Cat Stevens 8-Pack

Lessons

• Lesson 1: The Wind - Guitar Lesson

  Cat Stevens frequently comes up with short ideas that are very cool and fun to play. *The Wind*is a good example of one of these. It is nothing more than a two-measure fingerpicked phrase with a few chords in the key of D. The picking uses the mono bass style and the strumming section has some unusual time changes. All of this adds up to a short but challenging song.

• Lesson 2: Father and Son - Guitar Lesson

  This gentle strumming song is an emotional conversation between a father and a son who are each dealing with their own set of questions and issues. The guitar part is fairly basic and is presented in a single-part lesson.

• Lesson 3: Morning Has Broken - Guitar Lesson

  *Morning Has Broken*is a tune that goes way back to Gaelic roots in Scotland then became a popular hymn in the early 20^th century. It took on new life in 1971 when Cat Stevens recorded it for his album Teaser And The Firecat, with some stylistic and artistic help from Rick Wakeman. This lesson goes over the chord progressions, strumming, and an expanded look at some of the theory involved in modulating and transposing to different keys.

• Lesson 4: Wild World - Guitar Lesson

  Cat Stevens made a couple of albums that were not particularly notable, until he found a style and a bit of direction with Mona Bone Jakon in 1970. The follow up, Tea For The Tillerman included Wild World, as well as Father And Son, and really established Cat as a star on the acoustic music scene. This lesson includes a couple of the fills that made this simple song very captivating.

• Lesson 5: Moonshadow - Guitar Lesson

  *Moonshadow* is one of Cat Stevens' most popular tunes and fun to play on the guitar. It uses a combination of different right hand techniques, including fingerpicking with a mono-bass pattern (repeating the same string rather than alternating), a hybrid picking-strumming technique, as well as a bigger strumming pattern where the "Invisible Pick" technique works best. The song was originally released on the 1971 album Teaser And The Firecat.

• Lesson 6: Peace Train - Guitar Lesson

  *Peace Train* is a song that only uses a few simple chords but is deceptively difficult to play. It has a very distinctive and recognizable intro and a short fill but most of the song is strumming C, G, F, and Am. The difficulty comes with the speed of the chord changes, as well as when they happen. This is another classic from Cat Stevens' album Teaser And The Firecat.

• Lesson 7: Where Do The Children Play - Cat Stevens - Guitar Lesson

  Cat Stevens wrote a bunch od great guitar songs, most of which featured little melodies or riffs worked into the strumming. Where Do The Children Play is the opening track from his 1970 album Tea For The Tillerman.
  
  It consists of a very basic chord progression but includes an unusual, unbalanced measure layout in the intro. There is also a very distinctive melody woven into the I-IV progression that opens the tune.

• Lesson 8: The First Cut Is The Deepest - Cat Stevens - Guitar Lesson

  In 1966, Cat Stevens was looking toward a career as a songwriter and his song The First Cut Is The Deepest was recorded by P.P. Arnold. In 1967, he recorded his own version for his second Album New Masters.
  
  It pretty much languished in obscurity until Rod Stewart released his version in 1977, with some questionable changes to the original arrangement and chord progression.
  
  This lesson looks at the subtleties Cat included in his version, as well as some variations he recently introduced.