Morning has broken like the first morning Blackbird has spoken like the first bird
Hi there,for those of you who don't know me I'm Tomas. Morning Has Broken was originally
a 1930 hymn and it was made into a hit by Cat Stevens. The song is a bit long and it
goes through a series of verses and instrumental interludes and changes keys several times
along the way. It's a good song to practice your chord changes and changing keys. Let's
start with an instrumental introduction.
Now let's knock out that strum pattern because it's very simple you're just gonna do down,
down, up, down, up. It's considered in 3/4 time. It has three pulses. Down is one, down
up is two and, and down up is three at so it'd be one two and three and down, down,
up, down, up.
Now let's go through the chords. We'll start off with a D then we'll go to a G and A. Any
G you want by the way and the same with A. Don't worry about how I'm fingering it. Do
the one that's comfortable for you and then to an F sharp. I'm borrowing that across the
second fret F sharp major and then it goes to B minor which I just switch everything
over one string or I should say higher because it's going towards the high string. Let's
go ahead and play through those chords and play along with me. You'll get more out of
it if you even just attempt it.
So the D G A going to F sharp now, B minor and the next set of chords starts from the
G7 to a C chord now we're going to an F with a C in the bass. So I'm not going to make
a full bar if I'm just going to put my fingers down and make the F chord with my fingers
and partial bar the top two strings that puts that C right there in the bass and then back
to C and that's where the words start right there. Let's do that much starting with the
G7. Strum to C F and C - morning has - something like that.
By the way when I make my F chord I don't let that sixth string sound. The way I do
that is my third finger right there is actually slightly touching the sixth string so it deadens
it out. Don't worry about that but it's just a little tip you might want to try. Let's
play the entire introduction starting from the D chord. One ready go D G A F sharp going
to B minor G7 C F with a C and C.
Now we're off to the first verse. I want to give you a little tip before we start playing
the chords. When you first start singing the words - Morning has - that comes in just before
you start strumming the first chord and you can get the notes from the C chord. Play the
fifth string third fret - Morn - then the second fret and then the open third string
so it sounds like this - Morning has bro - and so on.
So let's start with the first set of chords. Go ahead and play along with me. You'll see
it makes more sense even if you're fumbling through it. So with a C chord to a D minor
G and here comes that F with a C in the bass again and back to C. Let's try that much - Morning
has bro - D minor G to the F with the C and C.
Now the next of the chords starts with the C again so it's going to be C, E minor, A
minor, D7 and then two G's meaning a strum for each of the G's. So all together it'll
be and then two G's. Try that with me once - Blackbird has spoken like the first bird
like the first - G and again.
Now the third set of chords starts with a C again, go into that F with a C and then
another one of those C, A minor, to D. So try that with me, start with the C. Go C F
with the C in the bass. Again to C, A minor and D and the last of the chords starts with
the G going to a C, the F with the C in the bass, G and then to C again and that last
C is actually the first chord of the next instrumental portion. Let's try that portion
together. I'll call out the chords so start with the G chord 1 2 and go G C F with the
C at the bass G and go ahead and play the last C then and that's where the piano would
play on the recording.
Now let's go ahead and try the whole verse one time through. I'm not gonna stop but I
will call out some of the chords as we go and I'll go slow. Start with a C chord and
get ready. Here we go. We're doing this together and we're gonna start by the way with the
words - Morning has - and then strum, okay? Here we go 1 2 3 - morning has bro D minor,
going to G to the F with the C to C . Again C, E minor, A minor, D7, to G two times, going
to C now, D F and two F's back to C, A minor, to D , G, C going to F, G and here goes the
instrumental section. Good. You're doing great.
Now for the instrumental interlude this I'll call number one we'll call that first one
the intro and this will be the interlude number one. So you're gonna start seeing some of
the same patterns. We're going to start this with a C chord, now go to that F chord to
the G, now we're going to E major. That's the first time we've had that in the song.
Let's do that much together. We'll start on the C chord. Here we go one ready, play C
F G and E major.
Now for the four next chords and this will be the entire interlude. We'll start with
A minor, G7, C and G7. The pattern looks familiar doesn't it? Okay let's play that much starting
with A minor. Go A minor one go into G7, C and G7 and we come into the first number two
so let's play that whole introduction before going to the second verse. Here we go start
with a C chord one ready play F G E A minor G7, C and finally G7 now. Okay we're ready
for verse number two and guess what? Verse number two is exactly the same as verse number
one.
So I'm not going to go through it again but we will play it once through. Let's start
with a C chord and just like the first verse the words - Sweet the rain - come in before
you start strumming. So we'll start there one ready start - Sweet the rains new - going
to D minor, sunlit from F to C like the first E minor - to fall D7 to G another G, C - praise
for the - F. Again - of the wet - A minor to D, going to G - Sprung in - to C F to G
to C and that C is the first C of the next interlude.
Interlude number two now this one's particularly interesting because it actually changes the
key of the song from C into the key of D and it does it in a way that it's really cool.
I think. Let's go through the chords. We'll start with a C chord, play along that F with
the C in the bass looking normal so far G, right? Same pattern as before now that E chord.
We did this to the A minor and then to an F sharp and that's where the change starts
happening. Let's stop there and get those down.
Now this is a bar F sharp and quite frankly I think that's what really works here but
if you want to do a partial bar you can do something like this if you're not ready for
bar chords. This is a good song to practice your bar chords if you're just starting to
work on them. Start with a C chord. One ready hit it, C one go into F, G, now the A major
coming now A minor and to the F sharp.
Now you might just want to practice that change a little extra over everything else from A
minor going to the F sharp because that's often where people get hung up and you just
practice it, isolate it, practice it and then put it into the rest of the progression.
Now here's the next series of chords. We go from that F sharp to a B minor and that's
an easy change. Once you got the F sharp you just move your fingers not the first finger
but all the other ones over one string to the high E string towards the high E rather
so that makes a B minor chord, F sharp, B minor, F sharp. I'm starting on the fifth
string B minor first notes on the fourth string then we go to a G chord. Again, any G. You'll
see me play a few different G's as we go along. I tend to play a chord depending on where
I'm going and where I'm coming from but in your case do what you're comfortable with.
Next comes a D chord, A7 that's a nice easy change ah to D that's often one of the first
changes people learned. Okay let's play that section. We'll start with the B minor and
I know we're normally gonna come from the F and go to the B minor but let's just start
with the B minor. Form the chord and I'll count. One ready hit it, B minor, G to D,
A7 nice easy change ha and D and that goes on to the next verse.
Let’s play that whole interlude one time to it and we'll start with, which chord? C,
yes you got it. Here we go. One ready hit it. F G E, A minor to F. Keep going B minor
to G, B , A7 that's the key of D now D the D to A7 to D is at one five one establishes
the key of D.
On to first number three. Now we're in the key of D and the first chords are gonna start
with a D chord. Yes here we go I'll call it the chords just try them with me and then
we'll play it together. Here's the first group of chords starting with a D to E minor A to
G and then two D's.
Okay let's play through that progression but before we do, we have that same kind of pickup
that we did before. Remember with C it was -- but now in the key of D different notes.
We'll start with the open D chord, the fourth fret on the fourth string and then on the
third string second fret. Those are the three notes we start with so it’s da da da and
then start strumming on the D so let's do that. Start right here open D chord that's
the first note and of course you can sing that - da da da to D to E minor going to A
da da to G to D another D.
On to the next set of chords starting with an F sharp minor new chord but just like the
F sharp only without the second finger F sharp minor then to B minor again another easy change
because you move everything over and put that second finger back down then to an E major
and then two A's. Let's try that together nice and slow starting with the F sharp minor.
Form the chord the best you can. One ready go F sharp minor to B minor, E ,A and one
more A.
On to the next set of chords we're starting with a D now going on to a G chord, another
G back to D, B minor and an E major. Let’s try that and I'll call out the chord starting
with your D chord. One ready start D going to G now, another, back to D, B minor and
E major and that leads us to the last set of chords. It goes on to A, play it with me,
just strum one time D G A7 right? We're staying in the key of D. Let's do it starting with
your A chord. One ready, hit it A D G A7 and to D.
Okay let's play through that section together. We're gonna start with that pick up -
Mine is the -- and then we start strumming on D. Here we go one two three mine is the
D sun E minor A to G and to D -- Born of the - F sharp minor to
B minor -- light E -- E A. We got two A’s here going to D. Praise with -- to G back
to D now D, B minor to E going to A to D G A7 and back to D.
And at this point we come back to another instrumental interlude that gets us back to
the key of C. I'll quickly go through it but you'll realize you've done this before it's
starting to repeat now. Start with your G chord. Hit it, go to A chord, F sharp to B
minor. We'll keep going on G7 to C. Here's going back to C F and C. Let's strum it one
time through and I'll call out the chord starting with your G chord. One ready play to the A,
F sharp, B minor G7, C chord, F chord and C and then it goes to the first verse again.
Morning has and I'll stop there because from this point on everything just repeats. It
repeats that first verse, the same chord, same lyrics and it'll do an outro which is
exactly the same as the interlude number two so with some practice now you are home free.
That's it for this lesson. Thanks for hanging out with me. If you enjoyed it I'd appreciate
a comment. I'd love to hear from you and if you're not making the kind of progress you'd
like to make on the acoustic guitar, I can help. Click the link in the description below
or visit my website directly realguitarsuccess.com you'll be surprised at how much quicker you
can be playing the kind of music you want to play. Bye for now.