hi guys welcome to day eight of this ten
day guitar starter course with me andy
crowley in this lesson we're gonna be
going for our first scale which is the g
major scale and we're also gonna use
that scale to play a great riff which is
the joker by the steve miller band now
the major scale is the foundation of all
western music the notes of the major
scale how we get all the chords that we
use in popular songs and this scale of g
major scale we're going to learn it in
the easiest possible way and it's also
going to use the same notes as the riff
that will learn the joker so let's have
a close up on that straight away now on
the g major scale so earlier in this
course we learned the g major chord
played like this
now the lowest note of that chord is a g
note and we want to play this with our
middle finger and pick the thickest
string
there it is the next note of this eight
note major scale
is the open string
next is our first finger where it would
normally go
in a g chord so one two
three
and if i just play the rest of the notes
now just so that you hear what we're
going for
that's the full scale and then if i play
the start of
the joker you can hear that it uses
those same notes and does go up them
in this order so learning the scale
gives us the order of the notes and then
we'll learn the riff quick recap
note number one third fret on the
thickest e string
note number two the open string five
open here
second fret on string five
middle finger
on the dotted fret so this is third fret
of string five
and then the open fourth string
recap through those notes let's play
together
g
second note
open a
third
note fourth
and fifth
and those notes go ascending through the
musical alphabet starting from g which
goes
g and then just follows the standard
alphabet a
b
c
d
and e is the next note
second fret on the fourth string with
our first finger
the second to last note is our third
finger on the fourth fret of the fourth
string
and then we go to the open third string
the g
now it's these last two notes that
aren't used in this particular riff so
we're not going to focus on them now but
if you'd like to work further on this
scale you can use the tab above and go
ascending and then descending up and
then down the scale to sort of practice
and develop that but we're going to move
straight on to the riff now because it
uses the same notes in the same order so
the joker riff starts from the third
fret
but we need to play this note twice
and then we have a mute so if we relax
our middle finger
that note will stop but we might still
have some other strings ringing out so
we do want to
mute with our right hand as well
then we go up second note
third note
fourth note of the scale so to recap
and then we play this note twice
as well so
already it should be sounding like the
joker if you're familiar with the song
let's play together three
four
one more time three
four
nice easy bit next open to second fret
open
and we play the last open twice one two
three four
zero two
zero zero on string four
together three
four
one more time three
four
okay let's play all that together from
the top recap three
four
that's what we're going for one more
time really slow i'll slow it right down
for you guys
three
four
one more just to make sure three
four
with our pick in hand it's best to try
and keep your forearm as still as
possible and even on the guitar itself
laying across the guitar and then just
moving our wrist and sort of plucking
outwards like this rather than sort of
plucking up and down like a small
strumming motion we kind of want to
pluck under the string and then out
really small emotion as possible let's
go for this one more time the joker if
in two
three
four
and to finish up we have the last
sequence which is open
second three three three three two two
zero
i'm doing that with all with a down pick
at the moment but this can be an
opportunity to do it with down and up
picking which is something called
alternate picking alternating between
downs and ups down up down up down up
down up down
but that is if you're kind of used to
this single string picking game if
you're not just go with downs you won't
quite be able to do it as fast but it
will be fine for now it's better to get
the notes correct without playing the
correct notes
this whole thing is isn't going to sound
like anything okay so be very careful to
play the exact notes play play it slowly
and get it correct so that last section
open second
one two three four
one two
one
one two three four one two one
and putting the whole thing together now
so let me play the whole thing through
let's have a go at it together really
slow guys you can do this play along
with me
two
three
four
and let's repeat it in two
three
four
and again
and that's how to play the lead line to
the joker which starts the song and also
plays throughout all the verses now in
the previous lesson to this in day seven
we learned how to play oasis style
chords in the key of g which was where
we learnt a g chord played like this so
one two
and third and little finger on the
thinnest two strings like this
um on the third fret
what i call a four finger g
we learn to see add nine where we just
move this down a string so a really easy
change
and a great way to play a c chord if you
ever have a c chord in a song that
starts on g
i would be going for a c add 9 a lot of
the time
and a d sus4 where we play a d chord but
we don't need the middle finger down
when we keep that third and little
finger down
d sus4 where we have the fourth finger
down basically
and to play the joker chorus we just
strum each of these chords twice
g
c add9
ds4
back to g
fairly straightforward so let's give
that a go together if you haven't got
these chords quite mastered yet give
them a little bit of time and you can
focus on the riff for now but let's try
and play this together just strumming on
the beat nice and easy i'll sing it a
little bit to give you the idea but i
don't want to sing too much to put you
off so we'll try and get a balance
from the g chord cr9 d back to g two
strums per chord
in three
four
g
c add nine
d sus4
back to c
and repeat
cause i'm a picker
i'm a grinner
i'm a lover
and i'm a sinner
keep it going
play my music in the sun
keep it going cause i'm a joker
i'm a smoker
i'm a midnight talker
i sure don't wanna hurt no one
and you can even do that if you find it
easier do that throughout the whole song
to sing along to it the riff would start
the song and it would also play
throughout every one of the verses and
in the original that's just left for the
uh for the chorus however if you do just
want to sing along as i say you can just
strum those four chords and it's quite
easy to sing along because the the
rhythm of the riff does make it a little
bit hard but let's have a jam along to
the whole thing now so we'll start off
with the riff we'll do that around eight
times and then we'll strum the chorus as
we just have and then you can play the
joker you can play this song so ready
with your middle finger for the first
note of the riff let's play this
together guys in two
three
four
a bit slower
some people call me the space cowboy
keep it going
some people call me maurice
last time then we'll go to a chorus
chorus two
three from a g cause i'm a picker
i'm a grinner
i'm a lover
i'm a sinner
i play my music in
and then we'd go back to the roof
and that is how to play the joker by the
steve miliband and that is the end of
day eight of this little kind of guitar
starter course for you guys if you found
anything super challenging there do
definitely check out day 7 the previous
day where we looked at these sort of
oasis style chords as i call them this
way of playing a g c add 9 and d and if
you need more help with the major scale
or any other guitar techniques at this
level my free beginners course is
available at andyguitar.com.uk
we'll cover the g major scale more in
depth all these chords and lots of
strumming and techniques and everything
that you need at this level to make sure
beginners are on an absolutely sound
footing and that everyone will be able
to play this song but that's the end of
this lesson please subscribe if you like
what i do and come back tomorrow for day
9 of this 10 day guitar course where
we'll be checking out the proper way to
play the c chord and some real tips on
how to change between particularly g and
a full c chord which can give people
some real problems
get your chord changes a little bit
quicker and of course another great song
so i hope to see you there guys take
care of yourselves and bye for now