all right today's lesson is going to cover Fortunate Sun by CCR a few things to note before we get going, the one fingered version is really easy there's only three chords in this song.
The multi-finger version is also easy and there's a variety of ways you could
approach it. I'll throw a couple out there, but to help you with that there's a free chord cheat sheet on the website. There's also a complete 20 page one that
gets free updates that one's paid it's on the website grabbing either of those
things is really great for me. Also subscribe to this channel if you like
this video.
Now the other thing I wanted to let you know is that this song I'm going to take up a notch in terms of difficulty, because I'm going to show you the chords which is what I usually do, but there's also that really iconic opening riff which I want to show to you. I'll do that at the end so you
can get the chords, you can sing along you can play with it etc but then we're
going to jump into the riff to kind of give you a little extra something to go
with. Okay first things first how do we play this song before we get rolling a
word about the song structuring chords, the whole song only has three chords in
it the original recording is sounds like it's in g but it's not it's actually in
the key of c. Which means that if you tune down a whole step on the most
instruments which are detuned you tune down a whole step from d to c.
You could play along with the recording it's a little out of tune it's not
actually in in like standard tuning but it'll work so play along with them.
That's great now the three chords that we're talking about today are the one
four and five chords which in the key of d are d g and a. However the progression goes a, g, d over and over again that's all it is. Now the intro is just on the a chord that's all that it is and then when it gets into the verses some folks are born it would go like this and now I'm going to play the one finger version I'm not even a hearty blues player I'm just going to tell you bar at the fourth fret and then the third fret and then open.
Some folks are born
[Music]
and that's it over and over again okay. So that's it one finger version done.
Let's get into the multi-finger version, there's a couple of options again check
back on the site for those chord guides. I think I would play it like this is one
of my favorite shapes boom boom boom
Someone Folks
away the flag
play the d like that red
[Music]
That's all you need now you could play the chords right here, so barring here pinky there you could play like that.
[Music]
I think that doesn't really sound as good because it's such a high chord. I
think this one sounds a little better you could also play it like that but that's a little bit more tricky.
All right so mess around that see what you think let's get into the really fun
part which is the opening riff so that opening riff on the song that everyone
knows
[Music]
Now that is really great riff however it's not all in the same, key because the song is playing over top of one chord it's just playing over top of the g chord on the recording because it's just playing over top of that one chord they can kind of get away with having a neat little riff that isn't necessarily in the key so what I've done.
Here is modify it so that you can feel kind of like you're playing along gives you a little bit of interest while you're playing something more than just singing and hitting chords okay so the way that it's gonna look is...
[Music]
I'm gonna break that down a few things to note you're gonna need to slide in in order for it to sound like the recording and I'm gonna play with my middle finger
on the middle string the whole time because that way i don't have to move my
fingers around a lot it might be awkward for some of you you're welcome to once
you learn the fingering. Change it up figure out what works for you but I'm gonna play it with middle finger here and that means that on the first notes it's gonna be start here and slide up one
[Music]
and I'm most likely going to play with the right hand down up right so and then the second phrase second piece of it is going to be again middle finger sliding in
except this time I've moved my ring finger down here then the next one this is a little tricky you're going to start with your middle finger and nothing else here on
that first fret and then slide in and as you do put your index finger there
which makes the next one easier because you take the same shape and slide up a fret all at one time.
[Music]
so you're striking the string before you move it that's called a slide it's kind of obvious right but part of the slide part of the beauty of the slide is you hit the note first before you strike the string again so I'm only striking the string one time. As I make that the slide the the friction and the force of moving across that fret continues the note and then makes it a new note so
[Music]
All right I'm gonna play it in time now I haven't done that yet here's how it would go assuming the intro beat
[Music]
I would recommend though as you're doing this you fill in some of those notes
with the right hand just by playing some upbeats or down beats to get an added
little rhythm in there because if you're playing without another instrument it
kind of helps to keep the beat going so be repeat.
[Music]
That's all there is to it the middle section has another little chord thing that you could learn but it would have to be modified it's definitely not in the key and you'd have to just mess around with that. I would recommend just taking that
as an opportunity to improv which is a great thing to do on this instrument because regardless of what you end up playing it'll sound like it's in the
song key and people will love it! So mess around with all that let me know if
you got questions.
