A beginner guitar lesson (YouTube) by Lauren Bateman teaching how to play "Horse with No Name" using only two chords (E minor and D69). The instructor demonstrates fingerings for both chords, offers two strumming patterns (simple four down-strums and a slightly spiced pattern with an up-strum), and finishes with a slow play-along and encouragement to practice at the learner's level.
Hey, guitar enthusiast Lauren Bateman here. In this lesson we're going to be going over a very super simple two chord song by America called Horse with no Name.
Now in this lesson I'm just going to keep it super simple as if you're an absolute beginner. We're going to go over the chords, what the strumming pattern is, and I'll do a little bit of a play along at the end for you. Now we're going to go over the two chords which is the E minor chord and the D69 chord and how to play those. If you already know how to play those chords, feel free to fast forward. Forward ahead to the strumming pattern section. So I'm going to give you a couple options for these chords and do whatever is most comfortable for you. This is the first song I teach students in my seven level beginner guitar system. And we start with an E minor chord using your first finger on the second fret of the fifth string and your second finger on the second fret of the D string. So it sounds like that. Now some people, if you bigger fingers, sometimes it's hard to play with the first and second finger. So some people like to use the second finger on the second fret of the fifth string and the third finger on the second fret of the D string. Okay. Whichever way is more comfortable for you, I don't care, do what is best fit. But as long as you play an E minor chord and it sounds like this, you're good. So our second chord, the D69 chord, again, it's going to depend on which chord you started with. So if you're using the first and second fingers on all you'll do, you're staying in the second fret. You're going to move your first finger up to the top string and your second finger is going to move down to the G string, that third string. Okay? And that's what it's going to sound like. Alternatively, if you're using second and third finger, you would move the second finger up to the top string and the third finger down to the G string. It's going to sound the same. Just do whatever is most comfortable for you. Now first and second, this is what it's going to sound like. You're just going from e minor to D69. Okay? So practice that back and forth. And if you're using second and third finger.
It'Ll sound the same if you hit the right strings.
Okay. So that's all we're doing. Back and forth. E minor D69, back and forth. Practice that, and when you're ready, you can move on to the next section, which is going to be our strumming. Now, I'm going to give you, you two different strumming patterns. One's going to be easier. The other is going to be slightly more intricate, but not too much. But it'll add an extra little flavor. So the first strumming pattern we're going to talk about is just four quarter notes. Okay? So that's going to be 1, 2, 3, 4. That's going to be our count. And every time we say a number, we're going to play the chord. So we'll start with our E minor and it's going to be 1, 2, 3, 4. And then we'll switch to D69. 1, 2, 3, 4. Again, E minor, 1, 2, 3, 4. D69.
So it'll sound like this.
Okay, that's what it's going to sound like. Now, some of you might be saying, lauren, your guitar sounds a little bit better than mine. So could be that you're really being aggressive with your picking hand. Try and loosen that up as much as possible. But when you're just getting started, that's completely normal. Your hand will naturally loosen up over time. So that is the first very simple strumming pattern. The next one I'm going to do is just add a little bit of an upstrom in there if you want to give it a try. Hey, hope you're enjoying this lesson so far. If you're finding it helpful, help me out and subscribe to the channel and turn on your notifications this way. YouTube will let you know when I release more videos just like this one. So the next strumming pattern, we're just going to add one little up strum in to spice it up a little bit. And it's going to be an up strum between the three and the four count. So it's going to sound like this.
It's not a huge difference, but it does add a little bit of an extra spice to the song. So let's try that. So it's going to be E minor. It's going to be 1, 2, 3, and 4. Down, down, down, up, down. And then you would switch to D69. Down, down, down, up, down.
Okay, so a little bit more.
Okay, you get the feel of that. So pick whichever strumming pattern is gonna work best for you. Some of you, you might not have those chord changes fast enough. And maybe you just have to do one strum per chord.
1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, four. 1, 2, 3, Four. 1, 2, 3, FOUR.
Call that whole note strumming. Whatever works best for you. Always play to your level. When you first start learning the guitar, don't push yourself. If it's too difficult, just simplify it. Do the best you can and as you go through, you can get better and better. So what I'm going to do now is I'm just going to go through a quick little playthrough with you guys. Maybe do a couple verses so that you can play along with me a little bit. I'll play it just a little bit slower than the regular song so that we can practice together. Alright, so we're going to start with the intro and all we're going to do is E minor D69, E minor D69 back and forth. I'm going to use the simple strumming. I'm just going to do the four down strums. All right, we're going. Keep it simple. Here we go.
1, 2, 3. E minor 2, 3.
D 69.
E minor D 69. Here we go.
Ready? On the first part of the journey I was looking at all the life.
There were plants and birds and rocks and things. There was sand and hills and rings.
The first thing I met was a fly with a buzz and the sky with no clouds.
The heat was hot and the ground was dry but the air was full of sound.
I've been through the desert on a horse with no name. It felt good. Be out of the rain in the desert you can't remember your name Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain. La la la la la la la la la la la la.
La la la.
Hope you guys enjoyed this lesson. Make sure to give me a thumbs up. And just so you know, I do have an entire 7 level beginner guitar course. So if you're interested in learning guitar in a more step by step manner with instructions and a PDF and working with me, I'll put a link in the description below. You guys can go check that out if you're interested. YouTube is going to pop up a couple more lessons over there. Go check those out or go back to the beginning of the play along and work on playing through this song again with me.
