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If you really want to hear virtuoso guitar playing, have a listen to some Flamenco artists. Spanish style guitar playing really does take full advantage of the the design of the guitar, with bass lines, chords and melody all woven into one, and all played with the fingers. When I first heard that kind of playing back in about 1966, I decided that's what I would be: a Flamenco Guitarist. I spent countless hours in front of the record player, listening over an over again to the tunes at half speed, zeroing in on the music note by note and figuring out where to find it and how to play it on my guitar. My asumption was "if they can do it, I can do it" and I did get pretty good for a teenager. It wasn't until players like James Taylor and Jose Feliciano came a long that I became interested in more popular music.
This lesson is not really flamenco (or 'flamingo' as many call it by mistake), but it has a little bit of that flavor to it. It's a simple little three chord progression turned into single notes -- melodicized, if there is such a word. As you probably have figured out by now, reading these lessons, the best way to discover strong melody lines is to follow the chords' tones. They are ALWAYS the best notes to string together into melody. Notes other than chord tones will certainly be needed, but only as passing notes ... connecting notes. If you can really nail down those chord tones, the others will come easily. To really nail down your chord tones, you need to be able to see chords in all positions, something I mention often. It's easier than it sounds, and there is a very nifty way of facilitating that process, which is the subject of my book
PlaneTalk.
The three chords in this case are Am - Dm - E7. This is yet another example of the I - IV - V chords, but in a minor key. No matter what style, or whether it's major or minor, the I - IV - V chords are the underlying structure of just about anything you've ever heard, so study them well and trust them. They will never let you down. Take the time to really know the 3 chords in their proper groupings: E-A-B; D-G-A; G-C-D; A-D-E; C-F-G; B-E-F#; F-Bb-C ... etc. I-IV-V.
The line I play may sound impossibly fast if you're just starting out, but you'll see from the tablature and the movie that my
left hand fingers don't seem to be moving much. That's because the notes are already there in the chord formation. All I need to do is play through the chord shape to get my melody under way. So it's the finger-picking hand that makes it sound fast; that's the hand to concentrate on. This 'playing the notes of a chord separately' is called an 'arpeggio', by the way, a term you'll be hearing often.
So, I 'arpeggiate' the Am chord, throwing in a couple of passing notes to achieve the melody I want to hear. You could break this line down into numbers, and they would read: 1 1 3 5 1 2 3 2 1 7 (end of first measure), so you can see that apart from the 2 and 7, all the rest are chord tones (1-3-5).
At the second measure (red 2) I switch to a Dm7 chord. That is now the chord I follow. I play the bass note (D) and the small (2 note) chord on top. Then I play a line down (3-2-1-7 of the Dm7 chord) to get to the E7 chord.
Then the bit that makes it sound Spanish. It's a little line that goes 5-#5-5-4-3-5. That #5 in there is the Spanish flavoring. You can see and hear that I throw a few low E notes in there too (the 1) to really make sure the listener knows what chord is being played ... the V chord ... and that line resolves on the 1 of the I chord. The 1 of the I chord is about as 'home' as you can get. In this case it's an A note. I then echo the bass notes form the previous bar, only on the A string, since I'm now playing an Am chord. The whole thing ends on an Am chord, the same one that started it.
Watch my right hand carefully. You can see clearly what it's doing, how my fingers pick the notes, how the thumb takes care of the bass notes, how I mute unwanted strings with the side of my thumb, etc. All very complicated until all of a sudden it's not, it's just muscle memory at work. Practice, and a lot of it, makes perfect.
Once again, this note by note breakdown of this line may seem a little silly to some, but I do in order to drive home the point that everything is accountable in music. There are no grey areas, there is nothing haphazard. All notes, chords, riffs, phrases, licks, turnarounds ... EVERYTHING ... can be named and numbered, explained, rationalized and justified. Even 'bum notes' have a name and number. This may seem overly daunting at first, but it becomes second nature after a while, if you take the time to study it a bit.
The midi files below are just a little wonky as it's very difficult to program the 'feel' of what I played into
GuitarPro, the program that generates the tab and midi. They will give you something to play to, though, especially the slow version.
Full speed midi | Half speed midi | GuitarPro file
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