Waters of March Bossa Nova Guitar Lesson Part 1 Video Lecture - The Ultimate

today we are going to learn how to play
the bossa nova classic waters of March
often confused with another bossa nova
classic waters of the Imperial March so
I would say this is actually a pretty
challenging song just because of the
sheer amount of cores and if you look at
the chord chart I'm going to link you to
you might think that it's just a brutal
onslaught of a lot of kind of
interesting chords that has no rhyme or
reason to it but I'm going to kind of
break it down so they make a little bit
of sense because it's a lot of
repetition in the song and once you see
it it's a little bit easier to do it but
even if you don't want to do the entire
thing I recommend sticking with it
through part one just because you're
going to learn a lot of new chords
awesome interesting voicings and kind of
how they fit together right first I'm
going to play through the entire part
so again it's a lot of chords we're
going to start with just the intro chord
and it's going to be a b-flat with a G
sharp root note okay so what I'm doing
is and a lot of this is going to be your
thumb is responsible for the a and the e
strings bouncing back and your pointer
middle and ring finger are gonna be
responsible for hitting the D G and B
strings for almost all these chords
right so we're gonna start off with a B
flat chord which is kind of like a major
chord but just up a front right so
you're going to bar the third fret and
dgm-va your middle fingers gonna wrap
around and hit this kind of root down
it's not the actual root note of the
chord but it's one we're gonna be
hitting with your thumb so it kind of
has this repetitive thing where it seems
stuck at the beginning it's almost like
an intro so it sounds like this so if
you notice I'm kind of having the
sustained root note in choking the chord
long short long short long short long
long short all right so one and two and
three m and one and two and three and
four and one and two and three and one
and two and three and four and okay
so that repeats a couple times so we're
gonna jump right into the next chord
which is AG minor six right here okay so
once the actual song gets going after
the intro we've got the B flat to G
minor six now there's a lot of different
bossa nova' rhythms that are implemented
in the song we're not going to go over
all of them in great detail right now
it's just about learning the chords
right so from here to G minor six and
then this guy right here now this is a D
sharp minor six nine with the F sharp
root for a long time I thought that I
lacked the sophistication to be able to
even comprehend or play this forward so
this is one of the more challenging
things about getting you right I've got
my middle finger on the F sharp
now to actually make the chord you have
your ring finger on the third fret of
the a string you bar the first fret and
get your pinky down on the third fret of
the g string now it can be kind of a
challenge to go from this g minor six
right into this one right if you look at
my hand is kind of just like mashed
together to get these two cords right so
what I recommend is hitting that root
note first and then having that root
note by your hand time to get into this
shape right here now you also might
notice you don't really even technically
need your ring finger to play this even
though it's part of the chord because
with our fingers we're just getting the
D G and B string so you could just play
it like either way whatever so so far we
have the first three chords then we're
going to go to the one chord and the
heat this is in the key of B flat so
we're going to play a B flat major seven
chord right this is probably going to be
the most common chord in the entire
thing we're going to come back to this
and this chord starts a sequence of
chords that's going to be very
repetitive right so after we get to here
we're going to jump into a nine chord
right which is there's a root note e
nine and then which is a very very bossa
nova we're going to just root up a
string right so we get the root note of
the E and then we go to a B because it's
the fifth of this nine forty right so
let me take it again from the top g6 the
crazy on B flat major seven e 9 here's
the next one right so we're going from
the
9 2 + E flat major 7 and here's the
voicing for this it is 6 on the a string
a power chord so 8 D and there's the
major 7th 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 of E flat and
then your pinky on the same fret as your
ring string which is the eighth row here
the same thing we're going to hit the
root note and then go up a string right
so B flat major 7 e 9 its fifth - E flat
major seven - its fifth - the next chord
this is a G sharp 7 with a flat 5 oh my
gosh all these chords right we don't
even necessarily need to know the name
is more about the sequence right so your
middle finger is rooted on this g sharp
which is kind of the same position we're
going to start with but instead we're
going to make this chord behind it right
so my ring finger is on 4d my pinky is
on 5 G and my index finger is on 3b and
this kind of ends the first chain
reaction started by that b-flat so again
we're going to jump all the way from the
B flat B flat e 9 it's root B flat major
7 its root the G sharp ok so you can
definitely hear the the 7th nature of
that almost kind of bluesy in a
different context right but after this
we're gonna go back to the B flat
because we're kind of resolving like a
miniature version of resolving because
we're starting another sequence of it
right so I got one more time on that
last one so B flat E 9 major 7 ok now
this can be kind of a challenge to
jumping from here all the way up to here
but just really drill it and eventually
you'll get it in no time right now we're
gonna go back to the B flat now we're
gonna start another group of chords
starting here right I think this might
be one of the more challenging parts of
the song because you have to really
quickly jump from this b flat major 7
to get back to the E flat major seven
right so we're going to talk about this
really quick now our root note is this B
flat we're gonna do the same root note
I'll be it with your ring finger so
practice jumping from here ring up to
here and then forming a chord behind
this and actually this is a very
familiar chord right this right here is
just a major triad but we're sharing the
root note here so here's the B flat and
really if you want to think of this this
is like an a flat major chord or juice
or major chord adjust with a B flat in
there bass note right so we're just
gonna hit that quick like two births one
two into this B flat seven four so so
many chords that's why this is a really
great song to practice even if you don't
do it at full speed because you're
learning so many different chords
different chord voicings using like a
major seven and a dominant seven in the
same chord progression which is really
kind of interesting and kind of like a
calling card of Joel being the guy who
wrote the song right so we've got the B
flat major seven get your ring to the B
flat twice12 then here and then that
starts to chain reaction of another E
flat major seven and another chord that
shares this root so we're kind of
mirroring off of each other right so we
have the this one we've done before the
e five major seven then we're going to
another one so your new flat we have
this minor third right and it's minor
seven here and then your pinkie on the
seventh fret of the B string and then
same thing as before a string E string
so that whole other sequence B flat E
flat major seven into another B flat
okay and that takes us through part one
so this last part of our one again it's
starting out of beef I always think of B
flat major seven just kind of your
starting point from which to jumps into
these other cords right and use the cord
sheet as a reference for out of you so B
flat now we're taking a journey up to F
minor seven
right now there's a couple different
ways you can do it I think because of
where we're going next is easier to do
it with one finger a lot of people do it
like this we'll have the root note here
because we're skipping the a string and
then getting getting the rest of the
board here but I think because we're
going from here to a B flat dominant 7
which is displacing right here one a
you're gonna bar with one a ring finger
three D pinkie three B and I think it's
easiest to go like this instead of again
just my own personal thing you can do it
anyway while all right so B flat F B
flat all the way down back to that E
flat major seven and the one that
follows it to B flat
alright so that's going to be the end of
part one and the subsequent parts are
going to be variations all based on
pieces of these right so if we kind of
break part one into four different parts
subsets sub parts for however you want
to organize it we start with the intro
chord the G minor 6 to the B flat that
starts all the chain reactions the 9
chord to the major 7 chord to the G
sharp root then back to the B flat for
another part with the crazy quick one
there's major seven and the one that
follows it bring it back to b-flat for
another part
and then the major7 to the one that
follows it again and then continuing the
song we go from the b-flat to the intro
chord and then start on the g6 again to
the very sophisticated one and then we
start again
alright so it's a sequence that once you
kind of see the pattern will be a little
bit easier but you kind of need to know
the chords first and a little bit of the
rhythm you don't have to like I said
while you're learning the song don't
worry too much about the rhythms real
like when I say rhythms like the first
ones like this that is that's kind of
the G minor six has a little bit of a
different rhythm than the the the rest
room the kind of root chord record if
the standard Bossa kind of groove thing
right don't worry so much about the
rhythms just try to get the chords in
place first and then once you have that
it'll be a lot easier to focus on the
rhythm because it can be kind of a
challenge getting all these chords down
but anyway so that's going to be the
main part we're going to base the
subsequent lesson on which is going to
be putting them all the other and
finishing the complete song