Hotel California

Hi Mike, I've learnt Hotel California from your lesson on here.

I'm playing it solo on my 6 string acoustic.

I used the Chord chart from your lesson, playing it in the key of Bm in the first position (no capo).

I have added a more diverse strumming/picking pattern in 4/4 time.

I would like to add the walk up in the Chorus:

[G] [D]

Welcome to the Hotel California

[F#] [Bm7]*

Such a lovely place, such a lovely place

[G]

Plenty of the room ...

*Instead of the Bm7 on "lovely place", I'd like to do a walk up to G (similar to the song) while strumming but can't figure it out. Any advice?

My goal is two fold.

1. I'd like to learn the simpler open chord version to sing with (still tough to sing and play for me when the words are not on the beat)

2. I also looked at Anders' advanced lesson and he has a Capo on the 7th fret. I'm going to learn Anders' version too with the very precise picked string intro and verse.

Hi Paul! Your goals sound excellent - dig in and have fun with it!

A few ideas for that walkup from Bm to G:

1) Single note or Octave walk up -- Instead of strumming the Bm chord, start with the B note (2nd fret of the A str) then go up the B minor scale: C# D then E F# leading to G. The timing would be quarter notes for B, C#, and D (1, 2, 3) then eighth notes for the E and F# notes (4, and-of-4). If you use single notes, you can stay in the same position. If you choose to use octave shapes, use the A and G strings and ascend up the neck.

2) You could try walking up with full chords - here's how I would do that (same timing as above): Bm, A/C# (index finger barring 2nd fret of D G and B strings, ring or pinky adding 4th fret of A str), D(open,) Em (open) then a pickup note for F# (2nd fret of low string) then go to on open G.

I hope this helps - let me know how it goes!!

Mike

Originally Posted by: paulcavaliere

Hi Mike, I've learnt Hotel California from your lesson on here.

I'm playing it solo on my 6 string acoustic.

I used the Chord chart from your lesson, playing it in the key of Bm in the first position (no capo).

I have added a more diverse strumming/picking pattern in 4/4 time.

I would like to add the walk up in the Chorus:

[G] [D]

Welcome to the Hotel California

[F#] [Bm7]*

Such a lovely place, such a lovely place

[G]

Plenty of the room ...

*Instead of the Bm7 on "lovely place", I'd like to do a walk up to G (similar to the song) while strumming but can't figure it out. Any advice?

My goal is two fold.

1. I'd like to learn the simpler open chord version to sing with (still tough to sing and play for me when the words are not on the beat)

2. I also looked at Anders' advanced lesson and he has a Capo on the 7th fret. I'm going to learn Anders' version too with the very precise picked string intro and verse.

Thanks Mike! Your response was an excellent lesson in and of itself. A lot clicked for me. Love the three options. I tried all three! [br]I like that I have options. The single note scale up from Bm is the easiest and sounds good. I also like playing the chord shapes up the scale as I can add a mini strum pattern on the first few chords. A/C# in time and clean is fun to practice. I find the Octave shapes up the neck takes me away from the position too much and hard to strum but learned from it. [br]Thanks again!

Excellent!! Another idea if you want to explore the octaves option a bit more - when you ascend up the neck, after the last F# note, grab the G major barre chord (root 5 shape - 10th fret of the A string, 12 fret of the D G and B strings) and strum the G up there. It's much easier to then come back down to open position and continue with the next chord (open D).

Mike

Originally Posted by: paulcavaliere

Thanks Mike! Your response was an excellent lesson in and of itself. A lot clicked for me. Love the three options. I tried all three! [br]I like that I have options. The single note scale up from Bm is the easiest and sounds good. I also like playing the chord shapes up the scale as I can add a mini strum pattern on the first few chords. A/C# in time and clean is fun to practice. I find the Octave shapes up the neck takes me away from the position too much and hard to strum but learned from it. [br]Thanks again!

Thanks Mike.