Hey guys turned on Cifraclub, I'm Léo Eymard
And today i'm going to teach you the song Neon by John Mayer
I'll use this guitar here which is the Eagle EMA-663
Well, this arrangement I'm going to teach here is from a live show where John Mayer plays alone in a guitar
In truth, I tried to make it the closest possible to this version
But this is kind of impossible because he plays improvising all the time, and it is easy to realize that it was an interpretation he had in that moment
And situations like that it's hard to get a standart, so it wouldn't be a world of informations without conection
So I tried to get as much detail as possible and that's what I'm going to show you here
Now, that's something that I need to tell you
This song has a very high difficulty level, really, really high
because beyond the arrangement is complex, John Mayer has an addiction of playing chords with his thumb and for those who isn't used to it is very complicated
So this class here is a great challenge for those who already play for a while
And for those who wants to understand a bit of this arrangement that was so famous and it's so cool
And as this is a lesson for those who are already more experienced, it will be more straight
I won't be stopping to talk all the details
because it would be huge and you would end up getting tiring
Let's go then
The first thing we have to do is narrow down the first string in C
It is much lower than normal
And depending on your guitar and the strings that you use
It may be that the first string will be very loose
But for us to play, we have to tune in this way
So there's no way around it
Well, I'll start by dividing the introduction in parts because it is quite large
I'll play once in the normal course
And soon after will enter the tablature so you can follow the slower tempo
Ok?
The first part of the introduction is this one:
Two details here:
The first is that the first part we play the sentence with the palm muting the strings
Second detail is the second part
We will use the finger 2 to drown out the A-string
Now I will play the second part of the introduction, where it starts a very striking groove
Soon after will get the tab and I'll play a little bit slower for you to follow
Well, here it is nice to know the meaning of these "x" in the screen
When it is on all strings, it means that we will give a little tap, like this:
With our hand closed on all strings
When it is only in three strings
means we'll pull with the right hand
And drowns with our left hand
Using three fingers
And when it is on a string only
We will use the thumb and will also drown out with our left hand
The third part of the introduction continues with a similar groove
But it is a little higher
Look this:
Here you only have to pay attention on the muffled beats
That is what gives swing to the pace
We will follow the same logic I've shown
When you have an "x" on all strings
We will give a hit
In three strings we pull with three fingers
And only a string we will play with the thumb
In the fourth part begins another Groove pretty cool
like that
This excerpt from the introduction has two important details
The first is that the first ring we will make a low kind of slap in the big toe
Just like that
Another detail is that now, where it has an "x" on a string only
We will play with the indicator
And will continue drowning with our left hand
Notice
Every time it has this "x" alone
It's on a string only we will play
And will use the indicator
In the fifth part of the introduction we will stop with the groove and will only touch the fist string
Like this
Here you'll be alternating thumb and forefinger most of the time, like that:
The sixth part is the end of the introduction
And we will be back with the Groove like what we've seen, look:
Well, now let's go to the first part of the song that is when we will start to sing
Here begins another Groove I consider the main music
And it will be based on these chords here:
Ah, note that from now on pratically every chord we will make using your thumb
Here on the left hand
Look that
C with fifth
To ninth Eb
Look thumb here
The F minor seventh and eleventh
Also with the thumb
The A flat with ninth
That has the same shape that the ninth Eb
And finally the B-flat with sixth and ninth
Which also has the thumb here
The first part will be like that
Well, I played and I will teach this Groove just like John Mayer plays
only using the thumb and forefinger of the right hand to play
Anyone who wants can try to play using the other fingers
It may be that it is even easier
But in our case here
I'll show like he does
Like that:
The right hand will be changing the thumb and index finger all the time
We just repeat the indicator after this beat which is in the middle of Groove
What is indicated there on the screen for this "x"
I'll play again, look
The tip I give to this piece here is to train with a chord only
For example
Staying just training with C with fifth
Without changing chord until the right hand get used to this movement
More or less like that
When you have resolved with the right hand, that is
Playing firm, safely
Then, yes, I think it's cool to train with all the chords
Mainly because the left hand is also difficult
as we need to make the chords with our thumb
So first resolves the right hand
After, we train changing chords until it sounds like that
So the first part we just need to keep repeating this Groove here
After the first part, enters a piece that I'll call "pre-chorus"
Despite this first time it did not happen before the chorus
Even so this will be the name of this part
Here the accompaniment will change
And we will use these three chords here
The A flat with sixth and ninth
The G minor seventh and eleventh
You're just drag our thumb here a house behind
And the sun flat major with sixth and ninth
Look
Here in the pre-chorus we will follow up with the same idea of ​​the first part
The right hand will be changing the thumb and forefinger
And we just repeat the index finger after that little muffled we give with the same finger
Which is indicated in tab, notice:
In other chords we will play the same
And the latter has a slide at the end to close this part
After the pre-chorus, there's the second part which we will play using the same Groove that the first part
It only vary in the piece that we play before starting to sing
You will see
I'll play once in the normal course
And then I'll show a little slower for you here with tab
The only change is in end
Where you will alternate two normal beats with two muffled beats
In the last two chords, look
After that we start singing the second part and follows playing the Groove normally
The second pre-chorus we'll play the same fingering of the first
At the end comes the pace and it has the Ab like that, look
The second pre-chorus will look like this
As this second pre-chorus has a fingering and a rhythm at the end
I will first play the fingering and then I'll show the pace
After this sequence, we have a chorus preparation, like that
In the chorus, the chords are those here
The F minor seventh and eleventh
The G minor seventh and eleventh
The seventh C minor
The ninth to Bb
The A flat with ninth
And the A flat here
Here begins the pace
And what I'm going to show in the explanation is actually a suggestion
For you take as a basis
because John Mayer plays it very freely
So we can''t find a standard and say that it's the only way
because it's not
So the cool thing is to get it as reference
And then let it out very spontaneous
Ok?
Come on then, the chorus goes like this:
I will show the rhythm of the chorus in two sequences
The first sequence is this one
Attention the first beat in C minor seventh
Where we start without the finger two
And then tightens it
That way I just showed
Well, this sequence is played twice
After this, comes another here
Joining the two sequences and remembering that the first is played twice
We have the full rhythm of the chorus
And that's the suggestion
Anyone who wants to can take as a base and then vary according to the way you get more natural
The third part has a new Groove
And a C minor, like that
Look this
Here we have to pay attention to the muffled beats because they gives the swing to this part
The scheme is the same as I have already shown
When you have the "x" on all strings
We play doing little taps
And on others we play normal with the right hand and muffles with the left hand
To play the third part, we just keep repeating this Groove
After the third part, there's another pre-chorus
The chords are the same as I have taught during the song
And here is a variation in the end
At first it is also played with a different intention
Without worrying too much to hit those notes I showed in the first pre-chorus explanation
So the idea is to play with the right hand more freely
well, I will show the full stretch once more
But in the explanation, I will show only the variation
Since in the beginning only changes the intention
as I said
Come on
As I said, the beginning you've already seen
And the variation is this one
Here in each chord we will play eight alternated beats
When we go down, we will use the thumb
And when we go up, we will use the index finger
The second chorus we will play the same pace as I showed in the first chorus
And in the end it has a new stretch
which is kind of an interlude
But as it begins in the chorus I'll show it together
It has four new chords
F minor seventh
The G minor seventh
The A flat minor seventh
And the B flat minor seventh
Everyone has the same shape
Look
After playing the chorus as I showed
We'll play like that
Here you only have to pay attention to that last part where comes an arpeggio in the chords
The rest we just follow through with the tab
After this interlude, which is played together with the second chorus
there's the solo
like that, look:
This solo here is quite long
so I'll show two separate parts
The first is this one
Continuing, the second part
Well, this second part is played four times
And after the last John Mayer plays a muffled knock before entering back into the pre chorus
It is quite free that part
But to give a starting point for those who want to train
I suggest eight muffled beats
I will play again this second part
As he had been played for the fourth time
And I will play these muffled beats to give you an idea
In the last pre-chorus we will play a rhythm
The chords are the same but they have a one more note
Look that
The A flat with sixth and ninth
Now has four finger
The G minor seventh and eleventh
Which also has four finger
And the G flat major with sixth and ninth
The other chords are the same way
Look that
The first sequence of the pre-chorus is this one
The second sequence is this one
To finish the music we play the chorus again
as it is played in the first time
Finally we turn to the Groove from the first part
Which has a different end
like that, look
In the end, the news is that after playing the groove of the first part twice
We finish the song, like that
Well, the difference is that here we do an arpeggio with the thumb and forefinger
In the last two chords
And ends with slide
Well, I hope this lesson helps a little to understand the structure of this arrangement of John Mayer
Anyone who wants to play this song like this
You can not get discouraged, you have to go gradually training each separate part
because it is a hard work
But in the end is a great study
So that's it
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Ok?
Thanks, and see you soon!