Guitar playing can be intimidating for beginners. Learning iconic classics like “Yesterday” requires time and dedication – but with the proper approach you can quickly master this timeless tune.
“Yesterday” employs an accessible chord progression and acoustic guitar arrangement to produce an emotive sound, perfect for complementing McCartney’s soothing vocals. Furthermore, this composition serves as an introduction to fingerstyle guitar.
F Major
F Major chords feature both white and black notes, creating a distinct sound that adds tension to progressions. Note C is placed one whole octave lower than F and produces its own unique sound due to its location within the scale; this variation on an F chord is known as an inversion of it.
F Major is an essential chord for building the harmonic foundation of any song, working well when combined with other diatonic chords such as the subdominant (iv), dominant (V), and tonic (i). Additionally, non-diatonic chords can add texture, depth, and emotion to your progressions – for instance using minor (ii), diminished (iv), and leading tone (vii) chords can create anticipation before returning back to tonic chord – much like journey through narrative writing with ups and downs and an expected conclusion at its conclusion!
G Major
G major is a popular key for guitarists because it contains only one sharp note (F). As such, it is easy to play music using only fingertips on the fretboard – this makes G major an ideal key to use when performing God Save the Queen or New Zealand national anthem as well as classical, country, rock metal music and many others.
G chord playing can be an effective finger stretching exercise for beginners. To create one, place your middle finger at the 3rd fret of the low E string; index finger on second fret of B string; and ring finger at 5th fret of A string.
Experiment with this chord over a backing track to find melodic ideas that work. Explore various open voicings too, such as G-5 or G5-C# chords which offer a nice open, ringing sound that holds up better with distortion than their major counterparts.
C Major
C major is an essential key to learn, not only because it will likely be encountered first in songs but also due to being easier for playing chords and learning theory than any other key due to black notes not being as easily read as white keys.
Many musicians believe that each musical key elicits distinct feelings and emotions; for instance, C has often been associated with strength and regret.
When playing C chords, remember that each note can be played either at its lower or upper octave – this is called an inversion – creating unique flavors of C chords by changing which octave you use. For instance, in “Yesterday”, G major chord was played an octave lower than its root chord.
Am Major
A minor chords can often be found in classic rock songs. Their deep sound often conjures feelings of melancholy or sadness; country songs use A minor chords to convey themes of struggle and determination.
As you learn chords, it’s essential to remember there are rules and patterns underlying how songs are structured. For instance, “Yesterday” opens in F Major but only stays there briefly before shifting into its relative minor form: A Minor.
As major scale notes are close together, our ears can easily identify whether a chord is major or minor just by listening to their ratio between notes of the scale. Minor scale notes differ slightly with lower third and flattened seventh notes making playing them on guitar slightly harder.