Hey everyone! In today’s lesson I’m going to show you how to play “Lively Up Yourself” by Bob Marley. I’m going to show you this tune in three ways:
– a very easy way to play it using just 2 chords
– the main riff that the bass player and horn players and guitar player all play together during the chorus
– and how to take that riff and combine it with a couple barre chords to play a very interesting rhythm guitar arrangement that will sound just like the tune!
We start off by learning a couple simple chord shapes: D and G. (BTW, there’s another two chord song that uses these exact chords: “What I Got” by Sublime (maybe learn both of these songs at the same time and get two birds stoned at once?)
Speaking of just getting started… you might need some extra help. I have 2 resources for that:
Having trouble with the basics? You’ll want to check out my Beginner Guitar Course! More information here: https://goodguitarist.com/beginner-guitar-course/
And there’s my FREE eBOOK (which is free for all subscribers!) – You can use it to help you build a solid foundation: chords, switching, progressions, riffs, techniques… everything it takes to be a “good guitarist.” You can find it here: https://goodguitarist.com/learn-rhythm-guitar/ (You’ll also find my Lead eBook there, too!)
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Anyways I show you how to switch between the chords, and for those of you who are just getting started, I even show you a simplified version of those chords. Following that, we practice switching between them while counting aloud, in order to figure out how many beats of each. After that we add a strumming pattern. This one’s very simple!
Next, we take a look at that main riff (which is one of the simplest ones on guitar as far as the notes are concerned) It’s the rhythm that we really gotta pay attention to!
After we’ve worked that out, for those of you looking for a challenge, I teach you how to take that riff and combine it with the chords and strumming pattern. This involves the use of barre chords.
-James
