Play the Guitar: Lesson 19

   In the previous part we've talked about Jingle Bells. Now we will revisit our first songs, a little.

   Our first songs, revisited

   Now that we are doing things a little differently then when we started, by using strumming patterns and all, maybe it is a good idea to revisit our first songs and see if there is anything we can do to make them easier to understand. To make their structure more easily recognizable, that is. To normalize them, if you will.

   San Francisco

   San Francisco is pretty straight forward, it is quite well behaved and the structure is pretty much... structured. There are four chords per lyric, each chord has four beats, the strumming pattern I use is pattern number 3: d_ du du du. I also like to do only one beat for the last Em on each verse  and then jump to D. But that's just how I do it, it is not necessarily the right way to do it. And we still need to learn that B minor chord, soon.

   Dancing in the Dark

 Dancing in the Dark is different, though. The structure needs a little expanding, a little normalization. There are a lot of pauses which make things a little complicated.

   So why don't we try what we did for Jingle Bells and... fix it!, basically. I think it's a good exercise to help us get used to the structure of a song, even if it is not exactly very easy. The best way to do this would be to sing along but... well, we're not there yet.

   I have done the beginning of the song, with the intro and the first verse. It is maybe not exactly like Mr. Springsteen sings it but... it's a start.

   Then there is the chorus and then the intro again. G Em x4.

 To be continued...