WEBVTT 00:00:05.244 --> 00:00:10.174 Hello, how are you doing? Justin here. Welcome to Major Chord Scale Relations! 00:00:10.182 --> 00:00:15.292 What we're going to be checking out in this lesson is the way that the C major scale 00:00:15.292 --> 00:00:20.756 in open position, relates and can be played along with the three major chords 00:00:20.757 --> 00:00:24.887 in the key of C, which are the chords C, F, and G. 00:00:24.887 --> 00:00:28.833 So first of all, we're going to have a look at a close up of our C major scale 00:00:28.833 --> 00:00:34.496 in open position, and then we're going to try to play it at the same time 00:00:34.496 --> 00:00:36.134 as the different chords. 00:00:36.134 --> 00:00:39.651 And I'm going to show you kind of what fingering adaptations you have to make 00:00:39.651 --> 00:00:42.651 in order to do that and why it might be useful. 00:00:42.655 --> 00:00:46.150 What we're eventually are going to be doing is playing songs where we've got 00:00:46.150 --> 00:00:48.270 the chords and the melody at the same time. 00:00:48.287 --> 00:00:51.987 So it's important that you see the relationship now between the chords 00:00:51.987 --> 00:00:56.738 of the scales, even though we're not gonna really develop it fully for another couple of lessons. 00:00:56.738 --> 00:01:00.725 So, let's get to a close up and have a look at that C major scale in the open position. 00:01:01.445 --> 00:01:04.780 I'm hoping you should be familiar with the notes in the C major scale. 00:01:04.780 --> 00:01:08.000 'cause they are simply C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C. 00:01:08.000 --> 00:01:11.901 We're going to start with the thinnest string, where we've got the notes 00:01:11.901 --> 00:01:35.867 G, F, E, D, C, B, A, G, F, E, D, C, B, A, G, F, and E. 00:01:35.867 --> 00:01:41.311 Normally I would recommend coming back to a C so that you can see that. 00:01:41.311 --> 00:01:52.664 So the first thing: make (♪) sure that you are familiar with your C major scale in open position. 00:01:52.664 --> 00:01:53.813 Very, very important. 00:01:53.813 --> 00:02:01.773 OK, let's move straight into now looking at the C chord and how we could play the C major scale 00:02:01.773 --> 00:02:04.438 while we're holding down most of our chord. 00:02:04.438 --> 00:02:11.066 The first note is pretty easy because we can drop our little finger down there on the 3rd fret. 00:02:11.066 --> 00:02:13.536 We could play the C chord on that note, no worries. 00:02:13.536 --> 00:02:17.890 Now if we want to play the next note, F, we'd have to use our first finger to kind of 00:02:17.890 --> 00:02:20.507 lay it down a little bit. I'm just playing the bass note there so you can 00:02:20.507 --> 00:02:22.220 hear the relationship between the two. 00:02:22.220 --> 00:02:25.864 And I'm trying to hold as much of the chord down as I can, but you're gonna see 00:02:25.864 --> 00:02:29.694 as we progress down the scale that you can't hold the chord down all the time. 00:02:29.695 --> 00:02:36.565 But you try. So, we've got there the G, the note F, if we lift up our 1st finger 00:02:36.575 --> 00:02:40.525 back to that, we get the top note as being the E. 00:02:40.525 --> 00:02:47.295 Now, when we want the next note, D, little finger just drops down there over onto 00:02:47.295 --> 00:02:51.212 the 2nd string, and what's really important to realize now, is that when 00:02:51.212 --> 00:02:56.564 we've got a melody, say the D, we want that D to be the highest note. 00:02:56.564 --> 00:03:02.424 Because if we play the thinnest E string again, it's a nice sounding chord, but the 00:03:02.424 --> 00:03:06.270 E sounds like the melody because just naturally, the note that we hear as the 00:03:06.270 --> 00:03:11.057 highest note is the one that our ears perceive as being the melody note. 00:03:11.057 --> 00:03:16.926 So the top note you want to play there if we want our D melody, is the 2nd string. 00:03:16.926 --> 00:03:22.500 Then we've got... lift off little finger and we've got there the note C with our 1st finger already. 00:03:22.500 --> 00:03:26.965 We lift off our 1st finger and we've got the note B. 00:03:26.965 --> 00:03:28.034 I'm just going to stop there, 00:03:28.034 --> 00:03:29.554 so that you can see this first little bit 00:03:29.554 --> 00:03:31.765 nice and clearly. That we can play our melody, 00:03:31.765 --> 00:03:35.760 ♪ 00:03:35.760 --> 00:03:36.903 We could go back up as well, 00:03:36.903 --> 00:03:40.513 ♪ 00:03:40.513 --> 00:03:42.513 That time I shifted over with my 1st finger. 00:03:42.513 --> 00:03:43.478 So you could... 00:03:43.478 --> 00:03:45.458 ♪ 00:03:45.458 --> 00:03:47.314 you can either drop that 1st finger down. 00:03:47.314 --> 00:03:54.111 ♪ 00:03:54.111 --> 00:04:00.435 So, continuing on, we enter our first problem, which is getting onto this note here, the note A. 00:04:00.435 --> 00:04:04.775 I suppose it would be possible to drop your 2nd finger over (♪) 00:04:04.775 --> 00:04:08.624 to get the note A; but it kinda makes the rest of the chord hard to play 00:04:08.624 --> 00:04:13.251 and it's kinda awkward to do that. So, generally, when I want to play that note A 00:04:13.251 --> 00:04:19.249 I move my 1st finger off the root note, onto the A and then lift it off and generally, 00:04:19.249 --> 00:04:24.138 once it's off, I would put it back on the note C,- just kinda for good measure. 00:04:24.138 --> 00:04:30.328 ♪ 00:04:30.334 --> 00:04:32.217 You see, we've got a whole lot of melody going on now. 00:04:32.217 --> 00:04:40.282 ♪ 00:04:40.282 --> 00:04:42.062 And this is part of the folk-think, you know, 00:04:42.062 --> 00:04:51.388 ♪ 00:04:51.388 --> 00:04:55.648 I just wanted to do that quick little demo, so you can see the idea of it being used. 00:04:55.652 --> 00:04:59.481 ♪ 00:04:59.481 --> 00:05:06.791 Now, if we continue: little finger is going down on the 3rd fret of the 4th string 00:05:06.791 --> 00:05:12.813 ...lifting off, you do that, and then, kind of that's really the end. One we've got to... 00:05:12.813 --> 00:05:16.853 the end of that, there's some other scale notes, but they're not really gonna fit 00:05:16.856 --> 00:05:18.859 with our C chord. So as long as you can get: 00:05:18.859 --> 00:05:24.558 ♪ 00:05:24.558 --> 00:05:32.698 That would be the exercise. So strum, just play the scale and strum at the end. 00:05:32.717 --> 00:05:41.255 ♪ 00:05:41.255 --> 00:05:48.240 Just experiment a little bit. See how you can find...the notes with our C chord. 00:05:48.240 --> 00:05:54.128 And C chord is fairly easy. We've got quite a few little bits, where we have to kind of 00:05:54.128 --> 00:06:01.662 position, re-position our fingers. Luckily for us, our G chord is kinda easier. 00:06:01.662 --> 00:06:07.362 Now, hopefully you remember folk G. Good old folk G here, now we've got 00:06:07.362 --> 00:06:11.155 two fingers free already, I'm just using my 3rd finger, I'm muting the 5th string, 00:06:11.155 --> 00:06:15.966 for now, 3 open strings and then our little finger there on the thinnest sting. 00:06:15.966 --> 00:06:21.004 Now, because of that, we can get down our scale pretty easily and remember 00:06:21.004 --> 00:06:25.136 we're staying with the C major scale, right? This is the 5th chord in the key of C. 00:06:25.136 --> 00:06:38.032 We're not moving to G major scale. We're still playing C major scale. - ♪ 00:06:38.032 --> 00:06:39.700 That's a great little exercise. 00:06:39.700 --> 00:06:44.190 ♪ 00:06:44.190 --> 00:06:44.894 Again: 00:06:44.894 --> 00:06:59.501 ♪ 00:06:59.501 --> 00:07:05.642 I was just mucking around again, with the C major scale and I was using the 00:07:05.642 --> 00:07:08.141 the folk fingerstyle sort of ideas. 00:07:08.141 --> 00:07:16.092 ♪ 00:07:16.092 --> 00:07:21.342 Now the fun part for our major chords comes with the F chord: - ♪ 00:07:21.342 --> 00:07:25.075 Now, I'm using here the thumb-over-F technique, so the thumb is playing 00:07:25.075 --> 00:07:29.981 the bass note (♪); we're just using the mini-F. We can kinda use the barre chord 00:07:29.981 --> 00:07:33.170 but the problem with the barre chord: we've run out of fingers already. 00:07:33.170 --> 00:07:37.192 It's difficult to get notes off to play the melody parts, if all of our fingers are tied up. 00:07:37.192 --> 00:07:42.762 So, normally, if I'm doing this style, I'll play F chord like this. 00:07:42.762 --> 00:07:48.896 Now, again, looking at the scale, little finger can go on the top, to get the G, 00:07:48.896 --> 00:07:57.383 lift it off, we can get the note F, (♪) lift off our 1st finger, so it's not a barre anymore, 00:07:57.383 --> 00:08:05.240 and it's just playing the note C, the 1st finger, 1st fret, 2nd string,- ♪ 00:08:05.240 --> 00:08:09.181 It's an F major7th chord of course, but we've got the melody,- ♪ 00:08:09.181 --> 00:08:14.563 then little finger on the note D, 1st finger on the note C, 00:08:14.563 --> 00:08:19.533 1st finger can come off,- bit of a funny chord,- but we've got the melody now. 00:08:19.541 --> 00:08:23.880 ♪ 00:08:23.880 --> 00:08:30.063 This is a lovely chord by the way, having F and lifting off 2nd finger,- ♪ 00:08:30.063 --> 00:08:36.973 Then, the last part (♪); you can kinda do it. But to be honest, you don't tend to use it 00:08:36.973 --> 00:08:40.177 that much, 'cause it's quite tricky on the F. So, generally if you can get: 00:08:40.177 --> 00:08:43.488 ♪ 00:08:43.488 --> 00:08:48.935 That would be enough for F. If you can deal with that. - ♪ 00:08:48.935 --> 00:08:56.547 Just experiment! See, if you can play it. Just play the chord: ♪ 00:08:56.547 --> 00:08:59.291 You'll come out with all sorts of super-duper cool stuff. 00:09:01.101 --> 00:09:05.936 Now, this might seem really difficult and I'm sure you've got quite a few questions. 00:09:05.936 --> 00:09:09.122 Unfortunately, most of the questions, I can't answer for you. 00:09:09.122 --> 00:09:10.588 You have to figure them out. 00:09:10.588 --> 00:09:15.248 Now, questions like: "What fingers should I use to play that note?" - Well, it depends on 00:09:15.251 --> 00:09:19.655 the circumstance, you know. In one chord, you might find that that finger's really easy, 00:09:19.655 --> 00:09:23.434 but if you're changing to a different chord, becomes difficult. So you have to kind of 00:09:23.434 --> 00:09:26.774 nut these things out yourself and think, well, if I'm gonna use that finger, maybe 00:09:26.782 --> 00:09:31.121 it's easier to do it this way. And it's what works for you. Because a lot of the 00:09:31.121 --> 00:09:34.385 different finger style players do things differently. James Taylor does all sorts of 00:09:34.385 --> 00:09:38.651 funny chord fingerings. But it works for him. It's great, you know! So don't feel that you 00:09:38.651 --> 00:09:42.797 have to be totally restricted to a right way, or a wrong way. Because I'm afraid, 00:09:42.797 --> 00:09:44.948 that there...probably there isn't one. 00:09:44.948 --> 00:09:49.097 I'm trying to give you as many guidelines as I can and that's kind of the point of 00:09:49.097 --> 00:09:52.442 us looking at those fingerstyle patterns that we've looked at before, was to kind of 00:09:52.442 --> 00:09:56.169 give you a default setting, where your fingers would naturally go to. 00:09:56.169 --> 00:10:00.285 But if you're trying to play a melody on the 4th string, one of your fingers is gonna 00:10:00.285 --> 00:10:02.037 have to come over and play the 4th string. 00:10:02.037 --> 00:10:04.978 And you probably don't wanna do that with your thumb. So straight away, 00:10:04.978 --> 00:10:10.848 you're kind of braking them all a little bit. Maybe the...you might wanna play a melody 00:10:10.850 --> 00:10:15.676 where the melody is on the same string and using the same finger is difficult. 00:10:15.676 --> 00:10:19.042 So, one of the other fingers might come over and play it. And that's fine. 00:10:19.042 --> 00:10:22.156 There's not really set ideas on this. 00:10:22.156 --> 00:10:26.470 What I'm trying to get you to do at this stage, is just have a basic understanding 00:10:26.470 --> 00:10:30.889 on the concept of the idea that there's this key of C, that we're in, 00:10:30.889 --> 00:10:34.568 and there are 3 major chords in the key of C which is C, F and G, 00:10:34.568 --> 00:10:40.328 and that the major scale of C fits over all of those chords, kind of matches up 00:10:40.328 --> 00:10:45.794 perfectly with them and that you should start to explore the idea that you can... 00:10:45.794 --> 00:10:52.152 might play some of the scale along with the chords at the same time. 00:10:52.152 --> 00:10:55.053 Tha's it! At this stage, that's all I really want you to get. And I want you to 00:10:55.053 --> 00:10:59.107 have a go at doing those exercises I just showed you, where you kinda play the chord 00:10:59.107 --> 00:11:01.701 and muck around with some of the scale tones. 00:11:01.701 --> 00:11:04.383 That's not...you know, we haven't finished yet, right? That's just 00:11:04.383 --> 00:11:07.688 what I want you to be able to do at this stage, is explore it. We're gonna go into 00:11:07.688 --> 00:11:12.016 more detail now about how we actually use it, when we learn how to play: 00:11:12.016 --> 00:11:13.212 "Happy Birthday". 00:11:13.212 --> 00:11:17.262 So, I'll see you for that lesson very soon, take care of yourselves, bye-bye!