Help! Playing chords to accompany a melody: What?

Hi,

Sorry for the lame thread, but I can't figure out what seems to be a simple concept...

IMG_2335_zps6egr16xb.jpg


What am I supposed to do here? Do I strum the chord exactly where the letter arrives on the chord line? I'm pretty sure it's a combination of single notes and chords...but when do I strum a chord and when do I play single notes?

I know this is basic, but it's confused the hell out of me and I'm losing my drive to keep practicing. I've also listened to the accompanying CD and it all just blended together. If anyone can clearly explain to me what I'm supposed to to haha, I would really appreciate it. Thanks so much.
 
You're making it more difficult than it needs to be. For now, as Modern Saint and Help!I'maRock! have said, just strum the chords and sing. As your progress in your music studies, you will be introduced to the music theory that will help you understand why it works.
 
Hi,

Sorry for the lame thread, but I can't figure out what seems to be a simple concept...

IMG_2335_zps6egr16xb.jpg


What am I supposed to do here? Do I strum the chord exactly where the letter arrives on the chord line? I'm pretty sure it's a combination of single notes and chords...but when do I strum a chord and when do I play single notes?

I know this is basic, but it's confused the hell out of me and I'm losing my drive to keep practicing. I've also listened to the accompanying CD and it all just blended together. If anyone can clearly explain to me what I'm supposed to to haha, I would really appreciate it. Thanks so much.

Strum the chord, sing the single note melody.
Essentially this. There is nothing in the instructions to indicate that you are to play the single notes.

A couple of things to think about though:


  1. the song is in 3/4 time, so strum three times per measure. Each strum will be a quarter note which is where the beat is (the top number of 3/4 tells you how many beats per measure).
  2. There is a "pickup note" at the beginning, which is a note before the first full measure of music. To start the song count a couple of measures of three beats to get the tempo and then count 1,2 and on "3" sing the pickup note the word "good" in this case) before starting to strum the first full measure of the song.
  3. in the second to last measure you actually have two beats or strums of the G chord and one beat of the D. In the last measure I would just hit the G chord and let it ring to finish up the song.
  4. Every vocal note lands on and lasts as long as one strum except for the half notes in measures 2 and 4, which the sung note gets two strums for the word "you".


I don't know how experienced you are so you might already know all of that stuff but I figured I would put it out there since those are the things that the majority of self teaching students I see both in person and online need a little help with.
 
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