Final Piece of the Course: "Under the Radar"

Congratulations! We've made it to the final piece of the course. We've learned eight songs so far in six different styles, and this is our final one in the indie style. It's called "Under the Radar."

This song will mix open chords, including both major and minor, as well as single note playing. We will take everything we've learned from our stylistic studies and previous pieces and put it all into this one.

Melody Overview

Line 1

In line one, we have our melody.

• Bar 1: Four quarter notes.

  • Starting on the open B string and descending down to the G, where we have the second fret, open, and second fret again (G, A).

• Bar 2: Half notes.

  • Open B string going to A (second fret on the G).

Let's work on those first two bars together:

Counting:
1, 2, 3, 4.
1, 2, 3, 4.
1, 2, 3, 4.

• Bar 3: A mix of two quarter notes and one half note.
  • Open G going to the second fret on the G string (A), finishing on the G string.
  • The last note of this line is an E, played on the second fret of the D string as a dotted half note (which is two beats plus half of two, giving us a three-beat note).

Counting:
1, 2, 3.
Finishing off with a quarter note rest on beat four.

Here's the first line for us to try and go through together:

Counting:
1, 2, 3, 4, 2, 3, 4.
1, 2, 3, 4.
1, 2, 3, 4.
1, 2, 3, 4.

Chord Sections

Lines 2 and 3

These lines are really exciting! We're using those open chords we've learned previously: C, G, and E minor.

As always, it's important to play these with one finger per fret.

• C on the first fret using your first finger.
• E minor on the second fret using your middle or second finger.
• G on the third fret using your third finger.

Line 2

• We start with a G major chord played for a whole note (four beats):

Counting:
1, 2, 3, 4.

• After this, we have a quick move to C:

  • Good idea to have our first finger hovering around the first fret on the B string, ready to push down when we change bars.

• Here are the notes:

  • Bar 2: A half note followed by two quarter notes.

Counting:
1, 2, 3, 4.

• Bar 3: Holding C as a whole note (four beats).

Counting:
1, 2, 3, 4.

• Returning to G with our third finger on the high E string (also a whole note).

Here's Line 2 to try and play along with me:

Counting:
1, 2, 3, 4.
G, 2, 3, 4.
C, 2, 3, 4.
C, 2, 3, 4.
G, 2, 3, 4.

Line 3

Going down to line three, we see our E minor:

• Played by pressing the second fret on the D string and strumming down all the way through the G, B, and E strings.
  • This is played as two quarter notes followed by a half note rest.

Counting:
1, 2, 3, 4.

• The rest gives us time to get to the next position, which is C with the same rhythm.

Counting:
1, 2, 3, 4.

• Returning to E minor with the same rhythm:

Counting:
1, 2, 3, 4.

• Finishing on G as a whole note (four beats).

Counting:
1, 2, 3, 4.

Let's try to play through Line 3 together:

Counting:
1, 2, 3, 4.
1, 2, 3, 4.
1, 2, 3, 4.
1, 2, 3, 4.
1, 2, 3, FOUR.

Remember: At the end with that G, you want to keep pressing the note into the fretboard, ensuring it rings out for the full duration of those four beats.

Line 4

Line four contains one note difference from line two, specifically in bar three, where we're playing an open D string leading us into the E in bar four.

Let's try that fourth line together. Don't forget to watch out for that extra note in bar three.

Counting:
1, 2, 3, 4.

Conclusion

And that brings us to the end of learning for this course.

• We've learned nine songs in six different styles,
• along with basics like how to hold the guitar, how to hold a pick, how to read music, and how to play notes.

We've progressed from complete beginner to being able to rock out to nine really cool songs and play along with their backing tracks.

Well done! I'll see you in the backing track to finish off this final song.