Learn to play like David Gilmour
Despite his recent solo career, David Gilmour is regarded primarily as Pink Floyd’s lead guitarist and an undeniable master in the discipline. For this exercise, we’ll be playing an atmospheric chord progression in his fashion. As discussed in a previous exercise on Santana, a typical lead-in for many compositions is the II to V chord movement. Gilmour’s chord progressions go one step further – they modulate. The key changes aren’t too obvious as only one note changes from key to key. Gilmour’s favourite chord to herald the new tonality is usually the IV degree. This floaty sound is what we call ‘Lydian’.
A brief overview on our exercise: The chords in the first four measures are taken from the key of D. We then switch to G ( Cmaj7 – Gmaj7/D ), modulate to the key of C with the C add11 and G/B before returning clockwise (along the Circle of Fifths) with the II to V progression of G major for the last four measures.
Try it for yourself now:
