Contemporary Folk Guitarists

Michael Johnson >> Contemporary Folk Guitarists >>


Teacher: Welcome class to the lesson on Contemporary Folk Legends. This lesson features the style of Jason Mraz. Jason has a very interesting acoustic guitar style. He uses rhythm patterns from folk, funk, reggae and other styles. He is currently an upcoming artist and is quickly becoming a rising star on the music charts. Check out the lesson sample of what you will learn. Lesson Sample - Lowband - 1.6 Meg Lesson Sample - Highband - 4.2 Meg Teacher: Let's start out with the opening chords. This rhythm pattern starts in Gm. Part 1 - Chords Part 1 - Chords Teacher: This rhythm has a very cool groove to it. More up tempo and lively. In the Gm you have: G, A, Bb, C, D, Eb & F. Notice how the chords use this pattern: GM, F, Bb, Eb, Dm, Eb, Bb, E. You can layer other guitar parts as well, first here is the looping jam track so you can practice all the parts as you learn them. Looping Jam Track 1 - Lowband Teacher: Here's the 1st guitar layer using a 4, b3 and b7 interval. Part 1 - Guitar 1 Part 1 - Guitar 1 ken: Does Jason Mraz layer over himself playing? Teacher: Ken, Jason mostly plays the acoustic. He has other musicians who play the other instruments. In fact I know the bass player Ian. I have jammed with him more than a few times. Here is the lead guitar track. Part 1 - Guitar 2 Part 1 - Guitar 2 Teacher: This solo uses a nice melodic pattern starting from the b3 of the G Minor scale. Try playing the 3 guitar layers over the jam track. Hunter: I'm pretty light on theory. Does "b3" mean "flat third", or...? Teacher: Hunter correct! Flat 3rd (b3) is also called Minor 3rd as well. The G Minor has a R, 2, b3, 4, 5, b6 & b7. Here's the scale. G Minor Teacher: Let's jump into the next rhythm pattern using Gm as well. Part 2 - Chords Part 2 - Chords Teacher: Notice how the chords shift while using the same notes of the previous scale. Only this time you play chords in the lower portion of the guitar neck. Here's the jam track: Looping Jam Track 2 - Lowband ken: Very interesting... I didn't realize that. Teacher: Ken you can use all sorts of positions when playing rhythm. Knowing your fretboard helps you find alternative positions and can make any rhythm sound more interesting using different voicings. In the next rhythm pattern you will shift back to G Major. Playing between a major key, and then switching to a minor key can sound very dynamic. Or minor to major as we previously have in this lesson. Here's the next part. Part 3 - Chords Part 3 - Chords Teacher: The notation only gives you the basic chords and not the rhythm. The video and looping jam track will have the correct rhythm. Notice how the D chords is used to jump between chords (Em & Am7). Also notice how the Am7 and C major are closely related. Here's the jam track. Looping Jam Track 3 - Lowband Teacher: See how this rhythm pattern sounds smooth. This chord progression is used in a lot of folk songs. This next pattern uses more of a funky riff. Playing funk riffs on an acoustic sounds very cool. Here's the pattern. Part 4 - Riff Part 4 - Riff Teacher: Sounds like something Hendrix would jam on during his later days. Notice the chromatic run into the D7#9 chord, then descending a chromatic run down to a G13 chord. The end of the phrase starts the chromatic run from the B note on the 5th string. Here's the jam track. Looping Jam Track 4 - Lowband ken: This is all in the key of G? Teacher: Ken, in this example you use the D Blues. This sounds like something Dave Matthews would play. Jason will also play ballads as well. This next pattern uses more finger picking. Part 5 - Chords Part 5 - Chords Teacher: In this example notice I use a hybrid finger picking using the thumb and mostly 2nd finger. The progression starts with A, D, C#m7, Bm7, Cm7, D Maj7 and E. Here's the jam track so you can practice playing the chords. Looping Jam Track 5 - Lowband Teacher: You can also play ascending and descending notes while holding down a chord. This next pattern will give you an idea of hw this works. Part 5 - Chords 2 Part 5 - Chords 2 Teacher: The last pattern is at the end of Looping Jam Track 5. I included both parts so you can practice changing. Well it's time to go. See you next lesson! ken: thanks! Hunter: Thanks, Michael terri: Thanks teacher, this was great to work on. Teacher: bye!	<< load notation from left
	<< load audio from left	<< load audio from left