Titanium - Rockschool Acoustic Grade 1

Welcome back!

This time around, we're looking at Titanium by David Guetta. This is is a great pop tune and quite different from the other tracks in the Grade 1 book.

The video below is a full lesson on all parts of the song. Please watch it section by section and don't try to learn it all at once. The video is around 30 minutes long, so although you're welcome to watch it all the way through, it's better to focus on it section by section. There are 5 sections all together: A, B, C, D, and E.

Obviously, start with A and then only move to B when you're comfortable with the first part, and so on.

Things to look out for in this piece:

• Accuracy:

There are lots of arpeggios in this song (where we hold a chord but play the strings one by one rather than strumming them all). This means that both your picking hand and your fretting hand must be accurate as it'll be really obvious if you make a mistake.

• Dynamics:

The song starts Piano (P) which means soft. Then moves into mezzo-piano (MP) in bar 17, moderately soft (so a little louder). Then we have mezzo-forte (MF, bar 25), moderately loud - so a little louder again, before finishing in forte (F, bar 33), loud.

This means that we need to be aware of the dynamics all the way through the piece and be clearly getting louder as we move from section to section. Work on this only once you can already play the piece.

• Note Value:

There are a number of different note values used in this piece and each section has slightly different timing. Pay close attention to the count in the video to make sure you're also counting correctly.

• Consistency:

This is important throughout the piece, but especially towards the end when your strumming. Try to make sure each strum sounds the same - you don't want some loud and some quiet. If using a pick, be relaxed and hold it lightly (don't drop it though!) as it's easy to be too rough and 'dig in' to the strings too much accidentally.

Finally - have fun!

This is a great track and a brilliant example of how the guitar can help to elevate a pop tune.

Here's a link to the original: