The song “Alouetta” is about plucking the feathers of a Lark. It is therefore used to teach the parts of the body. As Wikipedia says: “Alouette” has become a symbol of French Canada for the world, an unofficial national song.[3] Today, the song is used to teach French and English-speaking children in Canada, and others learning
The song “Do Re Mi” was introduced in the famous 1959 Rogers and Hammerstein musical “The Sound of Music”. In the musical it is used by the governess Maria to teach the major musical scale to the Von Trapp children, who learn to sing for the first time. The note/chord chart is below:
Here is a fairly easy version of the 1960’s song “Wipe Out”. Composed in the form of twelve-bar blues, the tune was first performed and recorded by the Surfaris, who became famous with the single in 1963. This version is meant for “level 2” guitar players – not raw newbies, and not semi-professionals. Among other
Here is a simple “Chords+” version of “Every Breath You Take” in G. The original, a song from the British group the Police, was written and sung by Sting, and released in 1983. In the 1983 Rolling Stone critics’ and readers’ poll, it was voted “Song of the Year”. The original was released in Ab,
You can easily make your strumming more interesting when you’re playing in 3/4 time. Here are a couple of variations. The main point is that you should emphasize the first beat. So it’s like this: “ONE-two-three”. Of course how much you should emphasize that first beat will depend on the song. Generally speaking when you
Here is the song “You Are My Sunshine” broken down into Chords and melody notes. I’m going to start calling this the “Chords+ Version” because we’re mixing melody with chords. pdf version
This version of Edelweiss is played in the key of G. In this version I combine melody with chords. Edelweiss was featured in the famous movie called “The Sound of Music”. It was a folky feel but was not a traditional Austrian song. It was written specifically for the 1959 musical The Sound of Music
In this video I add a bass pattern to the accompiament of “Waltzing Matilda”. I use all downstrokes in this example, but you could just as well use down-up strokes. The initial pattern is Bass-Strum-Strum-Strum (1-2-3-4). I then introduce variations like this: Bass-mute-Strum-Strum, and Bass-mute-Strum-mute. “Bass-mute” and “Strum-mute” actually amounts to holding the note for
