Melody, with Chords: "You Are My Sunshine"

Lesson #411 • Jan 12, 2022

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A visual companion to help you follow this lesson. Expands on what I teach in my video with step-by-step guidance, easy-to-follow graphics, and practical tips.

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About this lesson

In today’s lesson I show the process of working out the melody notes for You Are My Sunshine, as covered by Johnny Cash in 2003. I’ll walk you through things, using the chord shapes for the song (A, D, and E major) as a starting point – and help you learn how to look for & recognize the melody notes therein. I would consider this an essential guitar skill, as understanding where to find the melody notes for any song you’re playing opens so many doors.

  • 0:00 Introduction to the Melody Exercise
  • 1:00 Worksheet and Resources
  • 2:00 Finding the First Melody Notes
  • 7:40 Continuing with the Melody
  • 12:55 Completing the Melody
  • 21:50 Integrating Melody with Strums
  • 25:00 Conclusion and Additional Resources

Learn the Full Song!

In lesson #410 I teach you this complete song, including chords and strumming. If you want to play it all from start to finish, don’t miss that tutorial. Along with my video lesson, I also made a licensed song sheet (available for sale) if you want my copy of the chords, lyrics, and all other notes. Find all this via the link below.

Other Melody Lessons

If you’re interested in other lessons that combine chords + melody, I’ve got several others! They’re listed below. The format of each of these is slightly different (some embrace chords more than others, some are strummed instead of fingerstyle, etc) but they’re all similar in spirit.

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