Week 1 Getting Started I will be starting you off with the absolute basics in terms of singing, so our focus in the beginning will NOT be on switching chords. Instead, we will be using each common Major chord form and embellishing on the given chord so that we can practice singing from all three vocal ranges. Again, you won't switch chords at all. You simply embellish on the basic chord formation. I'd like to begin with the C Major chord for a variety of reasons. The main reason I think C Major is our best starting point is because of the natural arrangement of the high, middle, and low C on the piano.
Most likely you've heard of "middle C" before. If you haven't, the concept is very simple. On the piano you'll find a "safe zone" - which is referred to as middle C. Here's a diagram that features the layout of the high, middle, and low C on the piano: Our vocals can be thought of much in the very same way. As I've already explained in the demo tutorials, we will be using our high, middle, and low voicings based on each chord we encounter. Doing this will allow us to use our guitar to work with vocal rangings so that we can have a 'real-world' example at all times.
Preliminary Chords For The Week Getting Started in C Major As we all know, a triad (chord) consists of three notes. Oddly enough, my goal in this program is to teach you how to sing using three voices. This wasn't a coincidence. While the term "root" most always refers to the lowest point in which the chord itself is named, which, in this instance, is the 3rd fret on the A string, when we sing we need not make a determination between which root is being used. We are just looking for the note itself. As you can see from the above chord diagram, we have two C notes. C Major in Open Position When you strum the C Major chord in its open position, you'll most likely hear this chord as a "low" C Major chord. This is not necessarily relative to choosing your voicing though. In other words, just because we play an open C Major chord on guitar, we aren't limited to singing in our low voice. As a matter of fact, in many ways it is much easier to sing all three voices using only the C Major in
open position. C Major in Barred Position (A Style) This is our next chord to examine in terms of location on the guitar, because with the C Major barre chord in A Style format - meaning, where A Style refers to the root on the A string - we still have the same C note on the 3rd fret of the A string. In other words, we still use the same root note from the open C Major as we do with the C Major barre chord in A Style format. When we play this chord, odds are you'll hear this is a middle C. It only makes sense as we still use the same root note, but we're barring the chord and therefore giving ourselves just a bit more tone. C Major in Barred Position (E Style) Finally we have our other C Major barre chord. In this instance, the root is on the 8th fret of the Low E string. As you can most likely guess, when we strum this chord we will hear it more as our high C. Because this particular chord isn't always easy to reach on acoustic, most of us will likely choose the other two in terms of chord usage.
Adding Your Voicings As you'll recall, I mentioned that we don't necessarily need to mimic our high, middle, or low voicings in conjunction with the chords on the guitar. However, this is a great way to find your natural vocal tone. The first example below will provide us with an exercise to find where our natural vocal tone lies. Doing this will allow us to choose our safe zone in terms of vocal ability. Later it will really come into play when we begin connecting chords to form a progression. Part 1 - This video focuses only on the open C Major http://vimeo.com/100127720 Part 2 - This video focuses on both of the barred C Major chords http://vimeo.com/100127721
Additional Challenge http://vimeo.com/100127722 I also like to take a given chord and use a bit of fingerstyle while singing along to the notes being played. Often this helps me determine the range I want to use JUST for that chord itself. In the case of C Major, we could choose to play a simple passage like shown on the tab below. What you will want to do is play both the C notes at the same time. By using the low C note (A string on the 3rd fret) as well as using the high C note (B string on the 1st fret) you can actually create a low sounding tone. Once you have played both C notes at the same time, try throwing in the two other notes that are used to create the C Major, which are E and G.
Here's where it gets neat: You'll recall that I mentioned we want to focus only on the FIRST chord in a given progression. In this case, the chord we are working with is just C Major. By combining the high and low C note on the guitar so that they sound in unison, we have established that we want the C Major chord itself to sound as though we're singing it in our low voice. The big question is: How do we sing the E and G notes? The solution: When you pick out the entire C Major chord, the E note is going to sound higher than the C note. Since we WANT the C notes to be sung as a low voicing, we want the E note to sound as a MIDDLE voicing. On guitar it sounds higher, so vocally we want to go higher - at least for now. Again, you may wonder why I say this. As I've already mentioned we ALSO have a G note to sing in the C Major chord formation. When you pluck the G note from the C Major chord, it will sound even higher than the C notes (plucked TOGETHER - not separately) as well as the E note. So, we want to sing the G note as our high voice. We don't have any other choice. While the notes don't always match the vocal high, middle, or low that we sing, the process of examining our very first note that is played on guitar determines the way the rest of the notes and/or sometimes even the chord progression itself sounds.
Your Assignment: Simply play through each of the three chord options a few times without singing. I'd like you to listen extremely closely to how each of these three chords SOUND - even though each of these chords feature the same notes. After you listen a few times, I'd like you to then go back and try a series of simple "oohs and aahs" - NO actual lyrics yet please! - and match each of the three voicings directly to the chord choices. Make a note of your progress using the tracker below. Here's How: For each one of the three C Major chord formations you will be provided with a box. I'd like you to practice using each of our three voices for each of our three chord formations.
Example: Open C Major using Low Voice - When you strum the open C Major, practice singing in your low voice. Decide for yourself whether or not you think you sound best in your low voice. Use one of the three options below when you enter the information in the box: Yes - Indicating "yes" in this box means you find that the given voice you use is your personal favorite. No - Indicating "no" in this box means you find that the given choice you use is your least favorite. Maybe - Indicating "maybe" in this box means you just aren't quite sure whether or not this voicing is your favorite. Why Is This Important? This tracker is VERY important, so please don't just skip over it. As you move through the course, the answers you track here determine where you find comfort in your voice. Even moreso, as you begin connecting chords via a progression, tracking yourself here and now will give you a great guide into where you sing best. After you enter the information below it will redirect you to what you entered.
You can save it if you'd like. Open C Major using Low Voice Open C Major using Middle Voice Open C Major using High Voice A Style C Major using Low Voice A Style C Major using Middle Voice A Style C Major using High Voice E Style C Major using Low Voice E Style C Major using Middle Voice E Style C Major using High Voice
Getting Started in A Major The first lesson we will be working with here are the three A chords we MIGHT choose to play while practicing our singing. We will then move onto embellishments. I will be providing you with some fingerstyle examples of A Major, but I want to reserve that for when we connect chord progressions. Take a look at the tab to the right as we examine the three A Majors. A Major in Open Position When you strum the A Major chord in its open position, you'll most likely hear this chord as a "low" A Major chord. This is not necessarily relative to choosing your voicing though. In other words, just because we play an open A Major chord on guitar, we aren't limited to singing in our low voice. As a matter of fact, in many ways it is much easier to sing all three voices using only the A Major in open position.
A Major in Barred Position (E Style) This is our next chord to examine in terms of location on the guitar, because with the A Major barre chord in E Style format - meaning, where E Style refers to the root on the E string - we still have the same A note on the 5th fret of the E string. When we play this chord, odds are you'll hear this is a "middle" A. We're barring the chord and therefore giving ourselves just a bit more tone. A Major in A Less-Likely Scenario Here we have an A Major that CAN be played as seen in the tab provided, but I can't recall one single time where I've used it. Nonetheless, it is an option and therefore must be examined. If you were to play this A Major, you'll most likely hear it as a "high" A. Adding Your Voicings As you'll recall, I mentioned that we don't necessarily need to mimic our high, middle, or low voicings in conjunction with the chords on the guitar.
However, this is a great way to find your natural vocal tone. http://vimeo.com/100240496 *Note - if you are wondering what the letters (and in the case of "rest") mean, they are actually phonetics. We use phonetics to create the proper form in speaking as well as singing. These mouth patterns are used to produce the letters provided.
Embellishment Here I provide you with a way to think about using the A Major chord by itself to determine low, middle, and high voicings for your vocals. All we've done is use a series of embellishments based on the A Major chord itself. http://vimeo.com/100235389 As played in the video when strumming:
Your Assignment: Simply play through each of the three chord options a few times without singing. I'd like you to listen extremely closely to how each of these three chords SOUND - even though each of these chords feature the same notes. After you listen a few times, I'd like you to then go back and try a series of simple "oohs and aahs" - NO actual lyrics yet please! - and match each of the three voicings directly to the chord choices. Make a note of your progress using the tracker below. Here's How: For each one of the three A Major chord formations you will be provided with a box. I'd like you to practice using each of our three voices for each of our three chord formations. Example: Open A Major using Low Voice - When you strum the open A Major, practice singing in your low voice. Decide for yourself whether or not you think you sound best in your low voice. Use one of the three options below when you enter the information in the box:
Yes - Indicating "yes" in this box means you find that the given voice you use is your personal favorite. No - Indicating "no" in this box means you find that the given choice you use is your least favorite. Maybe - Indicating "maybe" in this box means you just aren't quite sure whether or not this voicing is your favorite. Why Is This Important? This tracker is VERY important, so please don't just skip over it. As you move through the course, the answers you track here determine where you find comfort in your voice. Even moreso, as you begin connecting chords via a progression, tracking yourself here and now will give you a great guide into where you sing best. After you enter the information below it will redirect you to what you entered. You can save it if you'd like. Open A Major using Low Voice Open A Major using Middle Voice
Open A Major using High Voice E Style A Major using Low Voice E Style A Major using Middle Voice E Style A Major using High Voice Lesser Used A Major using Low Voice Lesser Used A Major using Middle Voice Lesser Used A Major using High Voice
Getting Started in G Major G Major will be approached a bit different than the previous lessons, because the G Major chord has some "issues" in terms of our format. In the past I would take a given chord and use embellishments based on the chord itself, but in the case of G Major there's no real logical way to do this other than playing G Major and G7. There IS a Gsus4 that can be played, but you don't notice much of a tonal difference. So, here's what we'll do: The first thing we'll do with G Major is pick out the notes found using the open version. We'll use these notes to work with our low, middle, and high voicings. The next thing we'll do with G Major is strum it and work with our low, middle, and high. The main difference in this lesson is that we will ONLY work with our "low" mouth pattern, while still bringing our vocals up in range from low, middle, and
high. In other words, you'll use this pattern: (or) but you'll STILL use all three voicings. Because the G Major barre chord version (found with the root on the 3rd fret of the low E string) doesn't really change much in terms of brightness as the other chords did, we won't concern ourselves with it. Another point to mention about the G Major chord is this: Often you'll hear a vocalist use low and middle voice with the G Major chord. It's not uncommon to hear the high voicing with a G Major, but often the G Major is a "transition" chord when the high voicing is used. In other words, the G Major chord, when sung as a high voicing, is usually attached either TO or FROM a chord before or after it.
Examples: Am - G - F - G (All Along The Watchtower - Dylan) D - G (What I Got - Sublime) Bm - G (Wild Horses - Rolling Stones) All of the G chords found in this song are actually sung in a low/middle voice. While the G Major SOUNDS bright, it's not often sung as bright. Instead, it's often sung as a contrast. Adding Your Voicings As you'll recall, I mentioned that we don't necessarily need to mimic our high, middle, or low voicings in conjunction with the chords on the guitar. However, this is a great way to find your natural vocal tone. What you'll be doing in this particular assignment is strumming the open G Major chord while singing from low - then middle - then high - and then back from high - middle - low. The example will help you understand this much better. http://vimeo.com/100344963
Sing all low, middle, and high with these mouth positions: and/or Picking Out Notes This assignment is another way to listen CLOSELY to the notes provided within the open G Major chord itself. Here you'll be playing the tab below and singing from low, middle, high and then back down again much like in the other exercise. The only difference here is you'll have a guideline to follow for each note based on the way it sounds: This isn't as hard as it might seem. When you sing any three voicings, there are a few "safe areas" WITHIN a given voicing that allows you to still sound as though
you are singing in a variety of ranges. In actuality, you really aren't. You are just playing a trick really. In the tab above you'll see two voice ranges for each threepart range of low, middle, and high. http://vimeo.com/100344962 The goal here is to sing in your lowest possible voicing as you start on the low E string at the 3rd fret. You then bring your voice up just a LITTLE bit when you play and sing the 2nd fret A string note. The process repeats until you reach the first high voicing. At this point, you'll notice a rest in the tab. During this rest, take a quick breath and then try your best to get to the upmost point of your high voicing. Unless you've done quite a bit of singing, this will most likely be rather difficult. As you can guess, the highest possible voicing is usually where a singer falls out of pitch. Your Assignment: This assignment is a bit different as well. What I'd like you to do is mostly focus on the last exercise you did using TWO ranges of each three-part voicing.
Why Is This Important? This tracker is VERY important, so please don't just skip over it. As you move through the course, the answers you track here determine where you find comfort in your voice. Even moreso, as you begin connecting chords via a progression, tracking yourself here and now will give you a great guide into where you sing best. After you enter the information below it will redirect you to what you entered. You can save it if you'd like. The Low E and A strings had you sing in a low voicing. Were you able to create two low-tone voicings for these strings? The D and G strings had you sing in a middle voicing. Were you able to create two middle-tone voicings for these strings?
The B and high E strings had you sing in a high voicing. Were you able to create two high-tone voicings for these strings? Did you try this pattern both ascending and descending? How did the ascending and descending work for you? Were you able to get all two ranges in the three-part run?
Getting Started in E Major E Major is a tricky chord to sing along with, but most likely you'll find the E Major has a low to middle vocal tone. In this lesson I will be giving you a different approach to singing, because we'll be focusing on a song snippet called "Black" by Pearl Jam. The progression is rather easy, because we are REALLY just working on E Major to A Major. However, there are some embellishments with the A Major if you choose to play it. Now we WILL be using lyrics, but I've color coded each lyric to help you find the low, middle, and high.
Check this out: Again, DON'T freak out about the chords if you can't play the A's in time. The real focus here is the movement from E Major to A Major. You can simply strum the E to A if you would like.
Important: Remember that the focus here is actually E Major, so what you need to do in this song is base your range off of a few things. The diagram below is using the Low E string. The arrangement of the notes are from low to high, which means that C is lower than both E and A. D is higher than C in terms of note usage, but as octaves are involved, the D isn't too far away from the E octave is it? This will be important later.
1. Your "low" will ALWAYS need to be within the realm of E (open) even when you switch chords. 2. The first line has "sheets" in it, which is a high voice. The high there is a high E. When you get to the "ooohh.." when you play the C chord, the high there is a high(ish) C - not E. This is because the chord has changed. The tricky part in this is finding which low, middle, or high to use. The way you do this is by looking at the overall progression. The entire verse progression is really just E - A. So, all of your low, middle, and high voicings are really just within those two chord progressions. Because both the E and A CAN be played as open note (E and A strings) on the guitar, you really don't have to worry too much about whether or not you are singing in E or A. You can just pick one or the other, but I recommend using the E Major as it's the key of the song. 3. When you get to the pre-chorus (C - Em) your focus should be on singing a high(ish) C voicing, and then dropping it down to the LOWEST C voicing you can. It might even match up directly with the middle E in terms of sound.
4. The chorus DOES have a chord we haven't worked with yet (D Major), but in this case it's in a low voicing so it shouldn't be difficult to sound out. The chorus is just D - C - Em, so there isn't much of a change in terms of vocality. THIS part of the chorus (which changes later) is only sung in low and middle voicing. While you "should" use the D Major as your guide, you can actually stick to the E Major for assistance. (D and E are so closely related in terms of note order, so really there won't be an extremely obvious difference.) So, what mouth positioning should we use? We all know that Eddie Vedder sounds as though his mouth has been sewn shut most of the time. It's really hard to understand what he sings quite often. So, let's stick to these two mouth positions: (or)
Adding Your Voicings The above diagram has two mouth positions, but you'll most likely only use the MBP until you get to the "oooh" part - which would then switch to WQ. Say "wool" and your lips will form the "whoo." Say "quick" and your lips will form the same pattern. http://vimeo.com/100430315
and/or Your Assignment: This assignment is a bit different as well. While I have yet to teach "how" to actually sing lyrics, by using the mouth positions I have provided, odds are you can do this by default. Remember, singing is JUST like speaking, but your high, middle, and low are simply used as factors when doing so. In other words, speak the lyrics at first and then ADD the high, middle, and low based mostly on the chord you are working with. In this case, the song itself is in E, so you could survive the song by just using the E voicings. What you choose to do beyond that is up to you. After you enter the information below it will redirect you to what you entered. You can save it if you'd like. Did you find the MBP (more of a closed mouth) or the WQ (the "O" or "ooh") easiest?
Did you do ok with the verse theme using the three voicings? Did you do ok with the pre-chorus theme using more of a high C? Did you do ok with the chorus, where the D Major "sounds" more like an E? Were you able to make it through the entire first part of this song? Getting Started in D Major or With D Major, I always include the way I play this chord. I always use the second version, where the 1st finger barres the G, B, and high E strings. The 2nd finger then plays the third fret on the B string. Today we're going to have a little fun playing a D Major chord while using split chords. Split chords aren't difficult, but the look of them make them seem so.
Here's an example: This is a D/F#, which really means that you're playing a D Major chord formation, but you're ADDING the bass of F#, which is the 2nd fret note on the low E string. This makes the chord have more emphasis on the bass. You can simply replace the F# to create a D/G by using the 3rd fret G note, found on the Low E string. In tab formation it would look like this:
The blue box above indicates the chord being played. In this case, you will be playing the D Major chord, so the fingers required to play the D Major NEVER change. The only change comes in on the bass notes. As you can see, the F# is lower in tone as opposed to the G. If possible, we want to try to use our initial chord (D Major in this instance) to determine our vocal range. However, as you'll see above, the D note itself (based on the low E string ONLY) is higher in tone than either split chord bass note. Here's the chart again: Remember: for now our focus is on the low E string only.
We can then deduce the following (for now): D Major alone = high D Major with F# bass = low D Major with G bass = middle When you play this series, even though we are still playing in D, you'll hear the immediate change in tone as you play the added F# and G bass notes. This makes sense in terms of singing as well, right? What if we wanted to focus on the A string instead of the low E? We NOW have a different arrangement, don't we? D Major alone = low D Major with F# bass = middle D Major with G bass = high What does this mean? Well, really it just means we have two options so far. Either way would work in terms of vocality. Let's break it down one ADDITIONAL step and use the actual
open D string (since we are in D Major) to see what happens: D Major alone = low D Major with F# bass = middle D Major with G bass = high Choices, Choices, Choices! The choices that I have provided are options that are no different than the three voicings we can use. The way I'd like you to try and sing is as followed, with the strings being our guideline:
Version 1 (low E string): High > Low > Middle This one might be rather tricky for you, but it's a great way to tell whether or not you can discern the true difference between the three voicings. Of course, low and middle won't sound quite as obvious.
Version 2 (A and D strings): Low > Middle > High Odds are you'll find this much easier, because the range variation isn't nearly as extreme. What About Embellishments? Really this IS an embellishment, because we are taking the initial chord and either adding or taking away from it. The notion that these split chords are different is only considered because of the bass note. You can even take a bass note from another string, such as a D/C#, as seen below:
The chord itself is STILL a D Major chord to us regular guitarists, regardless as to what theorists might say in terms of note application. The C# note is just hinted as a bass note, in turn creating the notion of "splitting" a base chord. So, what mouth positioning should we use? Let's stick to these two mouth positions because we should be rather familiar with them by now: (or)
Adding Your Voicings Simply practice playing both versions of the D - D/F# - D/G starting in this order: High > Low > Middle Low > Middle > High Your Assignment: Today's assignment won't feature a video. Instead, I'd like you to see if you can find the D using just the chords you have at your disposal. On Monday I will be providing you with a video that will help if you can't figure it out today. I will also be providing you with both the B and F Major chords on Monday, which will finalize our first week so that we can proceed to the good stuff - connecting chords.
Below is a tracker to help you decide where you sound best: High > Low > Middle Was it difficult for you to go from high to low? (Yes/No) Did you find that low to middle was easier or about the same as high to low? (Yes/No/Same) Low > Middle > High Was this version easier to sing for you? (Yes/No) Were you able to follow the notes on your guitar to find your voicing? (Yes/No) Secondary* Chords For The Week *Because both the B Major and F Major are simply extensions/alterations of our CAGED Major chords, these chords will be addressed as a separate unit.
Getting Started in B Major This chord diagram includes the F# on the Low E string and is actually a "Mel Bay" B chord. I am using this version for a reason, but I NEVER play the F# note on the Low E string. I completely omit it. However, since the B chord cannot be played in open position, the F# is often included as the octave from the high E string. So, really the notes found in B Major are: B, F#, D#(Eb) What "IS" the B Major chord? The B Major chord is actually an A Shape chord that has been moved from open position to create a B Major. In other words, since you can't play the B Major open, you must use the "open" strings from the A Major and then barre the notes required (by moving to the 2nd fret root of B on the A string) with your 1st finger instead of using the open string notes. When you look at the diagram below, you'll see the A Major in there. Just don't look at the low E, A or high E strings as fretted notes. You'll also want to move the three "3's" on the D, G, and B strings back to the 2nd fret instead of the 3rd
fret. Nonetheless, the B Major is really just an open A Major that has been shifted. so that the notes can reflect as a B Major. A Major notes used as they shift to B Major: into Open A skips a fret to B (A - A# - B) 2nd fret E note on D string skips a fret to F# (E - F - F#) 2nd fret A note on G string skips a fret to B (A - A# - B) 2nd fret C# note on B string skips a fret to D#/Eb (C# - D - D#) Open E skips a fret to F# (E - F - F#) So, are you ready for the kicker? You'll think I'm crazy here, but since B Major is really just a shift from A to B, you'll sing B Major the SAME WAY as you would the A Major - based on the notes involved.
If you are playing a progression from A Major to B Major, you will hear a tonal change. However, if you start in A Major and sing it as a low voicing (as it IS lower in pitch than B Major) then the movement from A to B only seems logical to sing the A Major chord as a low voicing, and then sing the B Major (if it follows the A Major directly) as a middle voicing. If you sing the A Major chord as a middle voicing, you would then sing the B Major (again, if it follow the A Major directly) as a high voicing. It's just a simple shift that is no different than the A Style shift that takes place in terms of guitar from A to B. Neat huh?! Guess what - the same applies to F Major, which is just a shift from E to F. Getting Started in F Major The notes found in F Major are: F, C, and A. You cannot play the F Major in an
open position, so that means that the F Major MUST be an extension...a shift, if you will...from another chord. What "IS" the F Major chord? The F Major chord is actually an E Shape chord that has been moved from open position to create a F Major. In other words, since you can't play the F Major open, you must use the "open" strings from the E Major and then barre the notes required. When you look at the diagram below, you'll see the E Major in there. Just don't look at the low E, B or high E strings as fretted notes. When you "open" those strings you'll see the E Major immediately. E Major notes used as they shift to F Major: into Open E moves one fret to F (E - F) 2nd fret B note on A string moves one fret to C (B - C) 2nd fret E note on D string moves one fret to F (E - F)
1st fret G#/Ab note on G string moves one fret to A (G#/Ab - A) Open B moves one fret to C (B - C) Open E moves one fret to F (E - F) Since F Major is really just a shift from E to F, you'll sing F Major the SAME WAY as you would the E Major - based on the notes involved. If you are playing a progression from E Major to F Major, you will hear a tonal change. However, if you start in E Major and sing it as a low voicing (as it IS lower in pitch than F Major) then the movement from E to F only seems logical to sing the E Major chord as a low voicing, and then sing the F Major (if it follows the E Major directly) as a middle voicing. If you sing the E Major chord as a middle voicing, you would then sing the F Major (again, if it follow the E Major directly) as a high voicing. It's just a simple shift that is no different than the E Style shift that takes place in terms of guitar from E to F. Neat huh?! Guess what - the same applies to B Major, which is just a shift from A - B.