Emotional Melody in A Major

Fingerstyle Acoustic Guitar

Hey guys, today I want to talk to you about melody and fingerstyle and how important it is to work on your tone, dynamics, and musicality.

In this fingerstyle guitar lesson, I will show you a beautiful melody in A major I wrote a few days ago, and as you learn it, I want you to focus not only on the notes but also on the dynamics and tone you’ll use.

Improving your tone and dynamics is as important as improving your technique and fluidity, yet we spend very little time considering our notes’ quality and timbre.

The technique doesn’t make you unique; tone does; however, they are both essential when it comes to developing your overall skills on the instrument.

Think about the Blues player B.B. King or the acoustic guitar player Tommy Emmanuel. Why are they so unique? Is it because of the number of notes they play? I don’t think so.

It’s the tone that made them unique, and it takes a lot of practice to get there.

Now that you have that in mind, I want you to start practicing and playing, thinking about the notes and thinking about the tone/timbre of each note you are playing.

Use this emotional melody to get started and keep it simple by focusing on just a few notes.

Pluck the strings close to the neck for a dull and mellow sound or play closer to the bridge for a brighter timbre.

Practice your tone and dynamics for a few minutes each session; you’ll be surprised with the results.

I hope you get inspired.

Let’s get started.

The Video

How to Practice this Emotional Melody

Once you decide to improve your tone and dynamics, you should always practice the same melody twice.

For this emotional melody, I would spend a few minutes learning one or two chords and then finding the tone I like.

How to Find your Tone

The tone is about the way you pluck the strings.

If you play the same melody twice, plucking the strings with a different angle, the melody will sound different.

I spent a lot of time trying to find the tone I had in my head, and after a while, I realized that plucking the strings with a 45-degree angle really gave me the tone I was looking for.

Play the melody several times but pluck the strings with different angles. Also, try different positions too. Usually, if you pluck the strings near the bridge, the sound is much brighter, whether if you pluck near the neck, the sound will be duller.

Switch Things Around

Don’t get stuck practicing the same thing over and over.

When it comes to finding your tone, it can be quite frustrating at the beginning, so take short breaks between sessions and don’t play the same thing over and over again.

Make it enjoyable and realistic. Set small goals one step at a time.

Good luck, guys.