Neon Guitar Lesson

I can safely say that 'Neon' was the first John Mayer track I heard. This is just one of many incredible tracks of his, but I'd bet that this is the one that most guitarists aim to learn! I remember being in my 'learn to shred as fast as you possibly can' phase when I first heard this song, and I was a bit too intimidated to learn it… But there's no need to be intimidated, as Thomas is back with another fantastic lesson, giving you all the tools you need to tackle this terrific track!

If this is the first lesson write-up of ours that you've come across, please note that there will not be any tabs. Please use Thomas' video lesson as the main resource to learn all the details, and this write-up to help piece it all together at your own pace.

And with that said, grab your guitar, and let's get going!

Riff / Verse

Most of the time, the guitar solo is the most challenging part of the song. For 'Neon'? It's the very beginning. It also happens to be (in my opinion), the most fun part to play, and it means that once you've mastered it, learning the rest of the track should be a breeze!

First thing's first - we need to change our tuning and drop our low E-string to a C. And just to be clear, we're not tuning every string down to drop-C, just the low E. The other five strings stay in standard tuning. This is to help make the low bass notes fit in with the chord shapes to create the big, full sound.

Don't worry if the low C-string feels quite floppy, or has a bit of a buzz. This is to be expected unless you have a thick string gauge, or you've set the guitar up specifically in lower tunings.

If you're ready to take on the challenge of this track, I'm going to assume that you're already pretty comfortable with fingerpicking. Thomas makes a great point about the different methods of fingerpicking to of play this track - John Mayer has created his own unique technique in which he alternates between just his thumb and index finger to traverse the strings.

However, it's easier to approach this with the more universal technique of using your middle and ring finger as well. Therefore, Thomas suggests using your index finger to pluck the D-string, your middle for the G-string, and your ring for the B-string. This allows you to stay in one position with the right-hand, and immediately feel more comfortable with the rhythm.

As there aren't any tabs available in this lesson write-up, please be sure to watch Thomas' detailed breakdown of the fingerpicking patterns needed for each chord. And with that said, let's take a closer look at what's going on with the chords!

I'm sure you would have noticed from watching the video that there are quite a few 'extra' notes added to each main chord shape to create the melody. To keep this write-up from getting too messy, I've provided the main chord shapes below, and you'll need to again refer to the video for the added melody notes.

The last thing I want to point out about the chords in the riff/verse section is that we want to play the full chord shape, even if we're muting certain strings. Let's take the first chord, Cm7, as an example - even though we're muting the D- and G-strings, we want to make sure that we're muting the 8th frets of each string, not the open strings. The reason being that even though the notes are muted, we're getting some of the pitch of the fret we're muting over. Try A/B testing between doing this and the open strings, and I guarantee you'll hear the difference!

Let's fully wrap this section up by taking a look at the structure. Don't forget to add all the melodic notes in that aren't directly part of the chord shapes!

Pre-Chorus

The main riff requires quite a bit of stamina, both physically and mentally, so, you'll be very pleased to know that the pre-chorus focuses on chords, giving you a chance to briefly relax! There are a few variations of the pre-chorus, so let's tick them off one-by-one.

Pre-chorus 1

This is the shortest of version of this section, and uses only three chords with a slight picking pattern.

Pre-chorus 2

The second pre-chorus is just an extension of the first one - meaning that we're going to play exactly the same thing, with these added chords tagged on at the end.

Pre-chorus 3

The final change for the last pre-chorus is adding just one chord to the previous pre-chorus section. Gradually making the section longer is an excellent song-writing tool, as it helps create more and more tension leading us into the chorus.

There are quite a few chords in this final pre-chorus, so here are the structures for the three different versions of this section:

Chorus

Following on from the pre-choruses, the chorus also focuses on various chord shapes. Be sure to listen carefully to the rhythm that Thomas demonstrates in the video. We're getting a pushed rhythm - meaning that the chord changes before the end of the bar. Without this rhythm, the section would sound completely different, so be sure to practice along with the track, or a metronome to get the chords in the right place!

The chorus repeats three times, with a variation in chords and rhythm on the third and final repeat. Let's take a look at the repeated section first.

I sound like a broken record, but please be sure to watch the video to get a full understanding of how these chords are pieced together, and the rhythm in which they are played.

The ending on the third repeat features a chord we've already seen - Bbsus2 - and finishes the section perfectly with a Absus2, smoothly leading us back into the main riff.

Bridge

Before we get into the penultimate section of this information-packed track, I just want to say well done for making it this far! You're almost there - just the bridge and the outro to go!

The bridge can be broken into two separate parts, and we're going to refer to them as the 'climb' and the 'groove'.

The climb

As implied in the name, this part of the bridge is simply just one chord shape, a minor7, climbing up the fretboard. This repeats three times, with a slight change in groove upon each repeat.

The groove

Sorry. Why am I sorry? Well, it's because we need to divide this sub-section into two further sections… sub-sectionception! Let's start by taking a look at the groovy bass line.

We're just using the low C-string to play the bass line, and we're making a slight shift of scale to C dorian. Very briefly, the dorian mode is a minor scale with a raised, or natural 6 interval. So, if the 6th degree (b6) of a C minor is Ab, the 6th degree (6) of C dorian would be A natural.

Attached below is an octave of C dorian played on just the low string C-string. As a side note, I encourage you to practice visualising scales on one string to strengthen your intervallic knowledge, which will boost your confidence with improvisation!

After the bass line comes a funky little groove on a Cm7 chord, and these two sections alternate four times. We won't go into detail about the groove in the write-up, as Thomas will do a much better job explaining it in the video.

There is one little fill on the second repeat that passes through the dorian mode. The dorian mode really helps capture that funk essence!

Outro

We've made it to the end, congrats! The outro mainly consists of the funky groove that we just looked at in the bridge. To clarify, just the funky groove, not the bass line. There is, however, a melody line on top of the groove in this section. We're once again traversing into the C dorian mode, using the same scale shape as earlier. I've attached the scale box again, highlighting the frets needed to play the melody.

To bring this mega lesson to a very final conclusion, here's the structure for the entire track.