HOW TO PLAY THIS MONTH'S SONGS

RELEASED AS A single, ahead of Shinedown's upcoming eighth studio album, this simple, well-crafted song, which was no doubt at least partially inspired by Def Leppard's “Hysteria” and U2's “With or Without You,” has guitarist Zach Myers flatpicking eighth notes with a clean bridge-pickup tone, laying down a repeating eight-bar pattern of ringing chordal arpeggios that share three common tones, with only the bass note changing every two bars.

- JIMMY BROWN

SHINEDOWN

“Three Six Five”

Notice Myers’ use of his open G string throughout, which, paired with the F# note on the D string's 4th fret, lends the part a bright, twangy shimmer and also creates a beautifully dissonant minor-2nd (half-step) interval that's sandwiched between the highest and lowest notes of each chord.

When forming each chord shape, make sure the finger that’s fretting the F# note “stands tall," so that it doesn't inadvertently touch and mute the open G string (kind of like when playing the popular old electronic board game Operation).

We've included pick strokes above bar 1, which establish a pattern of eighth-note alternate picking (down, up, down, up) that applies to the next seven bars. Note, however, that, due to the tied (held) open G note on the upbeat of beat 2 ("two and”) in each bar, you'll end up picking two upstrokes in a row, separated by a “phantom" (silent) downstroke on beat 3.

If you're playing “Three Six Five" alone, without a bass player or second guitarist laying down steady “pumping eighths" root notes, a good performance option is to pick the bass note of each chord again on beat 3 of each bar, with a downstroke, as Myers himself will at times do when performing the song as an acoustic duo with singer Brent Smith. This effectively keeps the eighth-note rhythm flowing, without a pause on beat 3 of each bar.

When playing the strummed octaves at section C (bars 25-32), use your 1st and 4th fingers to fret the D and B strings and also to mute the adjacent A, G and high E strings, by lightly touching them. Doing so will prevent unwanted open notes from ringing.

BUDDY HOLLY

“Blue Days, Black Nights”