John Mayer Acoustic

Hi GMC!

Welcome to my new lesson covering the acoustic style of John Mayer, an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and producer. Some history about him:

“After his appearance at the 2001 South by Southwest Festival, he was signed to Aware Records, and then Columbia Records, which released his first EP, Inside Wants Out. His following two full-length albums—Room for Squares (2001) and Heavier Things (2003)—did well commercially, achieving multi-platinum status. In 2003, he won the Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for the single "Your Body Is a Wonderland".” From WIKI.

Music Style:
Mayer started his career mainly performing acoustic rock, but then he began moving towards the blues genre that had originally influenced him as a musician. In this lesson I cover his latest acoustic style which combines his early days with his bluesy influence. You’ll find this stuff mostly on his acoustic sessions and live versions so if you enjoy this, check out his youtube channel and you’ll have a great time. Also, check out more GMC acoustic blues lessons from our archive to learn more stuff in this style.

Tonality, Chord Progression & Scales:
As this is a blues style acoustic lesson, I’ve used blues concepts to compose it. The chord progression is based on the classic I – IV – V blues, and the chords are Major triads in the first half, and then Dominant. The key is G, and the scales used for the melodies are mostly minor Pentatonics and blues scales. Check the video parts to get details about each section.
If this stuff is not familiar for you, please check our Blues Theory Course: HERE.

Techniques:
This is a cool lesson to train your rhythm skills. The whole tune is very rhythmical and full of groove. You need to have a good control of strumming, muted strums, chord changes, triads, and be able to alternate between chord and blues licks smoothly. You’ll also see that I’m using the thumb of my left hand to play the bass note in some parts, that’s not an easy job if you are not used to it but it’s a fantastic tool to expand your playing.

Sound:
I’ve recorded this one using a Mini Taylor Electro Acoustic guitar connected directly to my soundcard. I’ve used Addictive Drummer II and Trillian’s Bass for the backing track.


Tuning: Standard Tuning

Tempo: 95 BPM