20 Songs To Get Started

If you are returning here to practice, jump to Song Index

The purpose of this lesson is to

to feel when to send weight/movement
awareness signals to your fingers.

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Prerequisites

You have been working with the “Finger Weight & Movement Awareness” article. You must have a capo.

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Now that you understand the concept of how to send clear, and concise finger weight/movement signals to your fingers, you need to understand when to send these signals. This is a feeling. You learn this feeling through listening. You do not need any inherent magical musical talent to learn this.

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Project 1

Put your guitar down and listen to a few of the songs listed here. Your only goal for this project is to notice the moments when you feel like the “scene” or “backdrop” of the music has changed. That’s it. Just notice when you feel this. Don’t give any thought to what the scene is changing to.

Don’t write all the lyrics out. Don’t write anything down. Don’t search for sheet music on the internet. No counting. No trying to memorize anything. Just listen. No guitar. Do this until you start to feel the scenes changing throughout the song. In fact, do it until you can not only feel when the scenes change, but you start to anticipate the upcoming scene change.

This is the “when” of chord changes. It is not a math problem to be solved. It is not a list of data to be memorized. It’s just a feeling. You will feel it more strongly if you sing the melody.

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Project 2

Once you feel like you have a good sense of the “when” of the chord changes for one of these songs, you can start to play it. Understand that what you are doing is participating in the song. You are not trying to play whatever the guitar player on the recording is playing. You are just participating in a way that won’t get you kicked out of the jam session.

First thing to notice; “Capo at…fret” or “No Capo“. Just do it.

Second thing to notice; “Start with…chord on the lyric…”. This is to give you a strong “when” location to start with. It is not the intro (some of these tunes have long intros). It is the main lyric. The lyrics in parentheses are those which lead into the strong reference lyric.

The third thing to notice; “The only other chord is…”, or, “The other chords are..”

“The only other chord is…”. For the first 10 songs, there is only only one other chord other than the starting chord. Therefore, if you start on the correct chord (and this is being given), and you have taken the time to do Project 1 (i.e. you can feel when the chords change), you have a 100% chance of getting every chord change in this song correct and you can participate in this song by getting to these chords on time.

“The other chords are..”. For the remaining 10 songs, you still get the starting chord. You are then given a choice of two chords. The first chord mentioned is the first chord change after the starting chord – so you have a 100% chance of getting the first chord change correct. The next chord change could be the second chord mentioned or it could be the starting chord played again. You decide this through trial and error.

For example, if the starting chord is A and the other chords mentioned are D & E, you start with A and the first time you feel a chord change it will be to the D. The next time you feel a chord change it could be to either A or E. You have a 50% chance of getting this chord – and all subsequent chord changes – correct the first time you try, and a 100% chance on your second try.

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Practicing Compared To Rehearsing

When you play a song in front of other people for the purpose entertaining them, you are performing. When you play a song while you are alone, you are rehearsing. You rehearse to identify what is working and what isn’t. When you take one the “isn’ts”, isolate them and work on fixing them, you are practicing. You can use your rehearsals to focus your practice. For example:

• Is there a “when” problem? Do you trust your feelings about when the chords are changing?;
• Is there a “where” problem? Do you trust that you have internalized exactly where your fingers need to be? (Do you have chords shapes memorized); or,
• Is there a “how” problem? Do you trust that your fret hand fingers are only doing exactly what they need to do, and nothing more? (“Finger Weight & Movement Awareness”)
• Are you sabotaging yourself? Just focus on the specific goal – which is changing to the upcoming chord smoothly, efficiently, and on time. Leave all your other concerns and/or curiosities out of it – i.e. “I don’t like my strumming pattern” (then don’t strum a pattern, just play the chord once when you change to it), “I don’t know why these chords are named the way they are” (it doesn’t matter right now – and it never matters to your audience), etc. In other words…

don’t let what you can’t do get in the way of what you can do!

Alphabetical Index

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Note: The chords you are looking for to play the ending are A to A7 to D to Dmi to E to A.

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END

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