Questions from Learning Here Comes the Sun

[davidbeinct]

I’ve been trying to learn “Here Comes the Sun” for a few days now. I’m alternating between a couple of YouTube videos and trying to get as much of it as I can by ear, as I think that’s really important to learning guitar and something I didn’t do enough of last time around.

It’s a beautiful melody and not that complicated, nor is the chord progression, yet it is still a tricky little number, and it’s showing me a few things that I’m realizing are causing me grief in my guitar playing journey, so I thought I would start a thread to outline my problems and questions.

First, I’m currently concentrating on filling in the melody as I strum, which means until I get that down I’m skipping some strummed beats. I imagine as I get more proficient with the song I’ll fill those in with partial strums or root note picks, but for now I’m concentrating on getting the melody filled in. This seems to be working because the chords ring out nicely once strummed, filling in the blank spots.

However, missing some down strums is making it hard for me to count, which means I’m never QUITE sure where the chords should change. I know maybe some will say to just “feel” (or probably better said, HEAR) where the change should come, and to a certain extent I’m doing that. But I feel like I’m sitting in the middle of a war between my right and left brain, to use a slightly outmoded concept.

What are some hints to be able to count skipped strums in a pattern like e.g. 1&2&_&4_? (Just an example, I’m not sure what the pattern is, exactly, especially since my guitar isn’t here.) I feel like I could be so much more assured in my playing of this song, or more properly the intro riff, if I knew with 100% certainty where I am in the measure. I also feel like moving forward this is going to continue to be a good ability to foster, and I haven’t even done anything with 16th notes yet.

Another question is, am I right that for this particular song it’s good to get the melody under control before worrying about filling in every down beat with a strum, partial strum, or root note? I know in fingerpicking it’s said that it’s most important to get the thumb, i.e. bass, down first, but it feels like with flatpicking, or at least this particular song with it’s kinda picked, kinda strummed flow, the melody becomes vitally important and the strum on 1 can fill in a lot.

Thanks for any hints, tips, ideas, etc. that anyone has.

[rick-slo]

As a backup to singing or as an instrumental?

[davidbeinct]

Originally Posted by rick-slo

As a backup to singing or as an instrumental?

Eventually I plan to sing it while I play. I have to confess I don’t understand how that affects my questions or answers to them though.

[rick-slo]

Originally Posted by davidbeinct

Eventually I plan to sing it while I play. I have to confess I don’t understand how that affects my questions or answers to them though.

Simple. I play the piece as a fingerstyle instrumental - no strumming called for. Probably a singer/strummer will chip in soon with a reply.

[davidbeinct]

Originally Posted by rick-slo

Simple. I play the piece as a fingerstyle instrumental - no strumming called for. Probably a singer/strummer will chip in soon with a reply.

Thanks for the explanation. I’m sure someone will chime in soon.

[Glennwillow]

Hi David,

I recently recorded "Here Comes the Sun." I did a Show & Tell thread on the song HERE. I played the song with a thumb pick and my fingernails. I am not the world's greatest flat pick player, so I just didn't like the character of the tone I was getting with a flat pick. So that's why I finger picked the song. I also sang the song.

From my viewpoint, this is the best instructional video on how to play the song with a flat pick.



https://youtu.be/P7S0VHlCWGE

This instructor gets a decent tone from a flat pick. Other instructors with a flat pick sounded pretty harsh to me.

Best of luck with this!

- Glenn

[davidbeinct]

Thanks Glen. I really enjoyed your fingerstyle version. Maybe someday I’ll try it that way. I agree that instructor you posted sounds great.

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by davidbeinct

Thanks Glen. I really enjoyed your fingerstyle version. Maybe someday I’ll try it that way. I agree that instructor you posted sounds great.

Great David!

I do hope this video helps. I learned some things from him myself!

- Glenn

[BFD]

I don't know how disciplined your flatpicking is but a good rule of thumb, a fundamental of bluegrass flatpicking, is to stick fairly strictly to alternate picking. This means downstrokes on the '1,2,3 & 4' beats, upstrokes on the in-between 'and' (1 AND 2...) beats. This helps quite a bit in keeping measures and chord changes straight. It helps to just keep your hand moving; if there's no note to be played just move through without playing which sets you up for the next note in the correct direction.
Don't have a guitar here to see how I might diverge from strict alternate picking to play this tune, but very likely not very much. I'll let you know. This guys is doing a good job of it in general; he does several upstrokes at the beginning which I probably wouldn't but his general churn is all alternate and he keeps his hand moving. Aim for that kind of playing.