Saturday Night Sets - Volume 1

Lessons

• Lesson 1: Wagon Wheel - Guitar Lesson

  *Wagon Wheel*is a folksy song with interesting history, having started out as a sketch by Bob Dylan for the 1973 movie Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid. Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show took the initial idea, finished the song, and it has become a huge hit in the acoustic world. This lesson is done in our ‘Work It Out’ style working through figuring it out by ear so don’t look at the chart if you’d like to work on your listening skills.

• Lesson 2: The Weight - Guitar Lesson

  The Weight is one of the most popular songs by Robbie Robertson and The Band. It was released in 1969 on their 1st album, Music From Big Pink. The whimsical lyrics and instantly recognizable opening lick make it a lot of fun to play and sing, especially if you can round up some friends to sing along. This TARGET Short lesson includes playing it in the original key of A as well as transposed down to G.

• Lesson 3: Angel From Montgomery - Guitar Lesson

  Angel From Montgomery is one of John Prines most famous songs, partly due to numerous covers, most notably one by Bonnie Raitt. Prines progressions are generally very basic and this is no exception. The lesson is presented in our Work It Out format to improve ear training. This has a couple of interesting twists so dont‚ take a look at the chart until youРІР‚ gone through a few segments of the lesson.

• Lesson 4: Tequila Sunrise

  This is a great song for beginning students. It uses the basic folk strum and mostly open chords in the key of G.

• Lesson 5: Sister Golden Hair - Guitar Lesson

  Sister Golden Hair was written by Gerry Beckley and first appeared in 1975 on America’s fifth album Hearts. It is a fairly basic strumming song but has quite a few barre chords used, many changing quickly. This short lesson includes a chord chart with lyrics and all the details you need to get it down.

• Lesson 6: American Pie - Guitar Lesson

  *American Pie*was the song that put Don McLean on the map of great songwriters forever. Released in 1971, on his second album, the song tells the story of "The Day The Music Died", along with dozens of pieces of 1960s Americana. The song is a basic strumming one with fairly easy chords. It is just a matter of learning the progression and tying in the lyrics,

• Lesson 7: Faith - Acoustic Guitar Lesson

  Faith is a song written and performed by singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist George Michael.
  
  It’s taken from his solo debut and Grammy winning album of the same name, released in 1987. It reached number one in the United States and was the top-selling single of the year in 1988.
  
  This lesson takes a thorough look at the very cool uptempo and rhythmic groove, which needs to be played by muting the strings with the fretting hand.
  
  It covers the easy progression which was recorded in the key of B. The song uses five chords, preferably barre chords from the E and A families.

• Lesson 8: Sugar Mountain - Guitar Lesson

  Sugar Mountain is one of Neil Young’s earliest songs, and a fairly basic strumming song at that. This lesson goes over a few different ways of fingering the chords, a little theory on chord additions, and some ideas on embellishing the song with the typical hammer-ons that he uses in many of his songs.

• Lesson 9: Helplessly Hoping

  *Helplessly Hoping*is a classic fingerstyle tune by Stephen Stills that was released in 1969 on the first Crosby, Stills & Nash album. Stills’ playing is generally very free form and he never plays this song exactly the same way twice. The lesson covers the chord progression and presents a ‘Campfire Version’ that is easy to strum, as well as great detail on specific licks and additions that Stills uses and how to add your own variations to fingerpicking patterns, making the arrangement your own.

• Lesson 10: Ripple

  Ripple has been a favorite Grateful Dead song among Neil's students for quite some time. The basic accompaniment is pretty straightforward, almost a Campfire song. This lesson covers strumming through the progression and includes tab to a Chord Solo arrangement, similar to Neil's Play Through segment.

• Lesson 11: Knockin' On Heaven's Door

  This lesson on Knockin' On Heaven's Door by Bob Dylan is part of the series of complete lessons we call The Campfire Versions. Learn the chords, learn the strumming pattern (or make up your own), and get some friends to sing along!

• Lesson 12: Take Me Home, Country Roads

  This is a basic version of John Denver's classic tune, perfect for beginners.

• Lesson 13: Sweet Baby James

  Here is James Taylor's classic cowboy/campfire song played pretty much the way James did it.

• Lesson 14: You Don’t Mess Around With Jim

  Jim Croce was one of the greatest songwriter/singer/performers of the 1970s, and maybe all time. This song shows a bit of his blues-rock side, using a shuffle type rhythm in a modified 12-bar format to back a fun story. It is basically blues in E and the lesson includes a detailed look at muting and muffling the vamp, as well as some thoughts on adding fills using the E Minor Pentatonic Scale.

• Lesson 15: Sundown

  Gordon Lightfoot's Sundown was one of his biggest hits, as well as one of his easiest songs to play. It was released in 1974 and got him back on the musical map as it had been a few years since his last hit, If You Could Read My Mind. It uses just a few open chords and is done with a simple rock strum.

• Lesson 16: Big Yellow Taxi - Guitar Lesson

  Big Yellow Taxi is from Joni Mitchell’s third album, Ladies Of The Canyon and is a lot of fun to play. It is done in Open D Tuning (D A D F# A D) using some pretty easy chord shapes. The challenge in this lesson is being loose and free with the strumming, not really thinking of it as patterns but more a matter of getting the accents in the right places.

• Lesson 17: 59th Street Bridge Song

  Paul Simon is the author of dozens of great songs ranging from complicated masterpieces to simple campfire songs. This lesson falls into the latter category and is definitely one of his easiest- The 59th Street Bridge Song, also known as 'Feelin' Groovy'. It is a 2 measure progression using only 3 chords, with a repetitive fingerpicking pattern.

• Lesson 18: Sweet Caroline - Neil Diamond - Guitar Lesson

  Sweet Caroline is one of the greatest sing-a-long songs of all time. It was released as a single in 1969 then subsequently added to Neil Diamond’s album of the day, Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show, as an afterthought.
  
  This lesson goes over the chord progression and shows a relatively easy way to play it in the key of A, as well as a more embellished version bringing in many of the other instruments’ parts. It also covers different voicings of common chords and barres from families other than E and A.

• Lesson 19: Brown Eyed Girl

  This lesson goes over the chord progression, the strumming, the opening lead, and some of the licks and fills in Van Morrison's hit from his 1st solo album Blowin' Your Mind, released in 1967.

• Lesson 20: One Horse Town - Blackberry Smoke - Guitar Lesson

  Blackberry Smoke is a contemporary American rock band with a southern country sound.
  
  One Horse Town is a good example of an interesting chord progression, an Americana story, great vocals, and even a tasty lead. It is a bit reminiscent of Lynyrd Skynyrd or even the Allman Brothers.
  
  This lesson goes into the techniques commonly used in progressions and leads in this style.