Guitar Control

Hey, how’s it going Sean Daniel here with Guitar Control, Today we’re playing “Wicked Games” by Chris Isaak. We’re going to do a way that we can kind of incorporate the melody into the acoustic guitar part, so make sure you click the link below, because we’re going to have the chords for it.

Really easy, actually. It’s only three chords, but we can start incorporating the melody, so if you just want to strum it, we can do that, and have it sound like this. You can pretty much sing the entire song just with these three chords. Then you could have that. Or, we can start adding the melody, like…

Click on the Tabs button to follow the chords and tabs.

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So, it’s super easy. Chords are simple. It’s fun to play. People have a reaction to this melody, that takes them to a totally different, hotter, black and white place. Starts with B minor, we don’t have to play this as a barre chord. You’re going to need to to play the melody, but if we just want to play it as B minor, A, E, you can start this, pointer finger two on the A-string. Now, if you don’t want to play the barre chord, that’s all you need with your pointer finger. Two A with your pointer finger, ring finger four D, pinky four G, middle finger three B. You can strum the middle four strings, and maybe not hearing anything from the high E-string, or barre it to get that 2nd fret of the high E-string to ring out. The 1st note of our melody, when we get there, but we just play the B minor like that.

You can scoot this really quickly and easily to an A major, by going down to the 2nd fret on the D, G, and B-strings, open A. You can raise the barre to get that high E-string to ring out if you’re crazy, or you’re not even worry about the high E-string, and then go to E major. This is our 3rd chord, I’m kind of going through the chords quickly. Then we’re going to talk about the strumming pattern. Then we’re going to add the melody, that open E major chord is middle finger 2nd fret on the A-string, ring finger 2nd fret of the D string, pointer finger 1st fret on the G-string.

Now, if we want to do it super basic and simple, all down strokes, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, A, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, E, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, another time around on that E, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4. If we’re counting it like this, two bars of B minor and A and then four bars of E.

Now, you can totally play it like a little crazier, and the first thing you could add is that part with that E major. Maybe, if you’ve never tried playing melody notes on top of chords before, this is a really cool place to start, because all we’re doing is we’re taking an E major chord, that 1st fret on the G-string, the melody that we’re going to add is one, two, four, okay?

Now, we can pretty easily add that over an E major. The first thing that you could do is just put your pointer finger on the 2nd fret of the G-string, turning it from an E major chord to an E suspended 4 chord is the name of that chord. Every time you change a note in a chord, it probably changes names, but don’t worry so much about the name of it, even though it is an E sus 4, if you ever come across it on a chord chart or anything like that. Worry more about what that melody is doing. It’s leading us to the 4th fret. Now, the cool thing about this, once we’re here, you can bring it into B minor position, but just have it be 2A, 2D, and 4G. So now we kind of have this… This is actually technically an E power chord, playing it like this (singing). B minor, to A major, to E major. Kind of a slick move, and it sets you up for that B minor again, and then back home.

Now, if we want to add the entire melody, let’s talk about it. We can start with the B minor power chord. We’re going the high E-string to where your middle finger is on the B-string (singing), getting your pinky involved on the 5th fret of the B-string. You can do the same thing. You could open it with your hand like that, getting an open E-string. I think it’s better to add the pinky there, and go to middle finger five to three, so I’m getting the low part of the chord, and then I’m getting the melody there.

I’m raking the chord until I get to the B-string. I’m stopping there. That way, I’m hearing this note, that E note, in the chord, on top, okay? So, B, melody, B, melody, stopping on there again, and then going to the A major chord, because the next two notes of the melody are 2B, open B, C# to B (singing). That sounds really great on top of that A major chord, which we started earlier, all right?

So we’ve got B, E major, and then that slick move back to B, okay? This is a very interesting way that you can start incorporating melody into your chords, and again, you can start it… The cool thing about having a song on a loop for the entirety of the song is that it gives you time to practice different techniques while you’re going through the song. A lot of times, you might just get bored being like, “All right, B, A…” It’s like, “All right, I’m just playing this, whatever.” B… There’s no dynamic to it, right? So, if you’re bored, the listener, the audience, is going to be easily as bored, but maybe if you start with it muted, like… to an A, to that E. Now you can kind of take that chord progression somewhere else. Okay?

So there’s a lot of different things that we did there. We started out by just playing the power chords, which is just a two note chord. For the B minor part, it’s easy. It’s just two A and four D. Now, I said before, it’s in 4/4 timing, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, but one way to kind of mess with the rhythm is maybe to count it, instead of a 4 count or an 8 count, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two. I’m just doing a muted power chord, where I’ve got my palm in the bridge 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, A, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, E, and then again on E. That really kind of breaks off from that verse, really brings a dynamic into it.

Now, slowly but surely, you can start to play more of the chord, in the same rhythm if you want. You could add the melody. We could start with A… Then by the end of it, you’re kind of getting the whole thing, of… Then it makes a bigger impact when you go back down. We don’t need to spend 20 minutes on this lesson. I think it’s really just kind of all right, we’ve got the chords. I see that within these chords, built inside the chord, is really most of the melody. The only place I have to reach to find a note for the melody that isn’t in that chord is when I’m adding my pinky or opening up the E-string to get the… Otherwise, all the other notes in the melody are inside that B minor chord. Same thing with the A, unless you open it up to make a suspended chord, and then to an E, E suspended 4, and then again, we’re grabbing that note, to kind of make just a different voicing of an E power chord.

I think this is something that you want to be thoughtful about, is where these melody notes are coming. They’re always going to be either in the chord or very near to the chord, no matter what kind of voicing, what kind of inversion that you’re playing. Really, if you find yourself in a song that is just a loop over and over again, and you’re mindlessly playing it, never be mindlessly playing. Always try to reach for maybe where a melodic note is, because a lot of times, you’ll plateau if you’re just kind of playing the same stuff over and over again, and you’re not really exploring the fret board, so I think that this is a great example of just doing a little bit of fret board exploration to open up basically all the stuff that you’re playing in a really easy-to-hear way, that is melody everybody knows, you’ve heard a million times, it’s great. Chris Isaak gives you street creds.

Thank you for watching this video. If you have any questions or comments, hit us up in the comment section. Anything else you want to see, let us know, because we’re always looking for your feedback, and then after that, check out the other videos on the Guitar Control channel, by myself and other great instructors. Make sure to subscribe on our You Tube Channel and we’ll see you in our next video lessons, thanks for watching.

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