Jack Johnson Style

Hi GMC!

Welcome to my new lesson covering the style of the Hawaiian musician called Jack Johnson. He was born in May 18, 1975, and is very known for his soft rock and acoustic music. He became very known in 2001, thanks to the successful debut album, Brushfire Fairytales.

Music Style:
His music is usually defined folk, soft and acoustic rock. In the beginning he has been compared to musicians like Ben Harper and Dave Matthews. In this lesson I took some of his most popular songs, learned them, analyzed them and finally re-created. I used mostly acoustic guitars but there are also some electric guitars in the backing as well as a piano. He has minimalistic songs but also very produced ones, and in this case I decided to use the second option.

Tonality, Chord Progression & Scales:
I learned many songs from youtube and wrote down the chord progressions on paper. I noticed that most of his music is in major tonalities and scales. This tune is in A major and uses a combination of progressions that I found in his most popular tracks. You will find the chords in the main video and also above the tabs.

Techniques:
His tunes are not very difficult and the most important things here are groove and dynamics. You will notice that palm muting is also a technique that we will talk about a lot in this lesson. So be ready for groove and feeling.

Sound:
I used my Yamaha Acoustic guitar recorded with a condenser mic directly connected to my m-audio fast track pro.

Tuning: Standard 440

Tempo: 100 BPM