Hey! How are you doing? Justin here.
Today we are checking out a nice, easy, finger style version
of "Happy Birthday". It's like a chord-melody thing
where a thumb is going to be playing the bass note
to the chords while the 1st finger picks out the melody.
Now, for most beginners using just the thumb and the 1st finger
is going to be the easiest approach.
For me when I play it right-handed it's easier to use other fingers as well.
If it's better for you to use 2nd or 3rd finger or either/or
whatever gets you by to be able to play this is what I'd recommend
that you use for now, and worry about more fancy fingers style options
as you progress.
So, let's start off with a super slow play through,
and then I'll take it through one step at a time
I'd recommend starting off with your fingers in the C chord shape,
and then relaxing your 1st and 2nd fingers
so they're not actually touching on the strings anymore,
but they're roughly hanging around that general area,
you're gonna play the open G string twice,
then you're going to play the thumb,
playing the 5th string where the 3rd finger is sitting
at the 3rd fret, on the 5th string,
that, there, the note C that's the bass note.
At the same time as that, 2nd finger is going to go down,
in the 2nd fret of the 3rd string.
And you'll play that at the same time.
Then the open G again.
So you play the 3rd string twice,
then the bass note with that 3rd string
and the 2nd finger down, 2nd fret, 3rd string.
Then lift the 2nd finger off,
and play the open G string again.
"Happy birthday to..."
Now, 1st finger is going down 1st fret of the 2nd string,
leaving that bass note down though.
Now, 1st finger is going to lift off to reveal the open B string,
3rd finger is going to move over to the thickest string, 3rd fret,
and you're going to play the thickest string with your thumb,
and the B string with your 1st finger.
"Happy birthday to you"
Open, open, then the same, same movement here,
2nd finger going down the 2nd fret of the 3rd string,
but now our 3rd finger is over on the thickest string.
So open, open, bass note and 3rd string together
and open again.
So, from the beginning:
"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday..."
Now, little finger goes down,
3rd fret of the 2nd string.
Then you play the bass note back on the C -
3rd finger, 3rd fret, 5th string,
and 1st finger, 1st fret of the 2nd string.
From the beginning again:
I'd recommend that you get just that bit right
before you move any further.
So just keep on practicing around that until you're ready.
When you're ready, you've got:
It gets a little bit trickier, so we're still on the C,
we play the open G string twice, the 3rd string,
then you're going to play the bass note here,
the note C, 3rd fret, 5th string,
with little finger playing the melody on the 3rd fret of the thinnest string,
those two together, lift off little finger,
to play the thinnest string,
then you're going to play the thickest string,
this is really a C with an E bass chord
is what we're going to be implying harmonically,
but just the thickest string open with the 1st finger in the 1st fret
of the 2nd string.
Then 1st finger comes off and we play the open B string.
And then we're playing the F note which is
1st finger, 1st fret, thickest string,
and the 2nd finger in the 2nd fret of the 3rd string,
a little bit Californication going on there.
F, it is part of, this F chord,
just those two fingers of it. Okay?
Open, open from the C chord with the little finger down,
then open thinnest string, open thickest string bass note,
with the 1st finger on the 1st fret of the 2nd string,
lift it off to the F.
Now we're doing something slightly tricky,
is that after you play this, we're putting the barre down
with the 1st finger to use
just this little underneath of the 1st finger to touch
or to press down the 1st fret of the thinnest string.
Then we're going to go to a C chord.
This is 3rd finger, 3rd fret of the 5th string, the note C,
with the open thinnest string.
Then, playing that the 1st finger, 1st fret of the 2nd string.
Then we're going to play these two together-
the 3rd fret, 3rd finger, 3rd fret 4th string,
little finger 3rd fret, 2nd string,
then we're going to play a C chord, and we're going to strum with our thumb,
the middle 4 strings only.
So leave your thumb resting there on the thinnest string at the end.
Just that last section from the C chord:
Then, with the thinnest string, 3rd fret.
Open thinnest string,
with the thickest string, lift off 1st finger to the F,
put the barre down,
C, with the thinnest string, play the 2nd string,
and these two notes -
the 3rd fret of the 2nd string and the 4th string
with the 3rd and 4th fingers to the C chord,
we'll play that through one more time for you.
Here we go, from the beginning -
Whenever you're learning a finger style arrangement like this
it's really important that you learn it in little chunks,
so learn just the first few notes, practice them up, get used to them,
make sure they feel smooth under your fingers,
and preferably from memory -
the more memorization you do at this point - the more you'll be able
to concentrate on important stuff like
getting the tone nice, making sure your fingers aren't grabbing too much,
that everything's clear, the hand position of the fronting hand is good,
there's plenty to concentrate on rather than just trying to read a particular tab
so try and memorize that stuff as soon as you can
by working on little chunks.
I definitely recommend getting that first half sorted out first of all,
so you can play that fairly confidently,
and again - from memory, before you start in on that second bit.
It really is a fantastic tune to have. You'd be amazed at how many times
there are people around that are having a birthday
and you've got a guitar.
And even if you feel a little bit fumblie through it,
people will really appreciate the fact that you can play it.
The basic chords, if you wanted to check it out,
just to be able to play chords as well, while everyone sang -
you'll be playing C -
"Happy C chord to G,
happy G chord to C,
happy sound C then to F chord,
then it's C chord, G, C".
So it's still only C, F and G through the whole thing,
mostly C to G chord.
This is a really nice introduction to this idea of chord-melody
where you're playing a melody line and a bass note at the same time,
very commonly done in music like classical guitar,
but as well, it's the kind of thing that ends up kind of weaving its way
into folk music as well, where you have
finger picking patterns, but you're accenting certain notes
to create a kind of a melodic element to the stuff as well.
So, a really nice thing to be getting involved with with finger style.
At this early stage it doesn't really matter if you're just using
your 1st finger and your thumb, or your second finger and your thumb,
or some random combination.
There are more specific fingerings that would be better
in some circumstances than others, depending on what you're learning,
but as a little taster, and a fun thing to learn
I wouldn't be worrying about it too much.
As usual, there will be a free tab over on the website
that you might like to go and check out.
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I really hope you enjoyed this lesson,
and I'll see you for plenty more very soon.
You all take care of yourselves. Bye bye.