Hey Friend,
For all you acoustic guitar buffs, I didn’t want you to feel left out.
I’ve been talking a lot about Rock classics that are typically played on electric guitars, but I have tons of love for so many of the acoustic based Rock and Folk songs.
James Taylor, Bread, John Denver, Jim Croce…
I am continuously drawn to chord progressions and patterns that have open fingerings. One of the tools we have is to use the third and fourth strings for fingering while leaving the first and second strings open.
You slide up and down the third and fourth strings with shapes using only two fingers, but the addition of the two open strings adds a dimension that turns simple chords into something amazing.
I was excited to find some Bread tunes in the songs section of Guitar Tricks.
One in particular takes me back to elementary school. At the end of the school year the music teacher would bring around a book of popular songs of the time.
There was "Bridge Over Troubled Water" (Simon and Garfunkel), "Piano Man" (Billy Joel) and my favorite, “If" (Bread).
Everyone knew exactly which song I was requesting when my hand went up to choose the next one to sing.
As it turns out, "If" uses chord shapes and open strings on the first through fourth strings! Maybe that’s why I like them so much - they’ve been in my head for so long.
I just didn’t recognize any correlation despite goofing off with these shapes for so long.
It’s probably because of the finger picking pattern that was used. I guess I just never hit on the same pattern to make the connection.
Anyway, I don’t have time to get into the details today, but maybe in an upcoming lesson I’ll dive into this 1971 hit.
Peace~
Dave
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