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Melody, with Chords: "You Are My Sunshine"

Lesson #411 • Jan 12, 2022

Instructional PDF 2 pages

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Follow along with the print-friendly PDF!

It includes all of my notes for this lesson, allowing you to follow along at your own pace. You're free to download, print, and share the PDF across your devices.

To download the PDF, upgrade to premium or log in.

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.

"You Are My Sunshine" by Johnny Cash

$ Song Sheet Available

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.

Melody, with Chords: "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen

★ Instructional PDF

Dire Straits, Played Fingerstyle? (feat. Sultans of Swing)

★ Instructional PDF

Melody, with Chords: "Can't Help Falling in Love" by Elvis Presley

★ Instructional PDF

Using Melodic Triads to Play "Happy Birthday"

★ Instructional PDF

Auld Lang Syne

★ Instructional PDF

Last Christmas

$ Song Sheet Available

Melody, with Chords: "Sweet Caroline" by Neil Diamond

★ Instructional PDF

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Title (long)
Melody, with Chords: "You Are My Sunshine"
YouTube URL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBCESmYYYyY
Thumbnail (video)
Video thumbnail for Melody, with Chords:
Thumbnail (pdf)
PDF thumbnail for Melody, with Chords:
Slug
411
Lesson URL
/lessons/411/
PDF num pages
2
Patreon URL
https://www.patreon.com/posts/61077679
Discussion URL
n/a
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