Article
Learn to play this classic 90’s ballad! You’ll notice the song has a slightly unusual rhythm – if you count along, you’ll say 1-2-3 instead of the regular 1-2-3-4. Try to get used to counting in groups of 3 as you listen to the song, it’s a great way to get used to this important rhythmic grouping. “Kiss From A Rose”, made famous by Seal, is now available in Yousician for Guitar, Piano, Bass, Ukulele, and Singing.
Kiss From A Rose for Guitar
by: James Neilson, Music Education Designer for Guitar
In the basic melody exercise (level 1) you’ll play along with a simplified version of the vocal and instrumental melodies. Try to focus on using the correct fingers (one finger per fret) for a smooth and connected sound.
In the cowboy chords exercise (level 4) you’ll play the chords to the song, using a bunch of cowboy chords: A, Am, C, D, F, G. Notice the repeating F-G-A progression – it’s slightly uncommon but sounds great. Practice the repeating D-DUD strumming pattern to get it under your fingers.
With the full melody exercise (level 7) you’ll play the full vocal and instrumental melodies. Watch out for the tricky position changes and string skips. You may notice it’s mostly in the A minor (Aeolian) scale, with some notes from A major blended in. This mixture of major and minor is a popular way to blend light and dark together for a musically interesting sound.
Kiss From A Rose for Piano
by: Sunny Choi, Music Education Designer for Piano
The melody exercise (level 4) will let you get familiar with the melody line. This is a great exercise to practice awareness of hand position changes between sections while keeping up with relatively simple rhythmic patterns.
With the chords exercise (level 5) you will explore major and minor chord changes that are evenly spread out throughout this song!
Accompaniment exercise (level 8) – Feel the pop groove while also feeling the sentiment of the waltz-like vibe of this song.
Kiss From A Rose for Bass
Vellu Halkosalmi, Music Education Designer for Bass and Ukulele
The basic bass exercise (level 2) is a good exercise to focus on the rhythm, and finding notes on all strings in the first position. Watch out for the finger colors, so that you will play notes on the first fret with your index finger, notes on the 2nd fret with your middle finger and notes on the 3rd fret with your ring finger.
The full bass exercise (level 6) contains a full bassline as recorded. Focus on playing notes to their full duration, so that the notes connect to each other and create a nice feeling of continuity. Also, there is a nice melodic passage for bass at the end of Chorus 1. Try bringing that part out and play with expression.
Kiss From A Rose for Ukulele
Vellu Halkosalmi, Music Education Designer for Bass and Ukulele
In the chords exercise (level 4) you’ll be strumming chords and all the important strumming patterns of the song. Feel free to try out extra strums too if you feel like it. The recognition won’t mind if you play more strums than what’s written.
The melody exercise (level 6) combines instrumental melodies and lead vocals into one. The challenge with this exercise is to be able to play streams of repeating 8th notes, which gives your plucking hand a nice workout. Remember to start slow, and dial up the speed only when you feel very comfortable playing in the slower tempo.
Kiss From A Rose for Singing
by: Arttu Juntunen, Music Education Designer for Piano and Singing
This song is a great exercise for building agility to your voice. It has many large interval jumps, and I recommend you practice these first at a slower speed in practice mode. During the high notes, try to keep your voice light and avoid pushing too hard.