‘Falling Slowly’ became my obsession when I was in Ireland on holiday last year. I didn’t really have access to a guitar initially, so it just kept haunting me with its beautiful and delicate intro circling around my head while I was cruising the gorgeous countryside of Ireland. I totally recommend the movie and the soundtrack to everyone… Glen Hansard is an amazing singer/songwriter and very handy guitarist. He plays and sings all through the movie as a struggling muso making his extra cash by busking in the streets of Dublin every day.
Often when it comes to guitar, the easiest thing to conquer is the nicest thing to play. We hear a piece of music so pretty and delicate, that we fail to see the simplicity of the actual song. We hear it and say “Ah that’ll be so hard to play”. When in actual fact, in just a few sessions with the perfect tutor (wink wink)… and you’ll have it mastered.
I recommend this guitar lesson to everyone, because it’s a very simple and effective little ‘finger-style pattern’ that can be learned in a short time-frame. The song is slow and calm, so speed is not an issue. It’s predominantly two chords, so there’s not a lot of moving parts to worry about. Those of you that are members of Jamorama, will find this real easy. Especially if you’ve gone through my more in depth and advanced ‘Finger-style course’.
The first bar is based on a C chord, but you’ll see you only need a few fingers to achieve the chord sound we want. The other thing to note is, every second note is the open G string. This applies to the whole intro.
Check it out… How to play Falling Slowly on guitar.
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