Break Away II

We have seen how two chord songs templates help us play guitar by ear when we are working our children’s songs, we’ve also applied this concept to classical music.  This is just the top of the musical iceberg, the more that you
Practice and apply the 8 bar two chord song templates mixtures we have studied so far lots more songs will come to mind. 

As we widen our study of 2 chord songs to incorporate country music we will notice how a variation our early eight bar template can link an easy children’s song to a number one country music hit song.  Are you aware you might use the same 2 chord, eight bar song template for both these songs? 

Hang Down Your Head Tom Dooley and Billy Ray Cyrus’s “Achy Breaky Heart” use the same harmonic background, of course the tunes of these two songs are different. 

Here is our 3rd two chord template :

~ C/// ~ C/// ~ C/// ~ G/// ~

~ G/// ~ G/// ~ G/// ~ C/// ~

and the mathematical code for this progression is …

~ 1/// ~ 1/// ~ 1/// ~ 5/// ~

~ 5/// ~ 5/// ~ 5/// ~ 1/// ~

Realizing the similarities in the chord progressions will be a great help if you’re playing at a party and someone requests Achy Breaky Heart, it also underlines the significance of practicing and studying the children’s tunes. 

I am sure you’ve heard the phrase “that strikes a chord with me”.  Really that is what will be beginning to occur for you …chords and even complete chord progressions will start to “connect”. 

Guitarists who play by ear have mastered this important capability of “connected learning”, by associating new material with something they already know they can recall and recall this information quickly and accurately.  Our studies up to this point have been restricted to songs that use the 8 bar modules repeated for the period of the whole
Piece. 

Many songs use two chord, eight bar modules as a part of the song,the following eight bar module would work for the verse of Roy Orbison’s hit song  ‘Blue Bayou’. 

~ C/// ~ C/// ~ G/// ~ G/// ~

~ G/// ~ G/// ~ C/// ~ C/// ~

Side note : Blue Bayou’s verse comprises sixteen bar so you want to play the 8 bar module thru twice. 

Try and work out this progression in other keys, the formula is :

~ 1/// ~ 1/// ~ 5/// ~ 5/// ~

~ 5/// ~ 5/// ~ 1/// ~ 1/// ~

Come and join us at Play Guitar By Ear for the most fun and comprehensive free lessons on the web! – Best Way To Learn Guitar.

Hagerstown Restaurant

Tags: arts, blogs, education, Entertainment, guitar, hobbies, men, movies, music, other, piano, violin, women