How to SEE walk-ups & walk-downs on the fretboard

## Lessons I've made that use walk-ups & walk downs

Here's some of the songs I've made lessons for that utilize what I show in this video. These make for great additional practice if you want to open up FretMonster, set it to the key of any song below, and make out what scale degrees are being used in the walk-ups and walk-downs.

PDFs for each lesson are available via the links below!

👉 Walk the Line by Johnny Cash - this one is absolute treasure if you're looking to see how these walk-ups & walk-downs can be put to use. Cash uses three different keys in this song (changing the key with each verse), but always uses the same formula within each key.

👉 Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground by Willie Nelson - this one's great because Willie embraces chromatic walk-ups & walk-downs... which basically means, he's adding sharp (or flat?) notes between the "main" walk-down notes, traveling a half-step at a time within each connecting phrase.

👉 Honky Tonk Heroes by Waylon Jennings - the intro to this song is quite great, and has a subtle but important use of walk-ups & walk-downs leading up to each chord. Similar to the Willie Nelson song above, some of these runs are chromatic.

👉 Summertime by Billy Strings & Marcus King - a great example here of how just a few walk-up & walk-down phrases are all you need to add a ton of character to a longer progression. In my lesson, I teach you how Billy plays it, but also a simpler way that still taps into the walk-up and walk-down spirit.

👉 Kodachrome by Paul Simon - while this one isn't terribly heavy on the walk-ups and walk-downs, but there's a few distinctive runs used during the intro riff (also heard in the verse) which further embrace chromaticism, which really spices things up. And such a great song!

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[jimshowtovideos]

By far the best video on this subject on YouTube. Thank you for taking time to do this.

[DocBism]

Great explanation, great charts, great teaching!

[dhyansuryam]

for This i was looking very long Thanks a lot !!

[maxwaver]

Do B and F have their Key ? Not mentioned here ...thanks you so much

[Man-oqpf]

How do you walk A into G ?
It’s a different key ????
Cheers

[EvanComplex]

Are B chord and F chord homework for walk ups and downs?

[choochoochooseyou]

I've been trying to learn just over a year and it still confuses the heck out of me when someone says "Here's a song in the key of..." before proceeding to list all the other notes. Sorry, Dave, it's obviously me not you.

[scottwalton]

David, I am a middle aged (57) y/o beginner. Kind of a new hobby undertaken later in life. Wish I would have started earlier. I have run across quite a few of your lessons, and they are always fantastic material, and well put together. This lesson was no different, but almost created the epiphany moment for me. I am started to get this thing they call acoustic guitar. The only thing I would suggest is getting a sizeable towel, or brown wrapping paper and cover up that Terrapin in the back ground. It is distracting. :) Thanks for the great lesson!

[danhutchinson]

Walk-ups & walk-downs using "I walk the line" by Johnny Cash is what I hear...Great lesson David!

[LDUU]

I'm learning a 3 string Cigar Box Guitar, so does it mean that I can use your chart which will tell me what notes I can play as a walk down. I know I don't have your chord shapes, but, if a song is predominantly using D chords, or C chords, or G chords, (the Key), does that mean I can use the predominant root note on your chart for a walk down, or perhaps a walk up. Not probably explaining myself here?

[jledford]

Very good explanation.most musicians know and understand this, but cannot explain any of it.
Thank you 😊

[dimwitsadvocate]

On this 19 minute video I must have spent over an hour and a half studying it.  The experience was pure joy.  I need to view it again.  I love the way he explained this.  Scale Degrees is the way to go in my opinion.  And his "FretMonster" is great for this.   
What was confusing for a second was, at 10:15, David talked about the G Chord but was still showing the Scale Degree for the C Chord.  But I realized where the 1-3-5 for the G Chord were, so I understood.
What I've seen out of most all guitar teachers on the web is that they teach what notes to hit for a Bridge for a certain song.  You have to use rote memory, going over and over the notes played in order to remember them.  You aren't taught the "why" of why you're hitting these notes.  So if you want to learn another song, you have to go through the same laborious process.  David here appears to teach the "why", so I'm going to dig deeper in his teaching to see if this is the case.  The only teacher I've ever found who explains the "why" is the guy who wrote the booklet "Planetalk".  And David here in this video appears to do a similar thing, but comes from a different angle which I'm finding helpful so far.  I also just found a fella named Brian Kelly, and he appears to take it from yet a different angle, but I'll have to see.
Anyway, I think David has what I need.  I'm going to Patreon to support him and learn more.  I guess I'd better go there since I can't for the life of  me find the pdf for this lesson on his website.  Ha ha!

[cgandy]

David, this is such a GREAT lesson to accompany your last walkup and walkdown lesson! Your FRETMONSTER tool is amazing and I have been sharing the link with my friends and encouraging them to subscribe to your page (many have). Thanks for the amazing content!

[carloskaste]

Hello, just say that I admire the work you do with your video lessons, the best you can find on Youtube, congratulations, greetings from Spain

[edcurtis]

Great video - clear and easy to follow!

[jimmythenoo]

Starting to get it now. Thanks for following up on the previous lesson you mentioned. Clearly putting in a lot of work to produce these lessons.

[michaelmackenzie]

Thanks as always. I live for these walking vids. Are you playing a Taylor gs mini?

[smalltimebennys]

i may have missed it over the first video and this one, but what is the method for walking between, say, the 4 and 5 in a scale? In C this would be G and F but I can't make it sound right.

[lawsonlawson]

Dude. To much degree angle to the 2nd fifth stuff. Patterns and notes and chords I'm good

[RobertViani]

One of those a ha moments. Really like the way you present using the visuals.