2010s Songs Volume 1

Lessons

• Lesson 1: Need You Now - Guitar Lesson

  Need You Now is a song co-written, and recorded by American country music trio Lady A, formerly known as Lady Antebellum.

  It’s the title track to their 2nd studio album of the same name. It became a worldwide hit, and won four Grammy Awards in 2011.

  This lesson focusses on how Dave Haywood, member of the band, plays it on guitar.

  It teaches the chords in the key of C (Capo IV), including several examples of the embellishments he uses.

  It breaks down the strumming thoroughly, since it’s the most important aspect of the song. Very often the off beats are accentuated and this might turn out to be challenging to some guitar players.

  Keep in mind that through out the years, Lady A has performed and arranged the song in many different ways. And each time Haywood might play it a little different too.

   

   

• Lesson 2: Truth - Guitar Lesson

  Truth is a song from Alex Ebert’s solo album Alexander. He is the front man for his alter-ego band Edward Sharpe And The Magnetic Zeroes. The song features basic, almost minimalist strumming over a fairly standard chord progression, although the progression is not in one of our standard, guitar player friendly keys. The lesson is done in the ‘Work It Out’ style as an ear training exercise, so be sure to watch the first segment before printing out the chart. There are some suggestions as to improving barre chord endurance as well.

• Lesson 3: Wait - Broken Fences - Guitar Lesson

  Broken Fences consists of Morgan Erina and Guy Russo, an indie-folk duo from Pitssburgh, who are known for their powerful songs and stunning harmonies.
  
  Wait is the first single from their debut album, simply called Broken Fences, which was released in 2011. It appeared in season 4’s episode ‘Priority of Life’ of the Canadian police drama television series Flashpoint.
  
  The song features a simple progression and easy chords in open position. It involves a basic Travis style picking pattern, which makes it a perfect song for beginners who want to expand their fingerpicking skills.

• Lesson 4: Nothing Compares 2 U - Chris Cornell - Guitar Lesson

  Nothing Compares 2 U is a ballad originally written by Prince and made famous by Irish singer Sinéad O’Connor in 1990.
  
  It was again covered in 2016 by American singer-songwriter Chris Cornell, best known as the lead vocalist for the rock bands Soundgarden and Audioslave.
  
  He posted a link of him performing the song, as a tribute, on the day after Prince’s death.
  
  This lesson takes a look at this version, which Cornell performs on the guitar. It covers the chords, the strumming and the progression.

• Lesson 5: Please Don’t Say You Love Me - Guitar Lesson

  Please Don’t Say You Love Me is the second single from a new upcoming English artist, singer and songwriter, Gabrielle Aplin. It features a very common IV-I-VI-V chord progression in the key of G and includes a simple travis picking pattern. The challenge in this song lies within the tempo, which is quite fast. It also requires changing from one fingerpicking-pattern to another.

• Lesson 6: Budapest - George Ezra - Guitar Lesson

  Budapest is a song co-written and performed by the English singer-songwriter George Ezra. It appears on his 2014 debut album and reached the top 10 in numerous countries around the world.
  
  It’s a fantastic song for beginners to tackle since it contains only three basic chords, the I, IV and V in the key of G. The lesson covers the progression, including the signature hammer-on, alternating bass notes and an occasional passing bass note. We also take a close look at both hands, in particular at correct hand positioning and how to efficiently finger the chords.

• Lesson 7: Hold On - Alabama Shakes - Guitar Lesson

  This rootsy, blues-based song by The Alabama Shakes is a great one to work on a few key principles of guitar.
  
  Single string melodies and riffs are an essential tool for any guitarist, as are hammer-ons, slides, bending and a host of other techniques found in this lesson.
  
  By learning these user-friendly licks and applying the same ideas to your own songs, or improvisations, you can get a much more well-rounded sound and begin to develop your own signature style.

• Lesson 8: Skinny Love - Bon Iver - Guitar Lesson

  Grammy Award winner Bon Iver is an American indie folk band founded in 2007 by singer-songwriter Justin Vernon.
  
  Skinny Love was the first single released from their debut album ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’. It was also successfully covered by artists such as 15-year old Birdie and Ed Sheeran.
  
  It features relatively easy chord shapes in the key of C, in an open C-tuning where the strings are tuned as CGEGCC. It’s in swing time, with a simple main strumming pattern.
  
  The lesson covers the progression as well as all the fun to play riffs and embellishments such as slides, pull-off’s and hammer-on’s which appear throughout the song.

• Lesson 9: This Town - Niall Horan - Guitar Lesson

  Niall Horan is an Irish singer-songwriter, best known as a member of the very popular boy band One Direction.
  
  He released his first single as a solo artist, This Town, in September 2016.
  
  This lesson takes a close look at how Niall performs the song by himself, like for example his ‘Live, 1 Mic 1 Take’ recording.
  
  He plays in the key of G, where the guitar is capoed on the 2nd fret. He uses basic open chords only, including a few different inversions such as Em7/B, D/A and D/F#, which often create an ascending or descending bass line, leading one chord to the next.
  
  He keeps the picking relatively simple by using his thumb for the bass notes and his index finger brushing up across the 3rd and 2nd strings.
  
  The progression is pretty straightforward, but does include a few time signature changes at the end of each chorus.

• Lesson 10: Little Talks - Guitar Lesson

  Little Talks is a very catchy tune by the Icelandic group Of Monsters And Men. It uses just a few chords and this lesson starts as an ear-training exercise. The chord progression is very basic but the speed of the strumming is what makes this not a Level 1 song. There is also a section that incorporates the opening melody into the strumming pattern as a chord solo, which will be more challenging.

• Lesson 11: Counting Stars - OneRepublic - Guitar Lesson

  This song was requested by my daughter Rebecca, who is a big fan of OneRepublic. Counting Stars uses a simple chord progression and is played with a capo at the fourth fret.
  
  The lesson goes over a few different right hand techniques to vary the intensity of the accompaniment. These include a modified arpeggio as well as a bass-grab pattern.

• Lesson 12: Home - Guitar Lesson

  Home is a 2012 song performed by American Idol winner Phillip Phillips. The song was written by British musician Greg Holden and producer Drew Pearson and was picked to be the hit for the Idol winner. The accompaniment features very rapid fingerpicking and strumming, and is best done with a pick using the hybrid technique. This is a great piece to learn the alternating bass fingerpicking technique with the pick doing all the bass notes.

• Lesson 13: California King Bed - Guitar Lesson

  California King Bed is a recent song by Rihanna, coming out in 2010 on her album Loud. It features a few basic acoustic guitar techniques that can be applied to many songs. It uses simple strumming, cross picking (non-alternating), hybrid picking (using fingers along with the pick), and some percussive picking. All of this is wrapped up with some easy chords in the key of G.

• Lesson 14: Life Of The Party - Shawn Mendes - Guitar Lesson

  Life Of The Party is a song recorded by Canadian singer Shawn Mendes, released in June of 2014.
  
  The arrangement is done in the key of G and uses primarily four basic, open chords.
  
  The lesson focuses mostly on the strumming, since it might be the biggest challenge for some guitar players.
  
  It starts out with double time strumming, with accents on beats 1, and of beat 2 and beat 4, while palm muting the strings. It then changes in the chorus to the speed of 8th’s and to half time feel, while the actual tempo of the song remains the same.

• Lesson 15: Lost Boy - Guitar Lesson

  Lost Boy is the debut single by Ruth B., an upcoming young and promising Canadian singer-songwriter.
  
  The song is a great start for beginners to learn a few basic chords in the key of G. Because of the simple accompaniment, it also lends itself perfectly to learn or even practice to move from one to the other in time.
  
  We take a look at the progression and arrangement, how to easily strum through it, and a little fill, which copies the piano a bit.
  
  There is also a segment, which elaborates on the time signature, since it somewhat unnoticeably changes from 6/8 to 4/4, therefore changing the feel of the song.