Punching Up a Melody with Slides, Syncopation, and Double-Stops

Lesson #426 • Mar 26, 2022

Video lesson

Instructional PDF 2 pages

Editor’s notes

Hey there, friends! Today I have a new quick riff lesson, where I take an 8-measure melodic sequence and show how you can use slides, syncopation, and double-stops to spice things up. We’re in the Key of C, only using a few chords – but we’ll be jumping in & out of open position (using slides) to underline the sense of movement between each chord.

Video timestamps:

0:00 Preview & Lesson Summary
3:03 Creating the Melody
4:33 Part 1 (C major)
8:54 Part 2 (D minor 7)
11:33 Part 3 (G major)
18:03 Percussion & Silencing Strings

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Songs from the TV Show “Yellowstone”

As I mention, I came up with this riff while noodling on the guitar between episodes of Yellowstone. Great show, thanks to everyone who suggested I watch it! The music in the show is fantastic. Here’s a playlist of all the songs heard in the show, in case interested:

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