New Post Tomorrow!!

Dusty….

Tomorrow we’ll start into something new, but not so different as we build on some of the things we’ve learned, with new ideas, new rules and new ways to break them!!

Last week’s Bonus Round: The song I referred to was Kansas’ “Dust In The Wind” and here’s how to play a very recognizable part of the iconic riff from that song:

Start with an Am chord:

If you can finger pick it, even a little, give that a try, but it sounds great strummed as well. The secret here is to keep your middle and ring finger planted on the second fret of G and D strings while you play the next bits, and lift and put down your index and little fingers on the beat (strictly speaking, you’ll be doing a “hammer on” and a “pull off”, but those phrases sound much more forceful than what you’re actually doing - just lift one finger and bring the other down on the beat - listen to the song first if you need to feel the rhythm).

Then this sequence:

Then, just start over - it’s Am for 4 beats, Asus2 for 4 beats, Asus4 for 4 beats, back to Am for 4 beats, then repeat the Am, Asus2, Asus4, Am sequence as long as you want. Start slow, keep in mind tempo and Beats per Minute are kinda the same thing, but the key is to keep a consistent BPM, even if you increase the tempo but start slow as you build muscle memory of the sequence above lifting and placing your index and little finger. Listening to the song, you can count “1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and” (say each number and word inside the quotation marks) and you’ll hear that cadence as the notes are played. As you speed up while getting comfortable with the sequence, keep that same count, just less time between the number and the “and” in your cadence.

The Kansas version is actually 2 guitars played at once (not sure if it’s 2 guitarists playing together - I suspect it is, but it could be 2 recorded tracks mixed together later - live it’s definitely 2 guitarists, and on YouTube you can watch the above sequence played as the camera catches the opening), but don’t let that deter you. Lifting and placing fingers is an important skill for when we get to chord voicings within song phrases and this is a great song to start that.

Bonus Round: She recorded a cover of a song that became so popular most folks don’t realize it’s a cover of a song that was originally introduced as part of a movie. Which movie?

Bonus Bonus: Which artist recorded a subsequent cover of the same song as part of the remake of the original movie?

Cheers, and keep playing!!

Michael Acoustic