Chords for "How to Save a Life" guitar lesson

Tempo:
111.725 bpm
Chords used:

C

Bm

G

E

C#

Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Show Tuner
"How to Save a Life" guitar lesson chords
Start Jamming...
Hello, my name is Scott.
I am a guitarist and music teacher from the Toledo, Ohio area
I've been doing both those things for quite a while.
I've been meaning to do
Some lesson videos for a while and this is my first attempt at that
I thought for an initial topic I would get into
what happens when as a guitarist you're confronted with a
Cover tune a playing scenario where a song is very keyboard driven
And I remember from my early days of playing covers
I'd hear keyboard tunes and steer away from those when when those were brought up as potential cover ideas
Thinking well piano
It's pretty different from guitar.
So if it's not something very guitar II I'd avoid it and
And I'm gonna give you a few ideas for some different scenarios with how to confront
piano driven songs and and our
Initial look is gonna be a simpler tune
how to save a life by the fray and it has a
An arpeggio figure which actually sits pretty nicely on the guitar
And the the deal is to get the key that the song is in we'll have to cable up pretty high on the guitar
But I'm gonna start off showing you an open position what's going on and then we have that pattern
we'll add the capo to it and you'll have the
More or less what you're hearing on the CD
so open position [C] C major chord
Now a good chunk of this
Piano part is gonna be what's called an Alberti bass figure, which is a [Fm] classical term for this
Pattern that goes like [C] this and what I'm doing there is thumb on the C
index finger on [G] G the third string
Thumb on the E on the D [E] string and then the G [C] again.
So thumb index thumb index
[F] So you can feel that is either an eighth [C] or a sixteenth note figure.
I think it feels good as a sixteenth
And the deal is to complete [G] this part
We're gonna get these melody notes sitting on top of that figure the first one being [C] the C
on the second string
so the deal is for the first note of a four group will play with middle finger
the C on the second string and then the low C with the thumb and
octave together and
Then the rest of that four note figure
[F#] So to complete the riff, we're gonna have a pretty simple chord change
What I'm gonna do is cross first finger over
to the B on the fifth string and
Then have my fourth finger [E] playing the D on the second string [G] and we'll do the exact same
thing with the picking hand
[Bm]
Catch the B and the D together
so that change
[G] Those are your chord [C] shapes and [Bm] then [C] with the arpeggio
[Bm]
[C] [Bm]
[C#] And ideally [F#] these melody notes should a float over [C] top [D] of the arpeggio
[C] [Bm]
[C] [Bm]
[C#] Meaning that they're gonna sustain for for the entire duration of [E] the the four note rhythmic figure
Third chord here is also going to be C.
[F] But the deal is [E] we'll play
open E
[C] first string and
I am catching that with ring finger
So so far we have this C
[Bm]
[C]
again
[Bm]
there it is and
The last part of this phrase is going to be returning to that middle chord
Which is a an E minor you can think of that that middle chord is [Bm] either
Like an [C#] E minor 7 with [Bm] the B in the bottom or even a G
[C] but it has [G] this
[C] Passing quality to it
[B]
[Em] [C] [Em]
[Bm] [C#m] Now this last bit we're gonna get two melody [E] notes in the space where we gotten one before so we'll have the [B] open B and
[G#] D on the [Dm] third fret second string and
[B] [Bm]
That's the last [G] chunk there.
So all together.
[C] We'll have that C
[Bm] D note
high E
[Bm] B D
[C] [Bm]
[C] [Bm]
[C] Like so and in that loops like that all the way [D#] over the verse
as I mentioned the
We're looking at this an open position
But to get the key of the song if your guitars in standard tuning you can capo up at fret 10
Which is awfully high to capo, but it does work
If you don't have a cutaway
This is about as high as you can get on an acoustic guitar without being too scrunched to make this work
But on an electric or an acoustic with the cutaway this isn't that big of a deal and here's how that sounds [A#] and [Dm] [A#]
[Dm] [A#]
there it is the
piano riff from the fray
my
My plan with my lesson videos is I want to launch a website [C#] sometime
Maybe early summer with music theory lessons thinking calling it
Guitar theory workshop or Scott's guitar theory workshop something like that just still in the planning stages
But in the meantime to get into the swing of recording videos
I'm gonna be doing some song based lessons so check back for some more of those.
I think I'm gonna continue on with this
Piano parts on guitar theme as I have a number of things worked out with some different techniques for approaching that particular scenario
So thanks for watching and I'd appreciate any comments and check back for more videos in coming weeks
Key:  
C
3211
Bm
13421112
G
2131
E
2311
C#
12341114
C
3211
Bm
13421112
G
2131
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_ Hello, my name is Scott.
I am a guitarist and music teacher from the Toledo, Ohio area
I've been doing both those things for quite a while.
I've been meaning to do
Some lesson videos for a while and this is my first attempt at that
I thought for an initial topic I would get into
what happens when as a guitarist you're confronted with a
Cover tune a playing scenario where a song is very keyboard driven
And I remember from my early days of playing covers
I'd hear keyboard tunes and steer away from those when when those were brought up as potential cover ideas
Thinking well piano
_ _ It's pretty different from guitar.
So if it's not something very guitar II I'd avoid it and
And _ I'm gonna give you a few ideas for some different scenarios with how to confront
piano driven songs and and our
Initial look is gonna be a simpler tune
how to save a life by the fray and it has a
An arpeggio figure which actually sits pretty nicely on the guitar
And the the deal is to get the key that the song is in we'll have to cable up pretty high on the guitar
But I'm gonna start off showing you an open position what's going on and then we have that pattern
we'll add the capo to it and you'll have the
More or less what you're hearing on the CD
_ so open position [C] C major chord _ _ _
Now a good chunk of this
Piano part is gonna be what's called an Alberti bass figure, which is a [Fm] classical term for this
Pattern that goes like [C] this and _ _ _ _ what I'm doing there is thumb on the C
_ index finger on [G] G the third string
_ Thumb on the E on the D [E] string and then the G [C] again.
So thumb index thumb index _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [F] So you can feel that is either an eighth [C] or a sixteenth note figure. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ I think it feels good as a sixteenth
_ _ _ _ _ And the deal is to complete [G] this part
We're gonna get these melody notes sitting on top of that figure the first one being [C] the C _ _
on the second string _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ so the deal is for the first note of a four group will play with middle finger
_ the C on the second string and then the low C with the thumb and _
octave together and _ _ _
_ _ Then the rest of that four note figure _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [F#] So to complete the riff, we're gonna have a pretty simple chord change
What I'm gonna do is cross first finger over
to the B on the fifth string and
Then have my fourth finger [E] playing the D on the second string [G] and we'll do the exact same
thing with the picking hand
[Bm] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ Catch the B and the D together
_ _ _ _ _ so that change
_ _ _ [G] Those are your chord [C] shapes _ and [Bm] _ _ then [C] with the arpeggio
_ _ _ _ [Bm] _ _ _ _
_ [C] _ _ _ [Bm] _ _ _ _
_ [C#] And ideally [F#] these melody notes should a float over [C] top _ _ _ [D] of the arpeggio
[C] _ _ _ _ [Bm] _ _ _ _
[C] _ _ _ [Bm] _ _ _ _
[C#] Meaning that they're gonna sustain for for the entire duration of [E] the the four note rhythmic figure
_ _ Third chord here is also going to be C.
[F] But the deal is [E] we'll play _ _
open E
_ _ [C] _ first string _ and _ _ _ _ _
I am catching that with ring finger _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
So so far we have this C
_ _ _ [Bm] _
_ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ again _ _ _ _
[Bm] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
there it is _ and
The last part of this phrase is going to be returning to that middle chord
Which is a an E minor you can think of that that middle chord is [Bm] either
_ Like an [C#] E minor 7 with [Bm] the B in the bottom or even a G
_ _ _ [C] but it has [G] this
_ [C] Passing quality to it
[B] _ _
[Em] _ [C] _ _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _
[Bm] _ _ [C#m] Now this last bit we're gonna get two melody [E] notes in the space where we gotten one before so we'll have the [B] open B and
_ _ [G#] D on the [Dm] third fret second string and
[B] _ _ [Bm] _ _ _ _
That's the last [G] chunk there.
So all together.
[C] We'll have that C
_ _ [Bm] D note _ _
high E
_ _ [Bm] _ B D
[C] _ _ _ _ [Bm] _ _ _ _
[C] _ _ _ _ [Bm] _ _ _ _
_ [C] _ Like so and in that loops like that all the way [D#] over the verse
_ as I mentioned the
We're looking at this an open position
But to get the key of the song if your guitars in standard tuning you can capo up at fret 10
Which is awfully high to capo, but it does work
_ If you don't have a cutaway
This is about as high as you can get on an acoustic guitar without being too scrunched to make this work
But on an electric or an acoustic with the cutaway this isn't that big of a deal and here's how that sounds [A#] and _ [Dm] _ _ _ _ [A#] _ _ _
_ [Dm] _ _ _ [A#] _ _ _
there it is the
piano riff from the fray
my
My plan with my lesson videos is I want to launch a website [C#] sometime
Maybe early summer with music theory lessons thinking calling it
Guitar theory workshop or Scott's guitar theory workshop something like that just still in the planning stages
But in the meantime to get into the swing of recording videos
I'm gonna be doing some song based lessons so check back for some more of those.
I think I'm gonna continue on with this
_ Piano parts on guitar theme as I have a number of things worked out with some different techniques for approaching that particular scenario
So thanks for watching and I'd appreciate any comments and check back for more videos in coming weeks

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