Hi guys, I'm Andy Crowley and welcome to day six of my guitar starter course for absolute beginners.
Now a lot of beginners find it really tricky to use a pick
certainly in the early days when you're learning guitar.
Now in this lesson we're going to be covering the basics of something called fingerstyle
where we don't use a pick, we use your thumb and your fingers to pluck the strings.
And in this case we're going to be plucking chords.
I'm also going to show you about minor chords and we're going to learn the easy song
'Ain't no sunshine' by Bill Withers.
I will give you a quick run through and then we'll get straight into a close up for the tutorial.
If you haven't checked out any of the other days in this 10 day guitar course, please do
especially if this is a little bit trickier than what you've gone for so far.
Check the earlier days or my free beginners course at andyguitar.co.uk
This would be around level four of that beginners course so there are plenty of songs.
There is a good 30 or 40 choices to go for on my website before this one.
If you do struggle, check that out but let's get straight in for a close up now.
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
It's not warm when she's away
So that's the little part we're going to learn.
Let's cover the chords first of all.
The A minor chord is first.
Nice and easy, this is basically the E major chord moved down a string.
So where all your fingers were for the first chord we ever covered in this course.
one, two, three
E major
Just move them down a string.
This changes the chord totally because the root note is no longer the E, it is the A
Similar to the A major, but one note is different and that note is here
and it makes the chord sound sad.
Minor chords always sound distinctly sad, especially when compared to the happy major chord.
And this is a minor chord and it sounds really sad.
The other chord I played there was an E minor.
Which is again similar to an E major, but without your first finger this time, so it's just
one, two
Which I think we should play with our first finger
because then we have an anchor finger between the A minor and the E minor.
A minor
E minor
But many pros play it with their middle two fingers like this.
So playing an E minor like this is pretty standard aswell.
You're also making a rock hand when you're doing it, so that's pretty cool aswell.
So A minor
E minor
I prefer with your first two fingers, so I'll keep playing that way.
And then a G, but we're on the G so quickly, and we're only playing the thicker strings
that we only have to move your first two fingers.
Third and little fingers don't have to be down, because we're not playing this thinner string.
So we don't need the three there
we don't need to put that on at all, it's just middle finger, first finger.
Middle finger at third fret.
one, two, three
And they're the three chords that we need for the first part of this song.
There is only one more chord in the entire song.
So A minor and that sounds like this.
E minor
and G
But we're not going to play that thinnest string.
Because we're going to be plucking with the right hand or your, whichever hand you're dominant with.
So when we're on the A minor what we need to do with your fingerstyle hand
is we're going to pluck the root note, which is that A string.
E, A, D
That's the A string
and we pluck that with the thumb.
Now try and keep your forearm, I'd have it touching the guitar itself,
but wherever it feels comfortable.
Make sure the forearm itself doesn't move, just retract your thumb into your hand like this.
That's how we get the accuracy of it, we're only moving your fingers and thumb here
we're not moving the hand kind of out when we pluck a note, we're not doing this.
just pluck the thumb
And then your fingers are sat underneath the next three strings, so on string
from above, string four
underneath string three, underneath, underneath
and they're on the middle four strings like this.
And if we pluck them all together
they should all ring out like this.
If we did them one at a time
And there's our A minor chord.
The pattern we're going to use, is a very cool folk style pattern where we hit the root note
the thumb
and then the fingers all together.
thumb
pluck
And we need to do that twice on the A minor chord
thumb
pluck
thumb
pluck
Let's play that together after two
three
four
thumb
pluck
thumb
pluck
And that's all we need to do
A little bit faster, play along with me in two
three,
four
thumb, pluck, thumb, pluck
One last time, two, three, four
thumb, pluck, thumb, pluck and stop
Then we change to the E minor
so here and here
And then the base note has changed, the root note.
to the thickest string
that's the E string and this is an E minor chord.
But your first three fingers for most of this entire song are going to stay on those same strings.
thumb, pluck and we only need to do that once on the E minor
thumb, pluck
Then we change to our middle finger on the third fret and we play that
sort of half cheating G chord, but it will sound totally fine because we're only going to pluck
the certain strings that we're on.
So that again E minor
thumb, pluck
just the once
then the cheating G chord
thumb
pluck
So playing it this way, it would only be the middle finger that moves
So I'd really recommend going for this one, one more time three,
four
thumb
pluck
thumb
pluck
and then back to A minor once
thumb, pluck
Let me show you that in a full round really slowly so you can see exactly what's happening
and then we'll play the whole thing through together.
three,
four
E minor
G
A minor
Now this would happen on the last word of the top line of the vocals so
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
That's where the thumb would happen.
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
It's not warm when she's away
Thumb went on the word away.
So let's play this together now really slowly.
And I'll say the words, so that you know which word to start on.
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
pluck, thumb, pluck
E minor, G
And then also thumb, pluck on the A minor to finish.
One more time
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
E minor
finishing on the A minor
Same thing, but with the second line of the song.
It's not warm when she's away
E minor, G
Those two lines again.
Ain't no sunshine when she's thumb, pluck, thumb, pluck
E minor, G
thumb, pluck
It's not warm when she's away
E minor
G
A minor
And in this song there are essentially four lines that happen for the whole round of the song.
We have that line twice, that same thing happens twice
then we have another line, which is different, but then we return to this same part.
So think about it like a poem in three lines but for one verse ok?
One stands there. We've got the top line.
Then that happens again, exactly the same
and then we have this section, when the melody changes.
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
Definitely the hardest part, however it's only these two chords.
And even though it's a little bit trickier, it should be appropriate for most people
if you've properly done the previous five days of this ten day course.
So let's give it one go now, and if you do really struggle
just check out the previous days of this course and I'm sure you'll be able to come back to do it.
So a demo one more time, same strings as we did the E minor before.
three and four and
So that's one and two and three and four and
Then this D minor chord, which will be new if you've not done this chord before I guess.
So it's a bit more of a stretch.
First finger, first fret, first string
easy peasy
middle finger second fret, third string
a little bit harder
third finger, third fret of the second string
This is the tough one, you're only going to be able to do this if your fingers are on an angle.
If you go in straight and you kind of trying to play it like this,
that third finger is not going to get far enough over here.
This angle and having your thumb just creeping over the top
So all my fingers now are pointing towards my plucking hand shoulder.
And that really helps this angle to be able to get it where we want to go
And allow this stretch of our fingers, you don't have to stretch that far, if they're more like this that's cool.
But you can actually do this and have your fingers touching, which really helps.
So there is our D minor chord, and we pluck the D string and then the thinner three strings.
Plucking over the sound hole is always best.
Showing you this to keep my fingers together so you can see everything in the same spot.
And this again happens one and two and three and four and
One more time let's play this together on the D minor, three
four
one and two and three and four and
Last time, adjust the D minor if it wasn't ringing out and let's try again.
three
four
one and two and three and four and
So that section as a whole starts on the E minor.
And your fingers, three fingers are one string up, thumb on the thickest string.
Just the E minor, three
four
one and two and three and four and
D minor, three, four
one and two and three and four and
And then we'd return to the A minor, E minor riff that we learned at the start of this lesson.
Which was
Which would be the fourth line and final line of this song because after then it just repeats.
The words may change a little, but the melody is so reminiscent
you'll know exactly where this repeats of you give a listen to the original.
So let's have a bit of a play through now, as I say, if you need a bit more time on this one,
this lesson is certainly a step up from the ones that have happened before.
But I feel with some practice you'll be able to do it, ok?
So let's give this a go together from the top.
Ain't no sunshine A minor
E minor, G
back to A minor again
It's not warm when she's away
E minor, G
And now the new line that we learned, starting on E minor
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
And then D minor, now, D minor
Straight into A minor, E minor riff
Whole thing, I'll do less talking and just kind of speak the words.
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
It's not warm when she's away
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
She's always D minor long
Anytime she goes away
Last time really slowly, give it one last attempt with this song guys, stay with me.
In
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
It's not warm when she's away
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
She's always gone D minor
Anytime she goes away
And then there's a pause in the song where he goes
I know, I know, I know, I know, I know and he goes on for 30 seconds to a minute or something.
But then he returns to Hey I ought to leave this thing alone, but ain't no sunshine when she's gone.
And we do that same section again.
Now there in the original song that line happens twice, so we have to do that line sort of again.
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
Only darkness every day
And then is the E minor section, Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
And this house just ain't no home
Anytime she goes away
And then that last line just repeats
Anytime she goes away
And that repeats until the end of the song.
And that is how to play 'Ain't no sunshine' and that is the end of day six
of this 10 day guitar course.
Now hopefully you're enjoying this so far, as I say if that was a bit too tricky
for the level that you're at at the moment, you need a bit more time with this fingerstyle.
Please check out my full beginners course at andyguitar.co.uk
Or you can search my site for some more fingerstyle songs, we've got some easy ones including
'Something from nothing' by the Foo Fighters.
And some great beginners sort of fingerstyle ones just to get used to plucking more single strings.
But if you're following this course we'll be on with day seven
where we'll be learning something called a four chord song.
And mainly looking at the changes that commonly happen with the G chord.
So I hope to see you there, please subscribe if you like what I do and you're enjoying this course so far.
And I'll see you in another one of my lessons, take care of yourselves guys and bye for now.