Chords for MELISSA GUITAR LESSON - How To Play Melissa By The Allman Brothers

_ _ [C] _ _ _ [E] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [C#m] _ _ _ _ [E] _ _
_ _ _ [C#m] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [C#] _ _ _ _ [A] _ _
_ _ [C#m] _ _ [D] _ _ [E] _ _
[A] _ _ [E] _ _ _ [C] _ _ _
_ _ [B] _ _ _ _ [E] _ _
_ _ _ _ [D#] Hey guys, Howard here with Melissa by the Allman Brothers.
I've been doing a couple of acoustic ones back to back this morning.
I did George Harrison's Dark Horse earlier.
And so let's get into this, okay?
It's got some great chords in it.
It's a really nice chord progression and the bridge is really sweet as well.
So I'll just put the chords up on the screen and then explain what I'm doing strumming wise, okay?
So the very first chord is a [E] standard E major.
_ And the strumming pattern, which you hear right out the gate on the recording is down,
down, down, up, down, up, down.
And it's got a nice little swing to it, _ _ _ [Em] right?
And then we change to the next chord and for simplicity, [C#] I'm just going to refer to this
as an F sharp [Em] minor.
If you're [D#] theoretically minded, you can get into this and call it something else.
But we'll just [F#m] refer to it as an F sharp minor for [F] now.
And you can see the chord up on the [G#m] screen and then we're going to carry that up a whole
step and we'll refer to that as a G sharp minor, okay?
So we're going to move from [C#m] the E to the F sharp minor [C#] to the G sharp minor and back
to the F sharp [F] minor, all with that strumming pattern on each [E] chord.
_ _ _ _ [C#m] _ _
_ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _ [C#m] _
_ _ _ [E] _ [N] And you're going to play that twice right out the gate, okay?
One time just instrumentally, the second time the vocal comes in.
And then you're going to go for it a third time, but you'll jump off of the second chord,
you'll jump off of the F sharp minor straight to an A major chord, which you can play any
way you'd like.
And that's going to be just basically two down strokes, although you can upstroke as
you make your way through each of these chords in the progression, okay?
But we're going to move [A] from an A _ to a B [Bm] minor seventh.
[F#] You can play a straight B minor if you want, but I think the minor seventh kind of [D] captures
the sound and mood of the recording a little [A] bit better.
So we've got A, B [Bm] minor seventh, _ [D#]
C sharp [C#m] minor seventh, _ to D.
_ [E] So we will approach it like this.
[A] _ _ [Bm] _ _ [C#m] _ _
[D] _ _ And then we go back [E] to the E chord, _ [Em] F sharp minor seventh again, or F sharp minor, excuse
me [C#m] again, [E] G sharp minor.
So [A] going over that again, we've got [Bm] A, B [C#m] minor seventh, C sharp minor [D] seventh, D [E] major, E
major [C#m] again, F sharp minor, [G#m] G sharp minor, [A] okay?
_ [Bm] _ _ [C#m] _ _ _
[D] _ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _ [A] _
_ _ And we finally land on an A, or an A [B] sus two if you want, because that B string, that open
B string is in there.
It's like [E] an A bar chord, this is the way I like to play it anyway, I think it sounds
nice and full on a solo acoustic guitar.
But you just [A] don't bar, don't bar like that, just tip of your finger.
Kind of a [Em] sweet sounding chord, and by [F] grabbing that bass note, it really sounds full at the
[A] end of that chord progression. _ _ _
[Bm] _ [C#m] _ _ [D] _ _ [E] _ _ [C#m] _
_ [E] _ _ [A] _ _ [C] _ _ _
_ [B] _ _ _ _ [E] _ _ _
_ [A] _ [Em] And you're back in, right?
So after the A, the A sus [Cm] two, I went to [Em] a C major seventh, [C] which is really cool right there.
And you can see the chord on the screen, and I went back basically to the strumming that
we started out with.
_ _ _ _ Down, down, down, up, down, up, down.
And then a B [B] seven.
You can use just a regular B chord if you want to, but I like to use that B [E] seven because
it just [D#] sounds kind of cool and bluesy to me, okay?
So again, that whole bit is.
[A] _ _ _
[Bm] _ [C#m] _ _ [D] _ _ [E] _ _ [C#m] _
_ [E] _ _ [A] _ _ [C] _ _ _
_ [B] _ _ _ _ [E] _ _ _
_ [C#m] _ _ _ _ [E] _ _ _
_ [C#m] _ _ _ _ [E] _ _ [C]
And you'll do all of that [A] again, okay?
Now at the end of the second go around, where you play the C major seventh into the B seven
and just let it rest, you go back to the chord progression and then we're going to jump off
and go into the bridge.
So this would be the end of the second go around.
[E] _ _ _ [C#m] _ _ _
_ [E] _ _ _ _ [C#m] _ _ _
[E] Bridge.
_ _ _ [D] _ _ _
_ [A] _ _ _ _ [B] _ _ _
[C#m] _ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _
[B] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[E] _ _ _ _ [A] And you're back into the [F#] regular chord progression.
So you can basically use the same strumming for this bridge section, but kind of mix it
up if you can.
Just keep your wrist loose, as I always say, and get a lot of ghost notes in there.
But we're moving from [E] an E major chord to _ [D] a D major, _ to [A] an A, _ _ [D#] to a B, [B] _ _ _ [G] C sharp [C#m] minor
seventh, _ _ _ [A] back to A, _ _ [Em] and then B and a B suspended [B] four. _ _
_ _ [F] Taking your pinky on and off the fifth fret on the B string.
And you can just do solid down strokes for [B] that. _ _ _ _
_ [E] And you're back in.
_ _ _ [C#]
And [G] so forth and so on.
And then at the tail end of the last section, where you [C] come off of the C major seventh
again to the B seven, [E] you're going to head back to the chord progression, [C#m] play the second
chord, [C] and then loop it back around and play the C major [B] seventh to the B [D] seventh again.
So that section [C] will go like this. _
_ _ _ [B] _ _ _ [E] _ _
_ _ [C#m] _ _ _ _ _ [C] _
_ _ _ [B] _ _ _ [E] _ _
_ _ [F#m] _ _ [G#] And that's it.
You kind of loop it back around and hit that C major seventh and B seventh twice.
So there you go with Melissa.
I hope you enjoyed the lesson and we'll see you soon. _ _ _ _ _