Active Melody

Learn to play blues guitar.

“It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” – Guitar Lesson and How to Compose – EP337

Description

In this week’s guitar lesson, you’ll learn how to play a solo arrangement of the Christmas song, “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear”. In addition to showing you how to play it, I’ll explain my thought process for creating a solo composition like this so that you can create your own.

Part 1 - Free Guitar Lesson

Part 2 - For Premium Members

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Slow Walk-Through

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Video Tablature Breakdown

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Comments

  7. Olivier B says

    Hello Brian, thanks for this very useful lesson. It’s really good to learn how to arrange a song. I still struggle when to place “funny chords” like the 2nd major, but with some practice and patience it should come.

  12. Raymond P says

    Thanks for this very useful lesson Brian. I’ve been trying to figure out how to form cords to simple melodies and this lesson has helped a lot. I’d like to see more like this in the future if you can.

    Thanks again,
    Ray P

  13. John B says

    Interesting Brian, I was just learning “Sleigh Ride”. I heard it on the radio and started fingering out the melody but I went online and found the chords. They were all in first position. So after watching this I am now trying to find the chords around the the melody notes and find them myself. Great lesson. Hopefully I can post it soon. Thanks for being so consistent with your lessons.

  14. deece says

    Thanks, Brian, for providing a practical, step-by step demonstration of your logic and how you plug in the CAGED system. Have been hoping for a lesson such as this, and will always welcome more. Best wishes and happy holidays to all.

  15. Dick S says

    Great lesson Brian, but then I think most of them are. The ones I can’t play I don’t think are so great…….haha. I give thanks that I found you way back around EP051 and hope you continue to post lessons for a long time to come.

  16. Jim S says

    Awesome lesson. Thank you. Did not think of crafting songs by using the main melody line like this (makes since now that you mentioned it, will practice). Lesson was really well done; festive yet applies to a much bigger picture. Cheers brother.

  17. Roger says

    I absolutely LOVE this. Last month I discovered your O Holy Night lesson. That is my all time favorite Christmas Hymn. Once I get my bends on key I will have that one down. This one is equally beautiful and hasn’t taken me very long to learn the jist of it. Now I am refining it. It sounds good on my trans-acoustic guitar with both the reverb and chorus turned up, but I think I like it on my electric guitar a little better.

  21. Phil E says

    For some reason, the tab won’t download for me. It says “This site can’t be reached activemelody.s3.amazonaws.com’s server IP address could not be found.”. Does it work for others?

    Thanks,

    Phil

  23. naftali k says

    Brian thanks this lesson is exactly what I have been trying to do. I learned already from you how much extra you can get out of a chord by arpeggioing it, but this lesson really puts the two, melody and chords,into a perspective for how to get the just the sound I want for each melody. Caged system adds tons of color even if you are just playing chords. I could write a long list of what I have gained from active melody even though I really don’t always have the time to work through your compositions but the concepts are still there and I can use them. You are the best. Thanks again.

  27. Richard F says

    I learned Silent Night & this song very quickly, which I attribute to aggressive pursuit of your etudes. I know I need to play them enough to begin to internalize them. Keep them coming. I love the diversity of your melodies. Would like to see an in-depth review of Western Swing (Eldon Shamblin, Whit Smith) comping & soloing styles. All the best. Happy Hallowe’en.

  28. Richard F says

    PS: I’ve been jamming with my brother via Zoom, with varied results. We wanted to do W. Guthrie’s Oklahoma Hills. He sings. I don’t, so I decided to learn the melody (in Cmaj). I astounded meself by concocting a reasonable facsimile of the voice lines as well as fills, turnarounds, intros & outros. Thanks!

  30. John W says

    Saw this one and gave it a try. Loved how you talked us through the arrangement and the arranging. This piece was well within my intermediate abilities, fun to play and will for sure be a feature of my seasonal playing. Because I know the melody well it was easier to read ahead in the TAB and play more smoothly…an interesting learning in itself. Looking forward to where learning this piece takes me in developing my own sound, thank you,

    John

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