Lauren Bateman’s YouTube guitar lesson teaches how to play Mariah Carey’s "All I Want For Christmas Is You" on acoustic guitar. The video covers the full song’s chord inventory (G, Em, C, Cm, B7, E, Am, D, D7), shows how to simplify the Cm with a partial Bm shape, walks through the chorus, verse, bridge, and outro, and explains where to hold chords (measure counts) and which strumming patterns to use (single strums for the intro/chorus, a complex down/up pattern for verses, and straight eighth notes for emphasis in the bridge). The instructor references a downloadable chord chart on laurenbateman.com and occasionally sings demo lines to illustrate phrasing and dynamics.
Chapters
Hey, guitar enthusiast Lauren Bateman here. And in this lesson video, we're going to be going over all I want for Christmas is you. We're going to be doing the Mariah Carey version. So I hope you guys are getting ready for Christmas. Let's get into the lesson.
Now. I know all you guys really wanted it for Christmas is to play your guitar better. So we're gonna get into playing this song, and hopefully I'm releasing it early enough to give you guys some time to practice and get it ready for the holiday season season. So the chords in this song really aren't that difficult. We have a G chord, we have an E minor chord, a C chord, a B7 chord, an A minor chord, and there is a C minor chord that comes in. But we do have an easy fix for that. It looks like my easy B minor chord. You're just gonna play the fingers on the bottom three strings. So it's not gonna sound the nicest, but it'll be kind of like playing a C minor chord. But for the most part, it does have a lot of open chords, so that's the good thing. So this song does start off on a chorus, and all we have to do is we're going to be doing single strums, which is great because it gives you a lot of time to get to the next chord. So we're going to be doing single strums, and it's going to be G, E minor, C.
C minor. And then we got G.
B7, E minor. Now a note on this. When I'm going from B7 to get to E minor, my fingers already here on the second fret of the fifth string. So I'm gonna play with my second and third fingers. Usually I play E minor with my first and second, but because I'm coming from B7, I'm gonna play my E minor with my second and third fingers. So we have E minor followed by C minor, which is great because now when I go to slide to C minor, this finger. Finger just needs to slide back. And we have C minor. Okay. Then we got G, E major. Lots of chords in the song. A minor and then D. So that's the entire chord progression. It's a really long chord progression. So we have G, E minor, C, C minor, G, B7, E minor, C minor, G, E, A minor, D. There is no repetition at all. So memorizing and performing this, which I have done, is a pain in the butt. But hopefully you'll have the chord chart here. If you need the chord chart, go to my website, laurenbateman.com. you can go pick that up. Okay, so that's all we have for this chorus, I guess. Intro. We're just gonna be.
I don't want a love for Christmas There is just one thing I need.
And that's all we're going to be doing. We're just going to be strumming and letting it ring for full measure. And we don't start strumming until we.
Get to All I want for Christmas is.
You.
So we start strumming on that U, which gets us into our verse again. So basically the strumming pattern we're going to introduce at this point. Point is going to be the down, down, up up down up down, down up, up down up down, down up up, down, up. So it'll sound like this. Down, down, up up down, up down, down, up, up down, up down, down, up, up down, up down, down up up down, up down, down, up, up, down, up down, down, up, up down, up down, down, up up down, up, down, down.
Segue into that part is C is G, E minor, C, D. Just so that you know the chords. So we've got.
You know, make my wish come true.
All I want for Christmas is G minor, C and D.
And then we.
Get into.
The actual verse, which has a little bit more repetition. It's a little bit different than this, than obviously the chorus. So we get to hang out on these chords a little bit longer in this verse section. So let's go check that out. Hey, everyone, I hope you're enjoying this lesson video so far. Don't forget to subscribe to the channel so that you can see more lessons when I put them out. Let's get into the next section of this video. So we're using a lot of the same chords in this first section. We have a G, we have a C. We have that C minor again. We have B7, E minor, E, a D. We've got them all. Okay, they're all in here, unfortunately. But fortunately, when we start off, we get to sit on this G chord for four measures. So we got four measures of G, two measures of C, two measures of C minor. So we got 1, 2, 3, 4. Then we got C 1, 2, then.
C minor 1, 2.
And then fortunately, we get to repeat that again. So it's again, four measures of G, two measures of C, and two measures of C minor. And then I just want you for my own kind of. I guess we would call this like the refrain, I guess in the song. We're gonna go back to the G chord.
We have a G chord and a B7 splitting a measure and then E minor for full measure. Then we have E minor and C minor. Then we have G, E, A minor, D, and then that G, E minor, C, D. That's why. If you haven't gotten the chord chart yet, go to my website, laurenbatement.com, get the chord chart. I'm going to try singing through this section because there are a lot of chords and I'm going to see if. If YouTube lets it go. I may have to edit it out if I get hit with copyright, but hopefully they'll let me keep it in. So let's take it from I don't want a lot for Christmas because there's a lot of cores. And I think you guys need to hear how this goes. We go, 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4.
I don't want a lot for Christmas There is just one thing I need and I don't care about the presents Underneath the Christmas tree no need to hang my stocking there upon the fireplace Santa Claus won't make me happy with the toy on Christmas day I just want you for my own More than you could ever know make my wish come true.
All I want for Christmas is you.
You, baby.
And then it just jumps right back in to another verse. And then we have a crazy key change coming up. So let's check that out. So this bridge gets really interesting. We're going to be focusing on the seven chord, which presents a lot of tension. Okay. And I will preface before I even jump into attempt singing this bridge, I am no Mariah Carey. Okay. I'm just gonna put that out there. I'm okay with that. I'm gonna do the best I can hitting some of these high notes, but I probably won't be able to get some of them. But I'm gonna do the best I can. So basically, chord progression is a little easier. We've got B7 twice to E minor twice. So that's a pretty easy chord transition. Then we got B7 again twice, E minor twice. Then we're gonna go to C minor twice. Then we have a G chord, then. Then we have an E chord, Then we have A minor twice, and then we have the D chord twice. And what I'm going to do towards the end of this bridge again to add a little bit more dynamics and emphasis is you might hear me go to a straight eighth note pattern. So when I get to that A minor, I think I'm going to switch over to just down, up down, up, straight, eighth notes.
I think it. I think it needs something a little bit more in this bridge part. So I feel like when I used to play this live, that's what I used to do. Obviously not in this key because I can't sing in this key. So let's start off with a B7. And I'm going to butcher this for you guys. But, hey, hopefully you guys won't go deaf. Here we go. So, 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4.
All the lights are shining so brightly everywhere.
And the silent children's laughter fills the air.
And everyone is singing I hear those side bells ring Santa won you please be warning really want Won't you please reload my baby to me I don't want a love for Christmas.
So you can see I did that eighth note strumming pattern.
And then I. When we got back to that final verse, I jumped right back into that. That strumming. I think it adds. Because this bridge is already so tense because of that seven chord. I think it ties in some really good tension because I always want the bridge to be a little bit different, especially when we're performing. So I think that straight up eighth note pattern on the A minor and the D really adds a little bit of oomph to this. And my voice wasn't too bad. I only cracked maybe once. So that's great. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna wrap up the song now. So let's talk about this outro. Hey, guys, hopefully you're enjoying my horrible singing and you can give me a thumbs up on this video. I'd really appreciate it. Let's wrap up the song. So the very final verse, we're working through all those crazy chords again. So we're still in a typical verse. Nothing crazy here. The only thing is this. This outro, which is actually a really nice outro because we thought finally get to repeat four chords over and over again. So, you know, we get to the very end.
You know, All I want for Christmas.
Is we throw in a D7 now, okay? And this is kind of this transition point, so we've got after the D. So we got, you know, make my wish come true.
Baby, All I want for Christmas and then the Christmas.
Is.
And then we get G, E minor cd.
And then we just repeat this out. It's going to be G, E minor, A minor, D, G, E minor, A minor, D all the way.
All I want for Christmas is you, baby I want for Christmas.
Baby And then we can fade out.
But we don't have a fade because we're not a record.
So basically, you're just going to do that four times in a row. And that is the outro for this song. I hope you guys enjoyed this video. I certainly had fun butchering this and making the lesson video, so I hope you guys enjoyed it. YouTube's going to pop a of couple, couple more videos over here. Hopefully they're ones that I can sing and I sound really better on, so you can go check those out. And I hope to see you guys in another lesson video.
