Learn to play Unchained Melody on guitar with this straightforward fingerstyle arrangement that includes high quality transcriptions, chord progression and strumming patterns as well as video lessons.
A melody may be accompanied by different chord progressions to evoke various emotions, making this a very common technique in music composition and arrangement. To ensure maximum effectiveness, ensure the chords do not overshadow the melodic line.
Basic melody exercise (level 2)
One effective way to enhance your musical ear is through practicing melodies over chord progressions. This allows you to gain an understanding of intervals – the building blocks of melody. Associate intervals with songs you know; this will help create smoother melodies over chord progressions.
Below you can see that the chord progression starts on C major before moving to A minor – a common folk music chord progression which pairs nicely with its melodic scale.
As you’ll notice, the G9 chord is actually a quartal voicing consisting of two perfect 4th intervals stacked atop each other – this technique is often employed when performing jazz piano by Jonny.
Basic chords exercise (level 4)
Learning this song will unlock both your musical talent and heart. Its vibrant piano chords will capture both you and your audience’s attention. To get started, master the magic chord shape exercises included in Exercise 1 and 2.
The main riff features power chords based on C Major. Its fast tempo will test you to keep up, but don’t be intimidated to start slowly and build your speed over time. Be wary of syncopated rhythms featuring strong up-strums.
Exercise 3’s chord contour features enclosure, a jazz phrasing technique in which upper and lower neighbors of a target note are played short to avoid clashing with chord tones. This effect is accomplished on beats 1 and 2, when the C6 chord is played alongside Cdeg7 chord accompaniment; on beats 3 and 4, Cdeg7 chord is added for balance. Furthermore, this exercise serves as an effective means for developing left hand chord tones.
Fingerpicking exercise (level 7)
This guitar finger exercise helps develop your ability to simultaneously play multiple strings at once. This exercise can especially benefit developing your ring and pinky fingers.
As with any exercise, this one should be practiced using a metronome and at a speed at which you feel comfortable performing it. Keep in mind, however, that striving to increase speed at the expense of accuracy will only compromise your playing in the long run.
Merle Travis Fingerstyle Technique involves using your thumb to switch between bass notes and melody notes on each note played. It adds power and emotion to your playing, so make sure that you practice until you can do it without making mistakes – practicing is key for getting results in any guitar exercise!
Bassline exercise (level 2)
An impressive bassline can transform a plain song into an exquisite musical work of art, but how do you construct one? The key is mastery of chord usage within each key of your song’s key.
This exercise will assist you in learning chords and their root notes, and how to transition between them. Furthermore, this provides some music theory insight that may help your bass line evolve over time, leading to new creative ideas as time goes on.
You can perform this bassline either strummed or fingerstyle, depending on your preference and skill level. Be sure to start slowly and gradually build up speed; that way you’ll capture the feel of this song without overdoing it.
Full bassline exercise (level 5)
Utilizing your right thumb and three of its fingers, practice playing a walking bass line using only these five. This exercise will strengthen your fretting hand independence as well as teach you to play with a more swing feel.
In order to perform a walking bass line, it’s essential that chord voicings hit all three notes of each chord’s root, third, and fifth (for instance: G chord). So your voicings would consist of G, F#bb (omitting flat seventh).
Make sure that all chord tones are hit while also adding melodically leading diatonic notes or chromatic passing notes that help melodically transition you from chord to chord – this is what truly creates an authentic sounding bass line!