Fingerstyle Song 01 - Happy Birthday

This is of course how to play Happy Birthday. We do have a much easier arrangement just teaching the melody, so. On, in this fashion, um, free on YouTube and on my website, um, just, it's exactly the same notes, so it would be ideal if you've worked through that version first before going for the chords in this, um, tutorial as well, but if you've done that, let's get straight in for the close up. OK, so the general chords are happy. This would be a C chord to a G, and we're gonna go for the finger style G. 2. Gee, again, huh? To the C major chord, absolutely standard. To play that melodic note, we're gonna add the little finger on. Dear, and then we're gonna go for the F and played with the third and little finger, so kind of the hybrid F that we've talked about before. So 123 and 4, not barring. we begin finger off. And then happy. So they're the basic chords to it, and hopefully you've learned the melody from the website already. And to put them together, we're gonna start with the first finger playing the 3rd string. And then to play the melody, we're gonna have to hold down the 2nd fret of the 3rd string here like this. Up to you whether you go for a little strum. Or whether you pluck the strings. Um, I've tabbed which fingers we're gonna use to, to pluck them, um, but if you want. You can't always The notes that are tapped out cos they're all in a, in a line sort of thing, it is possible to strum this. But we would start off. happy And that's plucking the thumb on string 5, 1st finger and second string, uh, finger on string 4 and 3. Then we add the third finger. And we're gonna play the first here. So we go see OK, so. 3 strings together, melody on its own then, so we're only gonna strum once per bar. Open with the middle finger here. 3rd finger. Playing the C notes. And then 3rd finger, middle finger, and 1st on strings 23 and 4, which is where they're gonna stay for most of this. And then thumb's gonna hit the Groot note. And we have to. So, more time. Very similar. But we're staying on the G chord. That's the, the start of bar 4, is this chord here. Need the middle finger down, but just so that we know we're on the fingerstyle G chord with the first finger melodic note added. Little finger on 3 here. And that's bar 4. 3, that's completes bar 4, and then if we pluck the middle 4 strings and pluck or strummer C chord. Takes us to the start of bar 5. Let's go from bar 3 to bar 51 more time. Bar 3 begins. So recap from the top. Middle finger's going to start plucking. Middle finger begins the melody again. These 4 strings. And then we're going to switch from the middle of bar 5. We're going to move your first three fingers down a string, so so far, 1st 3 fingers have played 32, and 4. And now they're gonna play 12, and 3. And I'm gonna switch so that we can do. So that we can play the thinner strings where the melody now is. So from bar 5, it's a pluck of the C chord. Or if you choose to do it as a strum, that's cool, I'll show you the strumming option at the end. So we begin Bar 5. First finger twice, same melodic note. Little finger. It's added onto the C chord, and then the 3rd finger. Starts on the thinnest string and we pluck string 123, and the root note of the C chord. It's just a normal C chord with a G on top. Ah. It's just a little finger off. Middle fingers just plucked string 2. And then we go to the F chord again, but we're gonna have the first finger open. And we can pluck together. And then to finish off, first finger adds to this F chord here on the thinnest string only. And then it's thinnest 3 strings with the first finger, we're just back to a C cord. Just to finish off But just 3rd finger's moved down a string now, uh, so on 23 and 4, and the root note on the G. And then middle 4 strings. And there we go. So let's go from bar 5 again to have that recap. Happy birthday to. And then up to about 6. card? Including the 3rd finger. On the er little string. Yeah. First finger with off of the F chord, first finger off of the F chord. And 3rd finger plays the melody on the thinnest string. C chord, thinnest 3 strings. That was the 2nd string. G chord, but third finger to string down on, on string 2. And a sea court. Lovely. So we'll have a recap from the top now with plucking, and then I'll show you how we can do this with strumming as well, if you prefer that at the moment. There's no right or wrong, it is very much a personal preference. So, beginning from the top, setting up on our C chord but ready to play the melodic note on the 3rd string. 12. And then fingers switch down to the thinnest 3 strings. F chord with the first finger off. And with a strum, if you were just plucking the whole thing with one finger, you could just basically use your first finger as a pick. Or you know, if you're really struggling with, with the plucking and using this, you could use a pick for a little bit, but we're, you know, the focus of this is very much finger style, so there's nothing wrong in finger style with using your first finger literally as a pick. So the most important thing to remember when you are strumming is that the thinnest string or the highest note that you play, so therefore the thinnest string that you strum, we need to hear as the melody notes. So those first two bars are. And I can't, strum. You know, I can't The strings, can't just strum any of the strings because the thinnest string that you hit uh sounds like the melody note when that's the case. So just as a demo one more time. Very cool. So have a little hammer on there, if you didn't have the hammer on. And with the hammer on, Just a case of delaying when you hit that first finger down. To the G. Very similar again. Little finger. To a C chord and you just strum. The middle 4 strings. This is the start of bar 6. And then playing this F chord, so rather than this one. Means We don't get this kind of odd sound. The A string ringing out there from the standard kind of F major 7 doesn't really work with the strum, we, we want. The use of this F. Which so often becomes my default. Because if you're doing the F barcode, we can't take. We can't have that open string if we're barring, so there's, there's a good amount of use of not barring the F. And it being higher level. And then finishing off, where would we be now, at the end of bar 7. Happy first finger there. Finish string. It's the strum of a G chord with the little finger and string up. Remembering not to strum the thinnest string. And see. And that is how to do Happy birthday with finger style, both plucking. And using your first finger as a pick. Which is totally fine in in finger style, this very much gets used and the fingernails, and if we strum with the nail. Side of the nail, sort of gives it the sound of a pick so that you have the full spectrum of tones with finger style.