the point! You and your guitar are becoming unique.

Let’s now add the next note. As soon as you hammer-on the A note with your index finger, slightly raise your ring finger from its place on the B string. We’re going to repeat what we just did, only this time the picking hand thumb will pluck the sixth string (and you do remember that we’ve tuned that down to D, right?) and your middle finger will pluck the open B string at the same time. And again, as soon as you’ve done that, bring down your ring finger of the fretting hand to its original position at the third fret of the B string.

I should note that you can do both of these hammer-ons while keeping your middle finger in place on the second fret of the first (high E) string, but I find my striking smoother and that I have more control over the tone by not planting it in place. You should try out both ways before making a decision about that yourself. And you should always feel that you are able to change your decision later!

Once I get that ring finger back down on the third fret of the B string, I raise my index finger again. This is like cocking my arm before throwing a ball. My next hammer-on will involve using both my index and middle fingers and I want to be ready! Fortunately, the second beat of the measure is merely a playing of the open D string with my thumb. We’ll discuss that more in just a moment. For right now, though, let’s concentrate on the task at hand, namely simultaneously picking the open A string (again with the thumb), the open G string (with the middle finger of the picking hand) and the open high E string. I recommend using the ring finger of your picking hand for this. Once you’ve plucked these three strings, you’re going to hammer-on to the second fret of both the G and high E string with their respective fingers. And then you’ve going to pull those fingers back off! This will sound the G and E notes of those open strings. And then you’re going to simply pluck the B string (where your ring finger is still sitting on the third fret) with your middle finger of the fretting hand. And if that wasn’t enough, you’re going to finish it off by repeating the G and E string hammer-on, only this time you’ll be striking the sixth (low D) string with your thumb.

I’m sure that this explanation wasn’t as clear as I’d like it to be, so let’s examine it in minute detail, just to be on the safe side:

Again, I truly can’t stress enough the importance of being patient with yourself in learning a technique like this. Even though this last example, with the two-finger hammer-ons and pull-offs only lasts for two beats, there’s still a lot going on as far as your fingers are concerned. But taking the time to work through it now will allow you to use this technique on command in the future. And, once you’ve gotten the hang of it, you’ll not only be amazed at how you can do it without thinking, but also at how many opportunities you’ll get to use it in countless songs.

So, just to get it into thoroughly into our systems, we’re going to play it to death during our arrangement of Amazing Grace. But before we get back to the rest of the first line, let’s first take a look at our bass notes. In this transcription, like most of our other lessons, I’ve indicated which notes are to be played by the thumb by giving them downturned stems. Whenever possible, I’m going to try to keep this little arpeggio going on in the bass:

With Drop D tuning, this should be a cinch. The first beat is the open low D (sixth) string. On the second beat, and this occurs in almost every measure, I’ll pluck the regular open D (fourth) string. Finally, on the third beat, I’ll hit the open A string. When we get to our final MP3, you’ll hear me do a few measures of this as an introduction. It helps me to get the beat set in my head as well as to establish the D tonality of the entire song.

And while I do try to do this throughout the whole song, at least the measure where the D chord is the accompaniment, sometimes I can and sometimes I miss. That’s life (at least that’s what the people say…)! As we work our way through the rest of Amazing Grace we’ll find times when it might become necessary to miss a note here and there in order to concentrate on what’s going on in the higher strings. In the measure where I think you might have a bit of trouble, I’ve made the second beat a half note (duration of two beats), usually on the open D (fourth) string.

So now that we’ve gone over the use of hammer-ons and pull-offs, as well as the use of our bass strings, what do you say about finishing off that first line?

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After all that practicing, you should have the first part of this down cold. There are only a few small things to add in order to complete this line. Notice that on the third beat of the third measure, the melody note is the open high E (first) string. Instead of maintaining the D chord, as I have from the start of the song, I place my index finger on the first fret of the B string. This would allow me to make a D7, if I had the rest of my D chord in place. With the open first string, though, I now have a D9 chord, which creates a very pleasant transition from the original D to the G chord that marks the first beat of measure four.

When I place my index finger on the second fret of the B string to make the D9, I also place my middle finger on the second fret of the G string. This is just my being sneaky. Should I, by accident, strike the G string, there won’t be any “clunker” note. And more importantly, all I have to do now to get my G chord in place is to slide both fingers two frets farther up the neck (my index finger is now on the third fret of the B string and my middle finger is on the fourth fret of the G) and add the bass note. It never hurts to think ahead!

And now’s the time to remember that, being in Drop D tuning, our G note is going to be on the fifth fret of the sixth string, not the third fret as it is in standard tuning. Fortunately, because I took care to have my fingers set on the G and B strings, all I have to do is place my ring finger on the fifth fret of the low D (sixth) string and I’m set.

Since we’ve changed chords, I’m also going to change the bass notes as well:

But as I’ve noted here (and truly no pun intended there!), you can also maintain the D in the bass or even switch between the G note on the fifth fret and the open low D (sixth) string. Just don’t hit the A string! Please notice that I still use the regular open D (fourth) string as the bass note of the second beat. I like to do this because, in my ears, it creates a sort of continuity with the rest of the song. In fact, until the two times when we will later switch to an A chord, I always have the open fourth (regular D) string as the second bass note of each measure.

The last measure of this line is simply playing the A note on the second fret of the G string along with the bass. That puts us right back where we started. And now we can move along to the second line:

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This second line of Amazing Grace begins almost exactly the same way as the first line. The only difference is that we’re adding an adorned B note at the start of the melody. The next measure is identical to measure two of the first line. And at the end of measure three, in place of the D9 chord of the first line, we’re sticking in yet another hammer-on of the G and high E (first) strings. In this notation, I’ve omitted the bass note on the third beat, but with some practice, it’s easy enough to add. In fact, in the final MP3 of our lesson, you’ll hear me play it like this:

Please take the time to see and hear that this hammer-on in not a grace note, as all of the previous ones have been. We want to draw this out so that both the open strings and then the notes of the hammer-on are of the same duration, namely a half-beat each.

The last measure of this involves changing from the D chord we’ve been using pretty much throughout the song to A, with the A note at the fifth fret of the high E (first) string serving as our melody note. There are a couple of ways to do this. Let’s look at them both:

In the MP3 examples, I use the first version of this (the “either” as opposed to the “or”). We’ve discussed this particular voicing of A, which is used a lot by classical guitarists (and, for some reason, Pete Townsend), in some of our past lessons. While it may seem a bit of a stretch, it’s actually pretty easy to get used to with a little practice. I also like to use this voicing because it gives me something different to play in the bass, alternating between the open A string and the E note at the second fret of the D (fourth) string.

The second voicing (the “or”) is essentially your standard F chord moved up to the fifth fret. I don’t use a full barre across the fifth fret for two reasons: first, the open A string is going to be our bass note anyway and second, in Drop D tuning, barring the fifth fret will give us a G note on the low D (sixth) string, as we saw at the end of the first line. While this forces you to use octaves of A (the open A string and the seventh fret of the D (fourth) string) as your bass, that’s a perfectly acceptable thing to do.

With either or these methods, it is easy to change the C# of the A chord to D, creating Asus4 on the third beat, and then back again. I use this slight change of the A chord to bring a little variety to these two measures. Since the melody line is hanging on to that A note for a full five beats, it’s nice to have some movement in our accompaniment. If you opt for using the “F” style A, then you could do this instead:

In this example, we’re using the F# and G notes (located on the seventh and eighth frets, respectively, of B string) to create an ascending harmony line. The addition of the F# changes the A to A6, while the G creates an A7 chord.

The very start of the third line of Amazing Grace perhaps poses our biggest challenge. While keeping the high A (fifth fret of the high E (first) string) as our melody, we need to change from our A chord back to D. This is what I’ve come up with:

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Since the A note of the melody actually shoots off the F#, I’m using a voicing of A6 which is just a Dm chord positioned at the fifth fret. My index finger in on the fifth fret of the first (high E) string, my pinky (can’t forget to include the pinky!) plays the seventh fret of the B string and my middle finger gets the C# note at the sixth fret of the G string. Add the open A string in the bass and I’m all set. This voicing allows me to switch to my D chord by changing only one thing, placing my ring finger on the seventh fret of the G string. This is the same voicing of D we’ve used in songs like Silent Night.

Now, of course, there are other ways of doing this. If I’m using the “classical” version of the A chord from our last example, then I might consider doing this

And while this is perfectly fine to do, I think that some of you may find it a bit of a stretch (pun intended this time!) to make this chord. And, my ears prefer to hear that F# note as part of the D chord. So this is why I chose to change from an open position chord to one at the fifth fret. While it is a little harder, it comes at a point in the song where you can use the open strings in the bass to cover up your move up the neck. If you listen very closely to the final MP3, you’ll even hear the squeak of my strings as I do so.

The rest of the third line is a mirror image of the end of the first line. That certainly won’t do for us, will it? So when we get to the G chord, let’s try a new hammer-on and pull-off combination, this time alternating between the open G and B strings and the notes of the G chord that kicks off that measure. With all the hammering-on and pulling-off you’ve done up to this point, this should be a piece of cake!

Which brings us to the fourth and final line of Amazing Grace :

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And this is all stuff that we’ve covered up to this point. Except, and there’s always an exception, right, for the third measure where we’re throwing in an A6 chord. If you want to get technical, the F# in the melody line, when played over A, is what creates the A6. Be that as it may, this simply involves us coming up with still another hammer-on. What I’ve notated here is perhaps the easiest thing to do. On the first beat, strike the open high E (first) and B strings with your picking fingers while striking the open A string at the same time. Then hammer your ring and middle fingers on the first two strings. I wait until I have done that before adding my index finger to the mix, but you can certainly do it at the same time if you so desire. Then simply remove your ring finger from the high E (first) string to get the E note in the melody for that last beat in this measure.

If you want to get truly fancy, you can do this final bit as pull-off as well. And, what the heck, since we’re throwing in everything but the kitchen sink, why not add that G to D combo from the end of the third line? Something like this:

The possibilities, as the cliché goes, are endless. But seriously, by playing around with the technique of hammer-ons and pull-offs, you can come up with some very interesting effects. Not only in terms of your melodies, but in terms of dynamics and tone as well. Our final MP3 is of me playing through Amazing Grace twice. While this is chalk full of little mistakes, you can hear how smoothly and naturally the song flows from one line to the next:

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I hope you had fun with this lesson and that you enjoy playing, and playing around with, Amazing Grace. Getting comfortable with doing hammer-ons and pull-offs is essential for any guitarist and I hope that this particular arrangement will give you the confidence to use these techniques without fear. They can add a lot to the individual voice of your guitar, allowing you to give your playing a broad range of tonal qualities. You should find that it is possible for even a “strictly rhythm” guitar to “cry and sing.”

And, as always, please feel free to write in with any questions, comments, concerns or songs (and/or riffs and solos) you’d like to see discussed in future pieces. You can either drop off a note at the Guitar Forum page or email me directly at dhodgeguitar@aol.com.

Until our next lesson…

Peace

I put together a very easy instrumental for beginning to intermediate students.

This chord melody requires you to use “Drop D Tuning”. All that you need to do is: Lower String 6 from its original “E” pitch to a “D” note (one whole step lower). I did this because it added an extra low bass for this song; I used it to create a dramatic pulsating motion for the song.

Even though easy to play, it turned out very nice sounding. Think about which fingers to use to play your notes. Common sense will guide you. This should be a lot of fun, and not take a long time to learn.

Below are the lead sheet (melody and chords) and the Guitar Arrangement:

Listen to the midi file of the arrangement:

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Enjoy!

Happy Christmas to all!

These files are the author’s own work and represent his interpretation of this song. They are intended solely for private study, scholarship or research.

Silent Night is a classic three-chord song, using the first, fourth and fifth of whatever key you decide to play it in. I like to throw in the relative minor seventh at the end of the next to last line as well. Most people sing it in C major. For the solo guitarist, I would recommend playing in the key of G, which I’ve written out for you here:

There are three essential things to playing in solo fingerstyle – melody, bass and “accompaniment.” You want the melody of the song to ring out, if for no other reason than letting people know what the song is! The bass and accompaniment, usually chord arpeggios, should enhance your presentation – adding color and texture.

This is truly a no-frills arrangement. The bass line, with one exception, will be fairly static and the accompanying arpeggios come straight from your chords. I wanted to come up with something simple and elegant, easy enough for most beginners to try but not so dull that an intermediate guitarist would yawn. I hope you like it. Let’s look at the whole thing and then take it apart:

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The first line of the song consists of two measures which are then repeated. In measure one, start by fretting a G6 chord (320030). Upon reaching the second measure, remove your finger from the B string to let it play open. Here is the picking pattern I use:

The important thing here is to let the melody ring out. Since the melody is on the first two strings, the use of G6 allows you to let the first three notes of the song flow over each other as well as over the accompanying arpeggios. Hitting the bass note with a bit of authority will ensure it sustains throughout the measure. Be sure to play the rest of the chord with a light touch. Think of yourself as a piano or a harp.

Line two starts out with a D chord played up the neck followed by a normal open position D. Those of you who suffered through the lesson, Love The One You’re With, will remember this particular voicing, I’m sure:

Because I don’t have as much of the guitar to work with here (since I’m only playing the top four strings), I hit the bass note (open D string) on the first and third beats, which accentuates the melody notes. In measure six, I switch quickly to our regular D chord. The melody in this section is all on the first string. If you prefer, you can also use a D7 (example 2) as your chord in measure six. Those of you who are truly adventurous might try the third arrangement, where we go from the D to the Dmaj7 to the D7 (and yes, this is just like we did in the lesson, Fire).

We switch back to a G chord in the last half of line two (“…all is bright…”):

Since we’re on the G again, I’d like to point out something – in the pattern I’ve chosen to use on this song, I am not striking the A string when playing the G chord. So why should I worry about getting a finger on that string? That’s one less thing to be moving around and I, for one, appreciate having the extra time to get my fingers in place.

It’s especially helpful when we get to measure eight. Does anyone recognize this pattern from Blackbird or Scarborough Fair? Check out the Blackbird lesson for the lowdown on how to play this.

Measures nine through twelve make up the third line of the song. Here we form a C chord for the first measure:

At the start of measure ten we add our pinky to voice the G note (3rd fret, 1st string) and then slide it down to the 2nd fret to get the F# before removing it all together for the open E (1st) string. Yes, at the end of this measure, you don’t have to fret a single string of the guitar!

Measure eleven you should recognize as being the same as measure one, while measure twelve is, essentially, a repeat of measure eight. The only difference is that in measure twelve you start with the open B string.

The fourth line of the song (“…holy infant so tender and mild…”) consists of a repeat of measures nine through eleven, finished off with an arpeggio of the normal G chord. Again, I’d like to point out that since the melody in the open B string and we’re not playing the A string, you can feel free to fret this as a “partial chord” with only the G note on the third fret of the low E (6th) string.

Okay, now it’s time for the big finish!

Measure seventeen marks the return of our D chord from measure five. I heartily recommend that you play this with your index finger on the fifth fret of the E, your ring finger on the seventh fret of the B and your middle finger on the seventh fret of the G string. You’ll understand why when you see that the melody jumps from the A note (5th fret, 1st string) to the C at the 8th fret at the start of the next measure. Most people have to do this with their pinky and if the little finger’s not free, then you have to go through all the hassle of changing your whole chord. Trust me, it’s not worth it.

I’d also like to recommend using your ring finger of the melody’s G note (3rd fret, 1st string) in measure nineteen. What we’re going to do is to start out with our G chord (remember you don’t have to fret the A!), then on the third beat we will change the bass note from G to F# (2nd fret, 6th string). Now comes the tricky part! On the last half of the third beat, we will hit the open G (3rd) string while sliding our ring finger up to seventh fret of the E string. When we hit it, on the first beat of measure twenty, we will also hit the open low E (6th) string and play an arpeggio on the open D, G and B strings. Believe it or not, this is an Em7.

I like to slow down the last four measures slightly to make the notes more deliberate. Measure twenty-one (the last “…sleep in heavenly peace.”) is a G chord again, but we hit a different note on each beat. I punctuate these notes with the open D string on the second and third beats, alternating with the open G string as a pedal point on the offbeat.

For the twenty-second measure, form a D7 chord (you can leave the high E (1st) string open if you’d like) and add your pinky on the third fret of the B string. This way when you take it off, you’ve automatically got the C note in the melody. Pull that finger off and there’s your B note.

Wrap it all up with a nice slow arpeggio of a full G chord (yes, you can finally play the A string now!) and you’re done. I like to add the harmonics of the G chord (12th fret on the D, G and D strings) as a finishing touch.

Again, I realize that this lesson was a little more “condensed” than the ones you’ve become used to here at Guitar Noise. You have my apologies for that. But I think that most of you should be able to handle this arrangement with little to no trouble.

On behalf of everyone on our staff, I’d like to thank all of our readers for their incredible support of our site. We wish you all a wonderful holiday season and I look forward to sharing an exciting new year with each of you.

Peace

I’ll bet that, in spite it being the end of June, you just found yourself humming or singing along with those lines from Winter Wonderland. You really just can’t help it. Songs do that to us. Or rather, melodies of songs do that to us. The melody of a song, more often than not, is what we carry around in our heads. We’ll find ourselves whistling a tune or humming a few lines of something while waiting for our computers to boot up. If you don’t believe me, just try humming a Christmas carol at work. You don’t have to use any lyrics. People will recognize it and ask you if you’re feeling okay. It might be a good way to get a day off (or a lot of days off – please don’t hold me responsible).

“Melody,” according to Walter Piston’s Harmony, “is any group of tones heard as a coherent. Usually, however, when one thinks of melody it is a particular melody, one with an individuality that is intended to be perceived. That melody is so basic to the very nature of music is shown by the way we identify individual pieces. We recognize compositions by their themes or their tunes, not by their harmony or form, nor by performer. When we hum or whistle to ourselves, it is melody that we hum or whistle, our recollection of the melody helping us to recreate in the mind’s ear as much of the whole piece as we can.”

This sums up things pretty well, don’t you agree? When I think of a song, oh, say Message In A Bottle by the Police, for instance, I’m not usually thinking “Okay, C#m to A to B to F#m,” or tapping the driving drumbeat on my knee (although sometimes I am and do). No, usually I am singing to myself, “I’m just a castaway on an island out at sea…” Good songwriters are very adept at creating melodies that stick around in your brain for loooong stretches of times. Ever find yourself hearing a song you absolutely can’t stand over and over and over again in your head? Well, you may not like the song but the melody is firing all your synapses.

Today we’re going to examine the basics of melody. In order to do that, it’s good to use melodies with which nearly everyone is familiar and that is why I’ve chosen some Christmas carols to help demonstrate various aspects of this subject. If you think about it, the best examples of melody are the ones that have been around seemingly forever. So if you really want to study what goes into a good melody, (a song melody, that is) you can’t go wrong looking at holiday and/or church music or traditional folk songs. And for those of you who are scowling at that, remember that you don’t have to like the source to appreciate what it can teach you. Great songwriters (and musicians) are constantly expanding their musical boundaries, taking what they’ve learned from various and sundry music genres and using that material to fashion new and exciting styles.

Oh, yes, the disclaimer:

These files are the author’s own work and represents his interpretation of the song. It is intended solely for private study, scholarship or research.

Shapes Of Things To Come

The study of music theory covers many forms of melody, but for today we want to concentrate on what is commonly referred to as “tunes.” Again, according to Piston:

“This term is used for describing melodies containing regular groups of phrases, strong tonic (root) and dominant (fifth) cadences…Song tunes are usually matched syllabically to a text in rhymed verse. As a rule, they encompass a relatively small range of notes (usually not more than a tenth), are easy to sing, and seldom use wide intervals, chromatic degrees or complex rhythms.”

I bet most of you understood that. This theory stuff gets easier all the time…When it comes to melodies, as I said, the examples are yours for the taking. Want a simple melody? What could better than a scale? Let’s take a descending scale, how about in D major just to pick a key?

That’s pretty straightforward, huh? Sounds like any other descending D major scale you’ve ever heard, doesn’t it? But remember that music is malleable, you can stretch it like clay. Look at what we can do to this scale by simply playing around with the timing of the notes:

Now that was an easy way to come up with a melody, wasn’t it? Of course, it’s not the entire song, but it does get things off to a nice start. Want an easier example? How about an arpeggio? Something in C major, perhaps?

This particular carol actually demonstrates several qualities of interest. As noted earlier, it starts out with a simple arpeggio of the C major chord. This is followed by a descending scale from the G note downward. Then comes another arpeggio, which ends with the G note on “light” (and kudos to those of you who said, “Hey, that’s a half cadence!”). At the “From now on…” line, the C major chord is arpeggiated again, but this time starting with E instead of C and it’s all wrapped up with a descending scale from that high E to the low E. In terms of chord progression, everything is fine up until that point as well. There are two cycles of I to VI7 to II7 toV7 (C to Am7 to Dm7 to G7) and the “From now on…” again starts out with the same first three chords. But it then uses the E note as a launch pad for a stack of V’s. Remember that I’ve told you that sometimes you might have to work backwards? This is a great example. V, or G7, is our destination, and since every immediately preceding chord is the fifth of the following chord, we could actually label that E7 as “V of V of V of V.” In essence, everything is a pivot chord. This might help make a little more sense of it:

Looks a bit like a crossword for lunatics, doesn’t it? If you just remember that while G is V in the key of C, it is also I in its own key (where D is the V) and keep following the progression outward. Those of you who ever wondered when or where you’d ever have a reason to use the “circle of fifths” need look no further. And you probably don’t ever want to, either!

Our Christmas carol then repeats itself but does another interesting thing when it gets to the next “From now on…” point. Again it starts with the C arpeggio (with E as its first note) and the descending scale starting on the high E. That scale shifts on us, though, with the use of the G# (“miles”). This allows for the use of the E7, but this time it really is a V of VI and nothing more. (The Am to which it, however, is indeed a pivot chord leading to an interesting modulation to the key of F, that, unfortunately has to be a story for another time).

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas also is a good melody to study for its shape. Yes, melodies have shapes. Back to the book:

“The distribution of tones in a melody is marked by changes of direction, by range, by high and low points and by the variability with which all these occur in the phrase. Together all of these aspects constitute the contour of the melody, an important determinant of its character. A good melody will usually have a restricted range, with a high or low point that may be anywhere in the phrase. Secondary high or low points, which are common, do not repeat the primary high or low point. The majority of melodies seem to favor a rising-falling curve over a falling-rising curve, but there as many examples of the latter, as well as mixed curves.”

The C note on which this carol starts serves as its low point while the high E is actually a secondary high point (there is a high F later on, appropriately enough on the word “star” in the line “…hang a shining star upon the highest bough…”). Here you can also see that this is what Piston refers to as a “rising-falling” curve. Joy To The World, as I’m sure you’ve figured out without me having to write out the second half of the first line, would be a “falling-rising” curve.

Echoes

Songs, as a rule, are not very long. If the melody is floating all over the place without any kind of anchor at all, then it may well be interesting but not necessarily impressionable. This is why repetition is such an important part of a melody. It reinforces a sense of tonality, providing that sense of home that our ears are on the lookout for. In Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, we hear the C major arpeggio that opens the song repeated no less than three times in the first two lines alone.

Some melodies rely not only on a repetition of notes, but of rhythm as well. Here, in Hark The Herald Angels Sing, you can see how every second measure is two quarter notes followed by either two tied (slurred) quarter notes (and always from B to A at that!) or a half note. Similarly, the odd measures (1,3,5 and 7) are identical in rhythm c quarter, quarter, dotted quarter and. Later on in the carol the odd measures switch to two other patterns but the even measures maintain theirs throughout the song.

What I also particularly like about this piece is that way the melody builds in intensity. The three D notes at “Joyful all…” and “Join the triumph…” (measures 9 and 11) are powerful, towering over the B to A slurs that follow. The melody tops itself yet again, hitting three high E’s and then introducing a new ascending scale in measure 15, complete with a pair of eighth notes to propel it upward. These are the first eighth notes we’ve seen since measure 7 and we’ve never seen more than one in any given measure before. It gives the melody a sense of urgency before it makes the big finale in measure 17 where the high E notes are combined with a new rhythm pattern (albeit an inversion of sorts of the first one) and form the climax of the song. The last two measures actually become a bit of a cooling down for the voice, almost like you’d do at the end of a physical workout.

Rudolph And The Riffs

A while back (and everything seems a while back right now!) we discussed the basics of songwriting from a music standpoint. In A Before E (except after C), we touched upon what I called “riff writing.” This is when a song was written on the basis of riffs. Often, especially in blues-styled songs, the riff would be transposed to fit the chord in the progression (most often going from I to IV).

Songwriters do this occasionally when writing melodies as well. After all, if a melody is pretty catchy, a change of key shouldn’t hurt it. But an interesting variation of this sort of technique is to take a musical phrase and just transpose part of it. That sounds a little bit confusing, doesn’t it? Not to worry, we can look at and example:

This is truly songwriting in one of its simplest and purest forms. Look at the notes in the first measure:

And compare them to the notes in measure 5:

The intervals are exactly the same. It just starts at a note one step lower than it did in the first measure. The rhythmic pattern is the same, and having this two-measure phrase end on the same A to G notes creates an echo, although a slightly altered one, of the phrase in measures 1 and 2.

An added bonus is that these notes themselves describe a G7 chord, which perfectly fits the chord pattern. And speaking of chord patterns, this part of the song is simply a half cadence followed by an authentic cadence. It’s Down In The Valley (from You Say You Want A Resolution…) all over again!

You might think, especially since I’ve told you several times how there are only so many notes with which to work, that it would be difficult to come up with melodies that are dynamic and different. But that’s not really the case. Since different people have different ideas (not to mention abilities) as to what one can sing, there is still quite an untapped source of interesting melodies out there. If anything, melody poses a problem for many songwriters simply because they are not certain how to come up with one, good or bad. Part of this trouble stems from the fact that, to be honest, melody is the last of their concerns. Good riffs or good chord progressions are where our efforts are focused and once that is taken care of, well then hey, we’ll just sing/chant some notes in there and it’ll be okay. I’m not saying to drop this method of writing and start with the melody (although it’s a great exercise and can teach you a lot), but I will tell you that the better your melody, the more people are likely to remember your song.

No matter what time of year it is.

We’ll be returning to this subject later this fall, so get your questions together and send them to me either directly at dhodgeguitar@aol.com or drop them off at the Guitar Forums.

And while I’m on the subject, I’d like to take the time to thank all of you who have taken the time and trouble to write since I started my tenure here at Guitar Noise. Your input has been invaluable in helping me give this column direction, as haphazard as it might seem at times!

Until next week…

Peace.