Shine Like the Sun Guitar Lesson

Chapter 1: (05:59) Review and Intro To Song Review
Please take a few minutes before starting the lesson to review and practice the following:

- Warm up the hands.
- Stretch the wrists.
- Play the major and minor open chords.
- Warm up your strumming muscles by relaxing the wrists and letting the pick flow over the strings.
- Play the E major chord in the "new" way and play the type 1 barre chords.
- Play the A major chord in the "new" way and play the type 2 barre chords.
- Practice the "slanting A" technique.
- Practice the type 1 minor barre chords.
- Practice the type 2 minor barre Chords.
- Play all of the type 1 mini-barre chords.
- Play all of the type 2 mini-barre chords.
- Review and practice quantitative and qualitative techniques.
- Review last week’s exercises.
- Practice "wrist warming"

Ready?

I'd like to check in with everybody at this point in the series in regards to your progress and ability to utilize the review section. How have you progressed with some of the more difficult tasks such as the slanting A technique? Do you have a firm grasp of the open chords, or are you still struggling with them? How are your barre chords coming along? Do you remember what quantitative and qualitative techniques are? I'm hoping that all of you are using the review section to bring you up to speed on some of the techniques that have been challenging you more than the others.

I've had quite a few requests to teach one of my own songs in the lesson series. Today I decided that I would teach you my song "Shine Like the Sun." This song is about a friend of mine in Vail, Colorado, whom I knew and grew to become very fond of when I was playing in the ski resorts. She had platinum blonde hair that "shone," and hence the name of the song! I'll show you the chords first, and then we can talk about the strum pattern and the order of the verses / choruses. Here are the chords in the song:

D
E_2_
B_3_
G_2_
D_0_
A_x_
E_x_

A
E_0_
B_2_
G_2_
D_2_
A_0_
E_x_

C
E_0_
B_1_
G_0_
D_2_
A_3_
E_x_

G
E_3_
B_0_
G_0_
D_0_
A_2_
E_3_

F
E_1_
B_1_
G_2_
D_3_
A_3_
E_1_

Am
E_0_
B_1_
G_2_
D_2_
A_0_
E_x_ Chapter 2: (03:41) Strum Pattern
This song utilizes some techniques of note as well. The song begins with a down-up-down pattern that is fast and brings the song in with a bang. Of course, I'll demonstrate all of this in the video. I also use stalls, which is a technique that I discussed earlier in the series. Basically, I pause the action in the song momentarily before each verse. Please play each of the chords and familiarize (or re-familiarize) yourself with each of them. We'll be using a combination of strum patterns, some of which will alternate from one chord to the next. Alright, here we go!

As I said, the song begins with a "down-up-down" strum pattern. This strum is a quick snap strum and occurs only once in the song. Otherwise, the strum pattern for the song goes as such:

For the D and C chords, the strum is "down, down, down-up" and the strum for the A and G chords is "up, up-down, up-down." Besides the initial introductory strum part, the rest of the verses follow this pattern.

For the chorus, the strum pattern is "down, down-up-up-down" and follows this pattern: F, G, Am, G, F, G, Am, G, F, G. Stall on that G going back into the verse. I always stall coming into a verse, including the intro transition into the first verse where I play the verse chords four times through and then stall into the first verse. Watch me in the video for more on this. Alright, so the song is laid out as such: Chapter 3: (09:19) "Shine Like The Sun"
Shine Like the Sun by Mark Lincoln

Intro
D A C G D A C G D A C G D A C G (stall)

Verse 1
D A C G D A C G
I see her face in front of me it shines like the sun and like a star it burns my eyes------------------

D A C G D A C G (stall)
It never fails to send me twisting, turning off in time and space

Verse 2
D A C G D A C
I see her eyes they stare and penetrate the smoky air, and though you’re nowhere near I seem to

G D A C G D A
see you everywhere, and like a fire you burned into the deepest darkest mire of night 'cause you

C G
were right--------------and you...

Chorus
F G Am G F G Am G
Shine Like the Sun, in the Month of May you, Shine Like the Sun for me Today-------------

F G
Shine Like the Sun--------------(stall)

Lead Break
D A C G D A C G D A C G D A C G

Chorus
F G Am G F G Am G
Shine Like the Sun, in the Month of May you, Shine Like the Sun for me Today-------------

F G
Shine Like the Sun--------------(stall)

Verse 3
D A C G D A C
And now you’re gone and I am left bereft of all my pride, and though you’re nowhere near I still

G D A C G D A
can hear your voice deride, it never fails to send me twisting turning off in time and space, space,

C G
space and you…..

Chorus
F G Am G F G Am G
Shine Like the Sun, in the Month of May you, Shine Like the Sun for me Today-------------

F G Am G F G
Shine Like the Sun for me today today the way you turned and walked away, you’d never stay

Am G F G Am (instrumental to Coda) F G A major

today--------------------------

Please note that the distances between the chords are not indicative of the amount of time that each should be played and is more of a reflection of the distance the words required to write them out. If you stick to the rhythm, it should all come out in the wash. Also, the instrumental section can be longer or shorter depending on the fire and passion of the lead being played, so there is some flexibility there. The song resolves to a major from the minor as you might have noticed as well.

Exercise 1
Play the introduction of the song. Pay close attention to the beginning snap strums and make sure that the first strum comes in with a "bang." Pay attention to making the series of strums quick and concise. Practice this chunk by itself until you are producing a nice clean sound. Then, play the rest of the Intro including the stall. As usual, watch me in the video to get a firm grasp of how it should sound.

Exercise 2
Play the first and second verses. Remember to include the stall between the two verses. There are no stalls into the choruses, so make sure and make a mental note of that. Get good and comfortable with the verse chord progression before you move on. Don’t forget to relax your wrist and allow the pick to flow over the strings!

Exercise 3
Play the 1st chorus into the lead break. Then, play the 2nd chorus up to the stall that leads into the third verse. I want to make sure that you all get the pieces of the song first and then move on to conquer the whole enchilada.

Exercise 4
Play the whole song from beginning to end! Keep in mind that it's okay not to play the strum exactly the same way that I do. You can take some creative license there if you need to as long as you don’t try to steal my song! Creative interpretation is always acceptable, but hopefully you'll keep the order and the important techniques intact. Most of all, have fun with it and use it as a learning tool. I use some techniques that will hopefully help you start and / or continue to incorporate different tactics into your own playing.

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