This lesson is precisely why Adam played behind Norah Jones for years and 999 other guitarists who might even have more fretboard mastery than he does, didn’t.
Great lesson. I am probably considered intermediate-ish, and it was much harder than I anticipated. I found myself doing as you had suggested some of your students do in lessons, which is hunt an peck, which is okay. Just another data point in the learning process. I have now played it several times all over the neck and it really got me thinking in terms of scale degrees in a way I don't normally do. I also found it instructive to do it on a single string. That was also much harder than I thought it would be.
I keep finding my way back to triads. I found the "E" shape fell most naturally under the fingers when playing the melody in F and C. Funnily enough every December I find I make more progress on my ear/playing trying to figure out the melodies for Christmas carols. Silent Night is a fun one. After groaning in grade school band when the instruction was to play twinkle twinkle little star fast forward several decades and I'm thrilled to play Happy Birthday in 4 keys. of course back then we didn't appreciate a good nap either.
This Collings DS2H is kind of magical. So much ring/chime/bloom. And the room I'm in is adding some mild ambiance. I didn't add any actual reverb. What you hear is what you get.
I didn't play along with this and I know that I would get impatient, screw it up and demand to do a chord melody arrangement and be done with it. But I can see the wisdom in this being a great excercise as you move around in different keys. Hence the title of the video. And I will get on it.
One could spend hundreds of hours watching guitar lessons on RU-vid and find nothing close to as valuable as the first 10 minutes here. I know because I probably have.
Hi Adam, when you play second inversion in C ( i.e. you start on G) are you playing in G? ie, the first note is now G. this seems to fit with your remarks on modes at the end. in D Lydian D is the first note of a D lydian scale. D is not the fifth of G in this case?
When playing 2nd inversion C chord, and starting the "Happy Birthday" melody on the note G, you're in the key of C. When playing in D Lydian, the starting melody note is A. Whichever. mode we choose to play in, the starting melody note is the 5th scale degree of that mode. Does that make sense? I hope so.
This was really fun. Played it modally throughout the week starting from Lydian, and changed one scale degree every day, on single strings and on different 3-string clusters. Very much looking forward to Locrian tomorrow, and to part II.
Really enjoyed this tip. The best way to be more melodic is to, well, play melodies! Paying attention to the range limitations is crucial. Thanks Adam. PS intermediacy is indeed a word!
