Step By Step Melissa Guitar Lesson by The Allman Brothers

Hey, guitar enthusiasts, I'm going to show you an amazing song by the Allman Brothers called Melissa has a lot of really cool chords. I'm going to show you how we can avoid playing a lot of the bar chords here. It has a very open sound, something like this.

And the cool sound is coming from this chi, E, and B string just ringing through underneath a lot of the chords playing. So in this song, we're not gonna be playing full barre chords because we don't need them. This song is in the key of E, which means we can let those B and E strings ring open, and it creates a really unique sound that you hear here on Melissa. So what I want to do is start off with three of the simple chord forms. And these are all gonna have weird names, and I'm not gonna use them all. But we're gonna start off with an E major chord. Okay. And instead of making it traditionally with your second and third fingers and pretty first, second and third, I'm gonna have you do it with your third finger and pinky on the A and D strings. And then your second finger is gonna go on the first fret of the G string. Okay? So we're gonna make our E chord this way, and I'm gonna show you why. It's gonna allow you to slide in and out of the next chords much easier. So the chord we're gonna be sliding into is an F sharp minor 11. That was totally Boston, Mina. My Boston accent really came out there. So we're going from E major, and what we're gonna do is we're go these two fingers up to the fourth fret, and we're gonna put our first finger on the second fret of the G string, and we're gonna strum all the strings. You can hear that, all those E B strings ringing out. Okay. So what we've done, we've gone from an E major chord, E major chord to F sharp, minor 11. And then we're gonna go to an E major 7 chord. So what did I do there? I just took this shape that I had on the second and fourth frets, and I'm just going to slide it up two frets to four and six now.

And then I'm just going to slide it back.

And then we're going to go to an E chord. So let's just try that. We're just going to go E.

Then to our F sharp, then to our E major 7, and then back to that F sharp, minor 11. Just do that a couple times to get used to that transition of going back and forth between those two chords. Because this is kind of going to be our intro and the first part of our verses. So I just want you to get familiar with that before we get into the strumming pattern. So just practice that back and forth a few times. And you can just see it's really the third and fourth fingers. Use those as your guide fingers. So they're on the second fret, then they're on the fourth fret, then they're on the sixth fret. So it's the second fret is the E chord. Then we have fourth fret, F sharp 11, F sharp minor 11. And then the sixth fret, E major 7.

So the strumming pattern, we're going to throw under these chords a little bit more of an intermediate pattern. This is what I hear.

Okay.

Great sounding song. So what am I doing here? Let's just take that E major chord and we're going 1, 2, A, 3 E and.

Alright, so it's down, down, up, down, up, down.

Okay, that's the first part of the strum.

Down, down, up, down, up, down. One more time. Down, down, up, down, up, down.

And then we're adding an up, down, up on the end. E and A. So this is a 16th note strumming pattern. So we count these just so you know, 1e and a, 2e and a 3e and a 4e and a 1e and a 2e and a 3e and A 4e and a. And this pattern is 1, 2, a.

3E and e and A. Down, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up.

So I'm learning strumming patterns like this. I find breaking them down into little parts is so much easier. That's why we're just going to start.

With 1, 2, up, 3e and down, down, up, down, up, down.

Most people can get that 1, 2, up, 3e and.

And then it's down, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, down, up, down, up, down, up, down.

Now if you're having trouble with this, sing it with me. Even if you don't have a great singing voice.

Down, down, up, down, up, down, down, up, down, down, up, down, up down, up, down, up.

Or clap with me.

Down, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up.

Okay, because when you're having trouble with rhythm, try to figure out the rhythm away from the guitar. Whether you're going to clap it, whether you're going to sing it, whether you're going to hum it. Then bring it back to the guitar. Because if you can sing something.

Down, down, up down, up down, up down, up down, down, up down, up down, up down, up down, down, up down, up down, up down, up down, down.

Okay, so if you can take it away from the guitar and do it in time, it makes it a lot easier to do it on time on the guitar. So if you need to pause this video to practice that strumming pattern, go right ahead because we're going to jump into the verse section of the song. Before we jump into the verse quickly, I want to give you the chord progression for the intro. The intro is going to be going from E to F sharp minor 11, back to E, then E major 7.

F sharp minor 11, E. Okay, so that's the chord progression for the intro. But the verse we're basically starting with what we were just learning there, which is going to be the E chord.

F sharp minor 11, E major 7th, F sharp minor 11. Then we go back to E and then F sharp minor 11. Now this is where things change. So up until this point, all of the chords we've been playing have been full measures. Okay. Full four beats. Now we're going to be doing split measures. So each of these chords is only going to be two beats. So the strumming pattern I would recommend here is down, down, up. Okay, so if we took this A chord to this B minor.

Okay? So it's going to be A.

And.

It'S a B minor add four. I'm just going to call it the B minor chord. Alright, this way, you know, so what are we doing? We're taking an A major chord and we're playing down, down, up. And we're taking a B minor chord. But instead of playing the full bar, remember I said we have these B, these strings that can ring through. Okay. So what I'm doing is I'm playing five strings of a B minor chord but I'm getting rid of the bar. I'm just playing the B minor chord without the bar. And then our next chord we're going to play is a C sharp minor. So I'm going to move my finger up as if I'm going to play a C sharp minor bar chord. But I'm gonna lift up the bar. Okay. And then we're just gonna slide the fingers up one more. So we're gonna be on the seventh fret here and I'm gonna relieve my third finger. And this is like some D69 chord, kind of like Horse with no name but a different version or at least that's what I have here on the sheet. But that's what we're doing. We're going from an A chord to. Now this open B minor chord, the open C sharp minor chord. So just hop up two frets and then hop up one fret to D69. So again. Once again, we got a B minor. My fingers are on the third and fourth frets. Okay. Then my finger is going to move up to the fifth and sixth frets for that C sharp minor, open C sharp minor chord. And then we got this D.

That we're moving here on the seventh fret. All right, so if I play through that whole thing, it's going to be.

Down, down, up, down, down, up, down, down, up, down, down, up again, 1, 2, and 3, 4. And.

Played the wrong chord on that one. So again, I'm using my third and fourth fingers as a guide. Okay? So I'm playing my A chord, or however you play your A chord. Then I'm jumping to my B minor. Third and fourth fingers are in the fourth fret. Then they're in the sixth fret, then they're in the seventh fret. Okay? So if I play this whole section together, it's going to be A.

Then we come back to E, E major and we're gonna do the same thing. So it's gonna be E major.

F sharp minor 11, same thing.

E major 7.

And then back to F sharp minor 11.

Slash E, whatever the chord name is. All right, so if I go through that whole verse section so far, it starts off.

The gypsy flies supposed to go.

Is that part ready?

Knowing many loving knives.

Barrow sorrow having fun.

And then we come to a single C major 7 chord, which is basically a C chord without the first finger. Okay. And we can just use that same strumming pattern.

And then I'm playing a B power chord. But those open strings for the B.

So we got the back home will run.

And I'm just strumming that B power chord, open to sweep Melissa.

Okay, so if I take this from the top of the verse all the way through to the bottom of the verse, it's going to sound like this. One, two. Ready?

M Crossroad.

The gypsy flies and coast.

Knowing many loving nuns.

Baring sorrow having fun.

Back home they'll always run.

The sweet Melissa.

So this then continues on into the next verse. Same pattern. And we have a different change on the bridge. We've got a bridge section, and we do have bar chords, but you could still keep with the open chords. We're going to switch up the strumming pattern just a little bit here. So we're starting again on an open E chord. And I would do 1, 2, and.

A, 3 and 4 and A.

So it's going to be. It's going to sound like this.

Okay. So you can saw I played with the bar chords, but if you want to stick to the open chords, you could do that as well. So the strumming pattern is 1, 2, and up.

So it's down, down, down, up.

Okay, that's the first sound.

One, two, and up.

And then we have three and four and up.

So it's down, down, down, down, up.

Okay, so it's the first half of the pattern.

One, two, and up.

Except you're just doing two downs on the second half.

Three and four and up. One, two and up. Three and four and down, down, down, up, down, down.

So I'm gonna strum and play this at the same time. I will admit that once I start strumming and singing, my hand is going to do its own thing. I'm gonna try to keep to that.

1, 2 and A, 3 and 4 and A.

But my hand's gonna start doing whatever it wants when I start singing. So here we go. One, two. Ready?

And again. The morning's coming again he's on the run someday Shining through his hair A parent I'll never care.

There. And the dip.

Three, four.

So I apologize for butchering the lyrics on that bridge there. But again, for some people, this double bar B chord, I mean, and some people can do it like this. I find it very difficult to do that. For some people, that B chord is hard. Just play a B power chord open like we did in the verse. And then on the C sharp minor, you can still keep that open chord. No one's going to yell at you for doing that. Back to the B open chords. It'll just sound a little bit different.

No one's gonna know the difference. And whatever makes it easier for you to play and have fun, that's what I would go with. If you guys enjoyed this lesson and are looking for another great lesson that incorporates a lot of cool strumming patterns, I highly recommend you go check out Wonderwall. Right over there has some cool strumming patterns to get you sounding good on the guitar.