There is no faster way to feel ancient than to hear "once I was seven years old" and immediately start doing the subtraction. Lukas Graham wrote a whole ballad about getting older, and now here I am, playing it on one guitar and feeling every single one of those years in my fretting hand.
This little clip is a MelodyChords arrangement of 7 Years: instead of a singer plus a piano plus whatever else, one guitar carries the melody and its chords at the same time. It is the same idea I keep coming back to in my MelodyChords / ChordMelody / Fingerstyle work, and it turns a reflective pop tune into a solo piece you can actually play alone in your living room.
How this MelodyChords arrangement works
The trick to a MelodyChords arrangement is voicing: the melody always lives in the highest note you play, and the chord tones tuck in underneath it. So instead of strumming a chord and singing on top, you fret each shape so the top string carries the tune while your thumb or lower fingers fill in the harmony below. The single most useful habit here is to let the melody notes ring longer than the accompaniment — pluck them a touch harder, let them sustain, and keep the inner voices quiet so the ear always follows the tune. It is basically the same skill as Can't Help Falling In Love: find the melody first, then harmonise downward.
7 Years sits in a moody minor world with a slow, deliberate chord cycle, which is perfect for this because there is time between melody notes to slip the chords in. Once you can keep that top voice singing while the harmony breathes underneath, you own the arrangement — and you never need to book a second musician again.
Do I sometimes catch myself counting how many years ago I first learned this? Absolutely, and then I quietly put the guitar down and eat a biscuit. Grab the tabs, feel briefly mortal, and support the whole circus on Patreon.