-My Student MOCKED Wonderwall, So I DARED Him To Play the Intro! Check out all my lesson vids at: www.the-art-of-guitar.com Facebook: / fansoftheartofguitar / theartofguitar Thanks!!!
Noel Gallagher's whole thing is writing songs with chord patterns that look simple but are loaded with sophisticated melodic stuff. The man is famous for a reason.
no one ever stated that Led Zep and Oasis are in the same league@@Captain-Obvious1. @TheYearsShallRun just pointed something out, that you maybe would not expect from a band like Oasis.
I had to do 3 hour sets with an 80s cover band and was surprised to learn the delicate nuances of many songs I thought were much simpler. This includes rhythm, feel, chord changes, odd measures, parts I didn't originally notice, etc. A lot more complicated than expected
as someone who played in bands and with people doing countless hours of rehearsal i feel like often that's just the stuff that starts to develop when you played stuff a bazillion times. like eventually you get bored especially on a rhythm guitar and start to noodle in some little nuances and melodies into the stuff. like when you play chords over a melody line be it singing or another instrument you kinda noodle some of the notes into chords and chord changes, add more empathy on certain strings in the strumming for some less bass here or some less highs there. experiment with timbres and intensity to match what is going on at other parts or accent them. this is to me when the song really comes alive and develops to something great.
My "test" for guitar players is to learn "Talking In Your Sleep" by The Romantics. I am almost always let down. They never learn it. They think they have, but they never really spend the time, and it shows. They assume it is easy or beneath them. It is a song in the set list. If they won't learn an "easy" song, I don't expect them to have the discipline to learn any other songs from the set list.
The thing about "Wonderwall" is that it's the perfect strumming song. Most people think they can play it, but they can't. It's amazing what a genius Noel Gallagher is. He used pretty much the same chords for "Wonderwall," "Cast No Shadow," and "If I Had A Gun"... but they're so different! I've always loved Oasis, but it's my daughter learning guitar that showed me that Noel is even more brilliant than I realised. I always said, if you teach someone "Wonderwall" and "The Drugs Don't Work" (The Verve), they'll get strumming!
If you watch Noel live he does the A7sus4 with all four fingers, so he frets the 2nd fret G-string (from the capo), but on the recording you can hear the open G-string pretty well, so I've always played it with the three fingered version not fretting the G-string.
Mmmmmmmm I’ve watched dozens of Oasis live performances and I’ve never noticed Noel fretting the G string on the A7sus4. Not saying he never did - he uses that chord alllllll the time and plays it both ways depending on the song. But overall, I’m pretty sure he mostly leave the G string open. Just fyi!
Mike this was probably the coolest dissection of a guitar riff you or anybody has done. I'm a bass player who tries to play guitar and any time I ever strummed a riff it would sound like your student did. However laying out the strum pattern with directional arrows would obviously help anyone. Then placing where the accents would go even cooler. The ghost melody I always heard in Wonderwall, but I thought it was a layered second guitar part. That is until you played it. Great video Mike.
This gets into the "feel" of a song. For example, 'every rose has its thorn' from poison is easy in terms of chords but if you listen carefully and try to mimic exactly what's happening on the recording the rhythmic strums are very "free flowing". Your point about a "hidden" melody in wonderwall is key.
Mike, as a guitar teacher I've had to explain this to so many of my students. Because the meme of the song has really made it seem like an easy song, but in reality the rhythm is a lot more complicated and flavourful. Thanks for making this video.
Mock it as people do it's a classic tune. I love it, It's really quite a nostalgic song for me. It's a funny coincidence I was actually watching a countdown type show of songs that came out in 1995 on TV last night. 🙂I can really hear the difference when you played it correctly. I listened to it so much back in the day so my ear knows what it sounds like. Congrats on 857k Subscribers!
I don't think anyone Mocks or truly dislikes the song... they are just SICK AND TIRED of hearing it, and hearing it played wrong by all wannabe musicians that can't write or perform correctly. Its just like hearing the Happy Birthday song, you're heart just kinda cringest each time you hear it. But it is a brilliant and memorable song.
In learning "Here Comes the Sun," my favorite Beatles song, I learned that George does the same up and down motion when playing. Makes the song very different if you aren't used to that.
I've only been playing guitar for about 4 years and learning just one song...Wonderwall...has helped the playing of other songs because of the unique strumming pattern, the fast chord changes and the accent placement. I return to this song frequently because it is a skill builder and just fun to play. There is reason why this song is so 'popular'. If you are not having fun with it...oh, you are!!! Fabulous!
You nailed it! People just strumming it like it's a folk pattern miss the nuance in the rhythm. You almost have to think of it as a snare drum pattern to play it correctly. Once you understand that, it IS an easy song to play, but the hardest part initially is understanding the strumming/rhythm pattern and how the nuances in that pattern affect the feel of the song.
metalhead student who does "all these crazy licks and riffs" but also impresses you with the cleanness of his chord changes is already wild. Then comparing yourself to Mr Miyagi - love it
Identifying the nuance of the "up-down-accent" is what makes a truly remarkable musician. Very well explained, Mike! Next step - do a "Freebird" version: everyone knows and yells "FREEBIRD!", and maybe some folk think its another "Smoke on the Water" in terms of playability. Show everyone how hard it is to actually do the slide melody and have it not sound like you're stumbling drunk when playing it! I still struggle with hitting the perfect notes when sliding around!
Yo that little melody in there is fantastic! That really made me smile! I love love hearing new things in songs you've listened to a thousand times! Thanks! Great video!
It's cool to see this explained, I played this at parties & dive bars for years and always played it the way you described but I came about playing it that way intuitively instead of hammering out each detail one-by-one...and I always laughed at people who called the song simplistic
Man, I’m a guitar teacher myself and I absolutely loved this video. I’ve definitely run into the overconfident kid many times while teaching, but I do find that they tend to be the ones that stick out guitar the longest. Thanks Mike!
Love it, nice work. Really easy to understand. I had this same issue learning Fade to Black. I thought I was playing the chord progressions correctly for years until one day I heard something I hadn’t noticed and the alarm bells when off. It was literally the difference of ONE note and it made ALL the difference in the presentation.
I didn't know Wonderwall became sort of a joke. That's okay, my memories remain singing loudly with a group of friends in a warm bar during a cold winter night while getting drunk on dark beers and shots. :)
Ok i thought i nailed it right until the end but you killed me with that last "hidden melody" part. I knew there was something there but I could never quite pinpoint it.
As a newbie guitarist that spent years seeing memes about how Wonderwall is the easiest song in the world and even a child can play it in two hours, it was a real kick in the balls when i first encounter the song and discover that i fucking sucked at it. Keeping the ring and pinky finger on the lower 2 strings while moving the other 2 looks way easier than it actually is (specially if you have an underworked pinky and your ring finger has 0 independence from your middle one). Then you have the strumming, which as shown here is deceptively tricky. Add on top of this trying to sing along and playing at the same time and everything goes to hell lol. After 3 weeks is slowly coming together for me and i can more or less play the main parts at the real speed tho i still have some issues (specially the "would like to say to you" part that goes from Dsus4 to G to D/F to Em7 to G to A7sus4 is still giving me trouble), but oh well, is just a matter of time.
Despite the complexity of its strumming, I actually found Wonderwall's verses easier to sing along with than a lot of other songs with much simpler strumming patterns. I'm not sure why. I think it helps that the strumming rhythm is faster than the vocal rhythm (which for me is easier than in songs when it's the other way round); there aren't many syllables in the vocals that are held for very long; and although there's syncopation in the strumming and chord changes (the upstrums on the "&" on the A7 chord), they line up with the vocals. I honestly find it harder to sing and play Wonderwall's choruses than its verses. That's because there aren't any audio cues about when to start singing the "Because" on the right beat. Then you have to hold the "maybeeeeee" and "saves meeee" for exactly the right length of time. Also, when the singing stops, there's a 2/4 bar at the end (when it goes quiet before the drum fill leading into the next verse), which always throws me off. ("Hey Jude" has a similar 2/4 bar in its turnaround that I've also never been able to sing and play at the same time.)
really excellent lesson ... there is so much melody hidden and available when we pick with our fret handle inside the chords ... hammerons, pulloffs and flirting with the chord change aprroaching ... thanks ... I picked up my acoustic and played around for awhile to find another fun jam to play around with
This is the difference between a mature musician and a student. A mature musician understands that subtle nuance to something that seems simple can make all the difference in the world to how a song sounds and feels. A student sees the obvious components and the flash first. Your student learned a valuable lesson that day.
It's got a swing to it. Similar to hmmm Eight Days A Week. Lol. I've been playing it wrong too.... That's really clever with the melody from that Asus4 to Em7 in the hammer ons.... Great vid as always...✌️
The thing that maybe I didn't catch at first with this is that on the last chord the pattern changes almost entirely, while I thought it was the same through the whole progression. The more you learn.
Aweosme video Mike. As a Nashville guy, I see plenty of people bash on or butcher this song, and sometimes both. As a former teacher, seeing your ways of showing patterns and accents etc. is also super helpful. Thanks for the great content as always! Cheers!
Another awesome video as always Mike. Hopefully at some point you do the next artist series video on Brad Delson from Linkin Park, and Matt Heafy/Corey Beaulieu of Trivium. Both bands were the artists that got me into heavy rock/metal music, and I think there's a lot of techniques that are extremely helpful in terms of songwriting. Keep up the great work.
I play this song pretty close to what you did minus that last little embellishment you said Noel does. I might try that little lift of the fingers when switching chords. Kudos for teaching this clearly! Lots of people do it wrong. I love seeing you play acoustic. Thanks for clearly noticing my recent comment about doing some acoustic stuff sometimes. I think playing both acoustic and electric makes for a more well rounded player. Some people will only touch an electric guitar. I don’t know what intimidates people about playing acoustic when there’s so many pluses and techniques to explore! Maybe you’ll inspire people to try acoustic. Looks like the comments are loving your lesson and approach for a classic acoustic song. There’s so many cool rock and metal songs out that that were played on acoustics!
The levels of subtlety hidden within apparent simplicity is what separates any great art from its more common counterparts. Most people do not know *why* they love one artist, when another whose work is so similar is hated... but I believe this is usually the reason. Almost subliminal level complexities that make *their* art seem more full of "feeling" and "passion", and the rest seem almost hollow in comparison. They usually chalk it up to some mysterious "feeling", since they cannot define it in any other way. It is good seeing someone actually explaining that "feel" of an artist, vs what everyone *thinks* they are doing.
This video? It shows the difference between a guitar teacher and a superb guitarist teacher. I'm far from being able to play it (yet) but my ear is tuned in! Thank you.
Wonderwall is a great song! Oasis is the GOAT. I'm planning to start an Oasis cover band. It would be a great starting point for intermediate musicians to drag along for the ride. Then we can add Oasis adjacent music, then some originals. First I'm gonna master all of the songs of their first two albums.
I learned rhythm, groove, and accenting, muting (muffing lol) when I was about 7 years old(1969). Starts with DDUUD... Played correctly shows what a groove in time is. All I had was an acoustic and AM radio lol....
I feel like your student, and I don't know much about PLAYING guitar! I also don't think I would have heard the difference at the beginning if I didn't know that something was going to be wrong with how it was played! This was amazing to watch!!!
So this is my first time to your channel as I was brought here via a YT recommendation. Anyway this was a great video and an excellent music lesson. The only issue I had was knowing wtf Wonder wheel was as I have never heard of the song before. You referred to it in this video in a way that you expected your entire audience to know this classic popular song. I had no clue, so after watching your video I looked up Wonder wheel on YT and watched it. I also never heard of the band Oasis. Since this came out back in 1995 during the grunge band phase of music that the kids were into at that time and I wasn’t, I now understand why I never heard of the song or the band. Its actually a really good song, I like it a lot, but I would prefer a different band or vocalist singing it and in a different style. Thanks again for the thought provoking guitar lesson you’re an excellent teacher.
We need to create a meme in which the person who claims that songs are a meme becomes the meme themselves. We need to bring the meme songs and artists back into the fold.
When i watch your videos I always think me and you are so much alike! I tell my students all the time "You cant make fun of a song unless you can play it." And guess what....9/10 they cant play it! "Why are you like this?"...haha I know that look from my students.
Nice job with this video. The little nuances do make all the difference! Hey, can you please tell us which Taylor model you’re playing and what strings (company and gauge) are on it? Thanks so much!
Weird, I played this for my girlfriend tonight. Had a couple drinks, rarely pickup the guitar anymore, but this is a riff that just sticks with me. I love the walk down in the bridge, it’s still one of my favorite things to play.
I had a similar experience with Elton John's Funeral For a Friend. A friend of mine had his nose so far up classical pianist's (isisisis?) booty holes that he thought all other pianist were inferior in every way. So I asked him to play Funeral For a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding. It's a lot different to play the actual song as it was written than it is to mimic it' structure and melody by ear. He hadn't realized how wrong he had been playing it for several years even though to him it sounded correct. For all music students: Learn rhythm. Learn it well. Syncopation is something you MUST master or you won't play most things properly and you'll have difficulty "lagging" the tempo while still keeping proper time. And this is the most important lesson of all: Just because something is popular doesn't mean it is "easy" or not brilliantly composed. Learn to respect music in all its forms and learn from them. Channels like this one and others like it, that explore different genres and eras of music, are perfect for music appreciation and also theory. One other thing; don't paint yourself into a corner by only playing and listening to a single genre of music. I'm a metal head who loves death/doom/thrash/industrial/symphonic metal - but I also am a bass head and love Miami Bass music, hip hop, electro, ambient, classical (and all its sub genres). Study about your favorite band and see what they do to practice and you'll most likely find that they listen to a wide range of music and are diligent musicians and students even intot heir old age. Don't stop learning. Expand your mind. And practice syncopation or you will NEVER have good rhythm.
reminds me about my buds dad who told my buddy and i not to pick on a song unless you can play it i played the stairway intro wrong for years i didn't know the song had that descending chromatic part on the 4th string i wasn't playing the F# i'd play the open D instead THNX Mike
I do wnnder sometimes whether actually really listen to these songs. I was never an oasis fan, being a metal head, but always acknowledged they wrote some brilliant songs and can sing that pattern without even thinking about it.
As a guitar teacher myself, getting students to understand that there is a lot of time where we just keep the arm moving is one of those things that helps take them out of total amateur level. 😂
lol , the last thing you pointed out was the first thing i noticed, but i didn't notice a lot of the other stuff :P , i tab out music with the help of spectrograms , and that kind of change is really easy to see in them and it happens in a lot of chord progressions so im super dialed in to how that "feels".
I was gigging with a friend in 2022, who wouldn’t believe me when I told him he was not only playing it wrong, but he was also trying to sing it all, using the same progression, with no changes. He couldn’t understand why he was having so many problems with the vocals. 😵💫 I finally talked him into taking it out of the set.
Reminds me I need some strumming discipline - after years of playing you get very instinctive with it. My attempt would have been a lot closer than the students but not *quite* there.
Even played correctly, clearly still an entry level/beginner song. A great song non the less. I notice a lot of students new to the guitar get confused or overwhelmed by strum patterns in notation. That's there during the learning period where you need them, kind of like training wheels on a bike. Once you progress to intermediate and get use to the difference in up and down strokes and rhythm strokes in general, it all will just happen for you by ear.
Holy crap! I can’t play but ive got a couple friends who do and this may sound weird but when they’ve played the way the student played it I always felt something was missing and they never believed me. It was the “hidden” melodic line, the song just “had less feel to it” for me but I could never place the difference since I don’t know jack about music.
A teenage student i have just this week who loves Def Leppard told me that the harmony part in Master of Puppets "sounds terrible" and "out of key"... I died a little and told her we would go over why she is wrong next lesson 😅
I remember easily learning wonderwalls strum pattern by ear as a beginner and being shocked at how many people have no idea they are playing incorrectly - Underdeveloped ears seem to be a real weakness nowadays. This is not intended to brag, I was pretty novice at learning songs by ear at that time too.
Back in the day we had to actually decipher what was going on. Today it’s just fed to us. Huge difference and I’m sure that’s what’s contributing to the decline.
I am born 2001 so I am part of easy access generation, but I exclusively learn by ear as it seems to me that ears and musical understanding are more important than technical ability alone. Learning minor swing by django right now and it feels like my brain is having to run a marathon 🤣 Ever learned any gypsy jazz?
I’m trying to progress with my playing, I’d guess from late beginner to something more. As part of the process, I’m playing things I don’t really listen to very much these days, simply because I know them and so I know what they’re supposed to sound like. For example, riffs like Wish You Were Here, La Bamba, etc. Wonderwall is a good one because of the consistent rhythm it requires. Trying to get better at guitar makes me appreciate music so much more, because even bands I don’t like at all are generally pretty good at making music.
I spent many years on and off trying to learn acoustic guitar. When i finally practiced on a regular bases I starting getting it and I could hear the notes but I could never get my strumming down and gave up.
Good video. Strumming and picking patterns have always been one of the parts about guitar that came fairly easily to me. You wanna know something funny? I found your channel because you used to leave like $50 super chats on Kyle Dunnigan's Craigs News show 😂