Skype Guitar Lessons: Lenny Kravitz's "Fly Away" Guitar Lesson
For our next lesson we are going to cover the song “Fly Away” by Lenny Kravitz. We’re advancing past the basic concepts we covered earlier and we’re moving into the realm of four chords per song. The rhythm is more complex and exciting as well so get ready to dig in!
The chords are: | A C | G D | Each chord is played 5 times each in a fast rhythm. We will play the A chord as a barre chord which means you will lay your entire finger down on strings 4-3-2-1 (and slightly mute the 1<sup>st</sup> string by lifting your finger off the string.)
For the A chord you don’t want to ring the 6th string or the 1st string. That will take some practice to have enough control in your first finger to isolate your strum to be confined only to the 5-4-3-2 strings. As I wrote above I like to mute the 1 string with my first finger by coming off the string slightly and I also mute my 6 string with my thumb. Please experiment with this and watch the video for added coaching.
Hopefully you’re familiar with the CG and D chords as we have covered them in prior lessons. If not I still give a detailed description of them in the video. After you are comfortable strumming the chords, join me in playing with the drumbeat to get comfortable with the rhythm and progression. Start with playing each chord one time each and switching your fingers early to the next chord in order to get there on time. Next try the playing the respective chords two strums each. Then, when you are comfortable, add a third strum like in the video.
Now I’m going to introduce the concept of the upstroke to your repitore. Now that you’re comfortable doing the down stroke three times each per chord, I want you to add an upstroke in between the down stroke. The rhythm is: down up down up down. That’s 5 strums per chord. You just need to come up with the same authority as you came down. Also the choice of strings to hit will be the same with the down stroke as the up stroke. However if you had a couple wrong strings here and there it’s no big deal.
Before I would ask you to play along with the song, I would have you play at the song speed (85 BPMs) with a drum machine to isolate any issues that may still be there. A link to this tempo is provided here for you to practice with: <a href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbgmZEozN3o”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbgmZEozN3o</a>
This song is a lot of fun! I really want to encourage you to not be content with just playing the chords by yourself. Instead you want to go all the way and try to play with the song. Playing along with a song will challenge you so much more because it’s going to force you to pay attention to the song and get in sync with Lenny Kravitz instead of just doing what you want to do at your own tempo.
Music is a lot like learning a new language. It’s not enough to get the workbook and the CD but you have to actually interact with somebody and dialogue with them in that language in order to get the feel of how to communicate in that language. Playing with the song will be a stepping stone to prep you with playing with other people. This will be a crucial transition and getting good at your instrument and ultimately getting in a band.
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I hope you enjoyed this lesson. Sign up for online skype guitar lessons from Dyce Kimura today! If you are in South Florida and wish to take private Fort Lauderdale guitar lessons or Miami guitar lessons, please call 7864573687