Lauren Bateman breaks down the intro to Brown Eyed Girl using three movable chord shapes. She maps out the fret sequences 7, 8, 10, 8, 7 and 12, 13, 15, 13, 12, then shows how to anchor your lead finger and repeat the pattern.
7, 8, 10, 8, 7.
12, 13, 15, 13, 12.
To the 5th fret (lead finger on fret 5).
Play the whole pattern through twice, then repeat the whole thing again.
Foreign.
To show you how to play the intro to Brown Eyed Girl. And it has three very special chord shapes that we're going to use, and I'm going to go over those in this lesson right now.
So this intro requires three different chord shapes that I'm going to show you right now before we get into the tab. We're just going to start here on the open strings so that you can learn the shapes, and then we'll apply it to the correct frets. So the first shape is going to be our diagonal shape, where we have the first finger on the first fret. And then the second finger is going to go on the next fret, one string above. So this shape would move.
Would move along the guitar. So that's shape number one. So get familiar with that shape. Shape number two is like a reversed power chord. So instead, if you know a power chord, you play with your first finger here and your third finger here. We're actually going to flip that. So the first finger is going to be on the bottom. Third finger is going to be on the second string. So we have in open position, we would have the first finger on the first fret. First string, third finger would be on the third fret of the second string. Okay. And all I want you to do right now is practice going between these two shapes.
So you see, the first finger doesn't even have to move, right. It's just the second and third fingers that we're changing. Okay. And these two shapes are going to be the majority of this intro lick. But there is one more shape I'm going to show you before we get into the actual tab. And the final shape follows this reverse power chord, except we're going to move the third finger up and put the pinky below. So this one's actually going to be three strings. Okay.
So we've got shape number one, shape number two, shape number three.
So now that we know the shapes, we are going to apply them to the song. And what I tell students to do when using these types of chord shapes is to use a lead finger. I like to use my first finger because that's the one that really doesn't have to move. Remember, the second and third finger are going to be moving. So we want to pick our lead finger, and I like to use the first finger for this. So first, we're going to just finish, find the lead with the first finger. So our frets for the first finger are going to be 7, 8, 10, 8. Okay.
And then back to 7. So you can already hear the intro. So it's 7, 8, 10, 8, 7. Okay?
And then the next part, it's the same shape. It's the same pattern, so. So to speak. But we're going to move our first finger up to the 12th fret, and it's going to be 12, 13, 15, 13, 12. Okay? So we've got.
And then we're going to repeat it again on the seventh fret.
Okay? So now we know where our lead finger is going. And all you have to do is build the correct chord off of the lead finger. Okay? So. So in the first fret position, which would be seven here and 12 up here, we're going to do that first shape. So we'd be on frets seven and eight. Okay. And the other frets, we're going to use that second chord shape. So it would be 8 and 10, 10 and 12. And up here, it would be 13 and 15. And then 15 and 17. Okay, so we've got. If we put it together, it's going to be.
Okay, now we move the shapes up here, 12 and 13.
And then right back to the seventh fret.
And then this is where that third shape comes in. We're going to come back with our first finger to the fifth fret. Okay? That's the lead finger. And then we're going to add the third and fourth fingers. Okay, there's that chord. And then what I like to do, since my pinky is already on the second fret, I'm just going to use that as my lead finger for these next individual notes. It's got 7, 8, 10. And I like doing it this way because now my first finger is right here hanging, ready to go back to the beginning of this little lick. So if we put it all together and we go very slow, we've got our lead fingers, 7 on the first shape, 8, 10. Second shape, 10, 12, second shape, 8, 10, 7, 8. Now up to 12 and 13, 13, 15, 15, 17, 13, 15. Back to 12 and 13. And then 1 more time.
And here's our final shape.
And then right back to the beginning.
So once you play the whole pattern through twice, you then have to repeat the whole thing again.
And then right from there, you would get into strumming and playing the song. And if you're interested in learning how to strum and play this song after playing the intro, you can go check out my Van Morrison Brown Eyed Girl lesson right over there.
