Mack the Knife for Beginners Jazz Guitar - Part 2


Published on 26 January 2016
For more information from the source site of this video please visit: http://secretguitarteacher.com/youtube/beginner/jazz/4n94wxxgLmE/112564560-mack-the-knife-for-beginners-jazz-guitar-2.php This is a sample of a lesson from the Secret Guitar Teacher site (see link above). This lesson comes from the Beginners Jazz Course. This course is designed for guitar beginners who would prefer to learn Jazz right from the start instead of taking the more commonly-trodden path of playing blues or rock guitar for a few years first. So this lesson assumes no prior knowledge or experience of playing the guitar. Here’s the abridged transcript: Most of the notes from a melody can usually be found as coming from just one scale. In this case all the notes come from a pattern that, if you have been following our Beginners Jazz Course, will be a familiar one to you… The G Dorian Mode Scale pattern. OK here’s a quick demo of the finished article, played against the backing track . Here’s the tab for the melody, but to make this nice and easy to learn we are going to take it a phrase at a time. Starting with the first four notes. Ok so let’s locate our starting note which falls under our 2nd finger on the G string at fret 2 this is followed by the note under our 1st finger at the 1st fret on the 2nd string then two notes played on the note under our 3rd finger that’s fret 3 on the 2nd string.So that first phrase is 1 2 3 4 1& 2& 3& .To help with the timing, it’s best to pick this phrase down up down down. On to the next phrase which uses the same three notes, but without the repeat of the last note. So the two phrases together. We now alter the first two notes of the phrase to blend better with the chord change to Gm7.On the G string we play it open then at fret 3 with our 3rd finger which we then jump across to fret 3 on the 2nd string. Here’s the resolving phrase as the sequence comes back to the key chord of F6. First finger at 1st fret on the top string, then top string played open down to the 3rd note on the 2nd string. Again, we pick the second note of the phrase on the upstroke As part of the task of memorising a tune when you first learn it, it is good to spot patterns. Notice in this first line for example that all the phrases terminate on the same note - the 3rd fret on the 2nd string. Let’s just recap that first line again. Here’s the whole of the line played slowly At this stage you may wish to pause the video for a while and work at getting that first line grooved in. When you’re ready, here’s the start of the next line. notice that the rhythmic pattern of starting each phrase on the last beat of the bar continues, but that the pattern of terminating each phrase on the same note is broken. So we start this phrase on the first fret 2nd string, up to the open top string then the repeated note, this time, on the 3rd fret of the top string The next phrase gets a little trickier to play as we have quite a jump to negotiate. Top string open back to the 3rd fret on the 2nd string then the 1st fret on the top string and jumping right across to the 3rd fret on the 3rd string. Now the next phrase is identical to the one we just played, so let’s just jump to the last phrase, which is also one we have met before - at the end of the first line. The melody actually finishes at that point, but you can see two more notes before we hit the repeat sign at the end of the tab. These notes, circled in red are effectively there to start the next verse off as replacement for the starting pair of notes also circled in red. This is fairly common practice to start the next chorus of a melody at the end of the last bar of the previous one, so that’s something to look out for in most tunes. Okay, let’s just consolidate a bit. First here’s the whole of the second line in slow motion…and at more or less full speed. And now here’s the whole melody from start to finish first played slowly…and at more or less full speed. If you are studying this video on the Secret Guitar Teacher website, you will find a backing track in the toolbox to the right of the screen. Once you feel ready to play this at speed, have a go at playing along to the backing track. The drum track will give you one bar complete count in and then an extra bar including the half beats. This is to help you time your entry like this Okay, I’m going to play out to that backing track now. I’ll demonstrate the melody over the first chorus and then let the backing run for a couple of choruses to allow you to practice over. So, I hope you have some fun with that and I look forward to seeing you in the next lesson when we’ll take a look at how we might approach taking an improvised solo over this tune.