Music Lesson: Introduction to Melody

Moving on to example two. It's our first look at melody. So far, we've been playing riffs‚ either a bar phrase repeated over and over, or a two-bar phrase repeated similarly.

Overview

This time, every bar is a little bit different, so we've got more to learn, and it might take some more time to work out and practice.

New Notes

We also have two new notes: A and B.

• A: Open A string
  • As we said before, Eddie ate donuts. Good boy, Eddie.
• B: Second fret on the A string
  • Just as we did for the G, we're going to push down on the second fret to get the note B.

Playing Technique

As a recap:

• We're not too close to the metal strips; we're in the middle of the wood, pushing down to get that clear sound.
• For this song, it's a good idea to keep your fingers close to the strings when playing different notes.

Tip: For the G, keep your ring finger hovering over that third fret, but don't press down. If you're too close, you'll mute the strings, so watch out for those distances. This helps us set ourselves up for the phrase and play smoothly rather than racing around and rushing to get back into position.

Notated Rhythms

If we take a look at the notated rhythms above, you'll see it's the same pattern every time:

• Two quarter notes and a half note.

The whole rhythm for each four bars will sound like this: 1, 2, 3, 4.
1, 2, 3, 4.

Focusing on Notes

So, we don't need to worry about the rhythm; we're just focusing on the change in notes.

• Bar 1: Open E string going to the third fret (which is G), followed by an open A string.

Practice: Get used to playing with your pick and finding those different strings. It may be worth taking a pause and reviewing those picking exercises we looked at in the beginning.

• Playing open E to third fret to open A for two beats: 1, 2.
  • So that first bar sounds like this‚

Working Through the Bars

• Bar 2: Staying on the A string.

  • You can see this because all our notes in Bar 2 are on that second line, which represents A on the tab.
  • We're playing B (second fret, with our middle finger), then open A, back to B to combine the first two bars.
  • It should sound like this: 1, 2, 1, 2.

• Bar 3: The open A string played three times, so we don't need any fingers.

  • Here, when I said we want to keep our fingers hovering, this is where we don't want to let go of the neck completely.
  • We're leaving our fingers around the area of where they need to fret. This way, the next time we play them, we're close and ready rather than having to find the note and possibly slow ourselves down.

• Final Bar: We've got Bar 1 in reverse.

  • Open A string going to G (fret three on the E), followed by open E to finish for two beats.

Practice Suggestion

So, if I play you through that melody, try to play along! We'll go nice and slow, and we can build up to catch up with the backing track eventually.

Recommendation: Practice this one bar at a time. Loop each bar until you can do it perfectly, then move on to try and stick them together gradually rather than going from start to finish every time.

Take it really slowly, and once you feel comfortable, I'll see you in the backing track!