Joni Mitchell Package

Lessons

• Lesson 1: River - Guitar Lesson

  River is a Joni Mitchell song from her 1971 album Blue, and has been covered by numerous artists, particularly on their Christmas albums. Joni plays it on piano and this lesson presents a way to get the same feeling and flavor on the guitar. We also look at a simplified Campfire Version, as well as a bit on the way Sarah McLachlan performs the song.

• Lesson 2: 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 3: Both Sides Now - Joni Mitchell - Guitar Lesson

  Both Sides Now was a hit for Judy Collins before Joni Mitchell released her own version in 1969 on her album Clouds. The song is done in Open D Tuning with a capo at the fourth fret and only uses a couple of simple chord shapes. The challenge with this song is to get the subtle chord changes in the right place. The lesson includes a ‘Chord Challenge’ segment for a little theory work and the attached tab only shows the rhythm of the changes, so listening and watching carefully are very important here.

• Lesson 4: Free Man In Paris - Joni Mitchell - Guitar Lesson

  In 1974 Joni Mitchell released her Court And Spark album, which included Free Man In Paris. Many artists, including Aimee Mann and Elton John, have since covered the song.
  
  It is played in Double Dropped D Tuning and uses just a few chord shapes. There are some tricky rhythm patterns and the lesson includes a simple tab arrangement just showing the chord shapes. The specific variations on each chord are explained in detail in the various segments.

• Lesson 5: The Circle Game

  Joni Mitchell came on the scene in the late 1960s with an approach to songwriting using unusual open tunings. These made for interesting sounds and were not too difficult to play, once you were in the right tuning. The Circle Game is from her 3rd album, Ladies Of The Canyon, and is done in Open G Tuning with a capo at the 4th fret.