How to play a million POP songs
How to play a million songs….
there are several common threads in popular music. If you’ve dreamed of being the one who picks up the guitar and leads a sing along, this is for you. It is deceptively simple. I make hundreds of dollars a week using this information and i have a blast doing it. Playing music in a live setting is a fun social activity, it involves teamwork with other musicians, it can be financially lucrative. Everyone wants to talk to you when you are a musician. But, the most important thing you can gain, in my opinion, is the intrinsic reward of learning and utilizing a skill. Most songs contain only 3-5 chords and with those chords they use them in 1-3 different sequences.
Believe it or not, until someone showed me a pop fake book (18 years after i had started playing) i never really caught on to exactly how easy it could be to pick up on just about any song in a split second. So I’m breaking it down into four segments: essential chords, essential scales, essential progressions, pop song format. if you know these things, it’s just a matter of applying it. but the more songs you learn, the more this will all become engrained as a part of your playing.
I. Essential Chords
Check out this blog and watch the videos and read along
Here are the chords you need to know:
C, A, G, E, and D
you need to know how to play them as major chords, minor chords, and dominant chords.
you also need to know a couple of slash chords (i’m not referring to guns n roses songs).
What is so important about these chords is that, you can use those chord shapes to play any chord,
all over the guitar neck. an example of this would be: playing a C# chord that is shaped like an A.
So, you will need to know these CAGED chord shapes and you need to know which not is the root of the chord
so that you can use these shapes.
CAGED Major
CAGED Minor
transferring the forms
CAGED Dominant
transferring the forms
CAGED Slash
transferring the forms
II. Essential Scales
Natural Minor Scale
Harmonized Natural Minor Scale
Harmonized Harmonic Minor Scale
How to figure out which scale is pertinent to the song you are trying to play
III. Essential Progressions
Of course, there are an endless array of progressions. But there are a few very popular motifs, that,
once learned, you can identify and catch on to right away and will cover, probably about 70% of what you play.
the roman numerals refer to the scale degree of the note…please brush up on the Harmonized Major Scale chart to make sense out of it.
I-IV-V (twist n shout (the beatles), the joker (steve miller band), louie louie, stir it up (bob marley), with or without you(u2))
I-V-vi-ii (the axis of awesome – i’m yours (jason mraz), don’t stop believing(journey))
vi-IV-I-V (africa (toto), grenade (bruno mars), zombie (the cranberries))
I-vi-IV-V (50s ballads)
bvi – bvii – I (big epic ending – learn to fly (foo fighters))
V-I-IV (hard to handle (otis redding, black crowes), gloria (van morrison))
blues progression: 12 bar blues
jazzy influenced – killing me softly (roberta flack/fugees), new york state of mind (billie joel), i will survive (gloria gaynor)
Walkdowns -
major: I-v/vii-vi (no woman no cry (bob marley), the weight (the band))
minor: salsa walkdown (i just called to say i love you (stevie wonder), YMCA (village people))
other songs to learn:
sweet home alabama (lynrd skynrd), sweet child of mine (guns n roses), you shook me all night long (ac/dc), bohemian rhapsody (queen), buddy holly (weezer),heartbreaker (pat benetar), i love rock n roll (joan jett),
IV. Sections of a Pop Song
most pop songs follow a certain format:
something to the effect of
Intro – Verse – Chorus, Re-Intro – Verse – Chorus, Bridge, Chorus, Chorus
or
Verse – Chorus, Verse – Chorus, Bridge, Chorus, Chorus
or it could be
Riff – Verse – Chorus, Riff – Verse – Chorus, Bridge, Chorus, Chorus
or it could be
Verse – Chorus, Verse – Chorus, Solo, Chorus, Chorus
or
Verse – Chorus, Verse – Chorus, Bridge, Breakdown Chorus, Chorus
or
Verse – Chorus, Verse – Chorus, Bridge, Modulated Chorus, Modulated Chorus
the important thing is that the basic skeleton of the song is the same: V, C, V, C, B, C, C
bridges don’t always happen and sometimes there will be extra verses and/or choruses.
but simply knowing this pattern can really open your mind to the similarities of pop songs and
speed up your ability to learn, remember, and understand the songs.
V. Musical Etiquette
when it comes to pop music: Vocals are the priority.
The singer is always right. if the singer says he/she needs to sing the song in a different key,
do it! even if you have to simplify your parts to accommodate…most people only listen to the singer anyway,
your role is to make the singer sound good.
If you make the singer sounds good, you will be rewarded.
When the singer is singing, do not try to stand out. Only play fills and solos when the singer is not singing.
Unless it’s something like Welcome to the Jungle where the singer and the lead guitarist hit the same notes and then
the guitar takes off into a solo. when you are playing in a group setting, do your best to not stick out.
with multiple instruments, there will be enough going on. if you instead, focus on “locking in” with the other players
the end result will be much more enjoyable to the listener, and also to you.
VI. Take a solo!
the time will come when you actually get a chance to step out and be the star.
So, here’s what you gotta know…
THE scale for solos – the pentatonic scale. Refer to the section about how to figure out what key you are in.
Other considerations (use the major scale or blues scale relative to the key you are in), (outlining chords), (don’t forget to bend and slide).
play lines that accentuate the melody, or incorporate and/or echo elements of the vocal melody.
