A short instructional YouTube lesson (Lauren Bateman) teaching how to play Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" using only two chords (E and B). The video explains simplified power/chord voicings (including an easier one-finger move between E and B and an alternate brighter E up the neck), the core progression (four measures of B then four measures of E repeated), two strumming approaches (long-held single strums across two measures and an 8th-note strumming pattern strummed every measure), and a simple intro/lead lick on the high E string (open, 2, 4, open, 2) that can be doubled with the B string or played alone. The lesson also suggests playing with a bass player or using light distortion on electric guitar for a fuller sound.
Chapters
Hey, guitar enthusiasts, welcome back. Lauren Bateman here in this video, we're going over a super cool two chord song. It's Bruce Springsteen's Born in the usa.
So this is a really great song. It only uses two chords, which is wonderful. I'm going to show you a couple different ways to strum. I also have a really cool little lick you can play over this if you're not into strumming. So we'll give you both options. So the two chords we're going to use are an E chord and a B chord. And I know what you guys are saying, Lauren, that B chord looks like a bar chord. Well, we're not going to be using the full chords. We're actually going to be using power chords in this lesson, which are much easier. So let's start with the E chord because that's going to be the easiest. You can play it like an E minor chord, but you're just going to hit the top two or three strings and that's it. You got an E chord. Very simple. The easiest way to get to B from here is to leave the first finger in place, maybe just slide it up in that second fret a little bit and then reach the third finger down to the fourth fret on the fourth string. Okay. That is a B chord. So we have E and we have B.
Hear it? So that's all we're going to be doing. The other option, I think Bruce, if he's playing power chords, he might be playing his E chord up here. A little bit of a brighter sound at the seventh and ninth frets.
A little. Can you hear the brighter tone versus here? You choose whichever one you want to do. I just figure for some of you it's easier to move one finger, make it as easy as possible. So that's the option we can use for this intro. So let's talk about the chord progression and then I'll show you the lick after. So the chord progression for this song is super simple. It's always going to be four measures of B followed by four measures of the E chord afterwards. Super, super simple. What we're going to do for the intro and I think the first verse and the first chorus is we're just going to hold these chords for a very long time. So we're going to start on that B chord and it's going to be one, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. And then we strum again. 1, 2, 3, 4. One, 2, 3, 4. So you're only strumming once for two measures. Okay, same with the E chord. One, two, three, 4. 1, 2, 3, four. One. 1, 2, 3,4. 1, 2, 3, Four. And we're gonna do that back and forth with B and E over and over again for the intro, the first verse and the first chorus. Things are gonna change after that. But what I wanna do right now is I wanna talk about the little intro lick that you can play over this song. Hey, guys, hope you're enjoying this lesson so far. Don't forget to subscribe to the channel and turn on your notifications. Subscribe this way. YouTube will let you know when I release more videos just like this one. So ideally, it'd be great if you were playing with someone else and they were playing the bass note underneath for the B and the E chord. It would sound much better. But we're just going to focus on the bottom two strings. Okay? So it's going to be B and E. And the only string that we're going to be playing notes on is this high E string. So the B is just going to remain open. The E string, we're going to go to open two, four, open two. So let's just talk about that before we add the B string. So it's going to be two open two, four, open two. And this is great because it goes along with the words born in the USA Born in the USA So if you just wanted to play just on that one string, you could easily just do one string. But I think it sounds cooler when you add the B string over the top. So we're going to try and hit both of these strings at the same time. So two open two, four open two. You hear that?
Sounds pretty cool.
Again.
One more time.
So again, you can do it with the B string or you could just do it simply single string.
Okay. And I'm just doing that with my first and third fingers. Super simple. It's really cool. You can play that over the intro. You can also play it over the choruses if you want to. You can play for the entire song. Whatever is more fun for you guys. Do that. Have fun with it. Now, if you have an electric guitar, you could plug this into an amp and throw on a little bit of distortion for this part. Sounds pretty cool. I just have my acoustic guitar right now. But we're going to be changing up the strumming pattern for this next section of the song. So the chord progression doesn't change at all. It's still four measures of B. It's still four measures of E. Except we are going to be strumming for every measure. And we're going to be doing an 8th note strumming pattern. 1 and 2 and 3 and 4. And 1 and 2 and 3 and four. And so it'll sound like this B. 1 and 2 and 3 and four and.
Back to E.
And then you go back to B.
I'm going to go to that brighter E. 1, 2, 3, 4.
So you get the idea of what's going to happen here. So it's just four measures of B, four measures of E. And then we go from a verse to a chorus. I think we go to another verse. Then we have a little interlude that comes in where there's a solo. You just play whatever you want over that. You can do the strumming, you can do the little intro lick, whatever you want. And then after that we go back to the single strums playing the chord over two measures. Hey, guys, don't forget to like this video below. I really appreciate it. YouTube is going to pop up a click. Couple more lessons over there. I hope you guys go check another one out and I'll see you in another lesson video very soon.
