A beginner guitar lesson (YouTube) by Lauren Bateman teaching how to play "Can't You See" by the Marshall Tucker Band. The video demonstrates a single repeating four-chord progression (D → C → G → D) used throughout the song, shows a simple four-down strum per chord, and offers a slightly more advanced eighth-note up/down strumming pattern as an option. The instructor emphasizes repetition and simplicity for beginners.
Chapters
And today what I'm going to do is go over a simple song with you. This is by the Marshall Tucker Band. It's a song called can't yout See. And the reason I like this song is it uses my main four chords that I like to teach my beginner guitar students. It uses three of those chords. So it uses a D, it uses a C chord, and it uses a G chord. The other reason I like this song is that it's repetitive. It uses the same chord progression from the beginning of the song all the way to the end. So all you have to do is remember the order of four chords. The four chords for this song are D, C, G and D. Again. So our chord progression, the order of the chords for this entire song is D, C, G and D. Now for the strumming for this, we're gonna keep it simple since it's a simple song. So we're just going to do four down strums per chord. So each chord is one measure. So that means we're gonna do four strums per chord. And then we're gonna switch. So it'll sound like this. We'll start on our D chord and.
It'S gonna be 1, 2, 3, 4.
Then we're gonna go to a C chord.
1, 2, 3, 4. Then we go to G. 1, 2, 3, four. And then back to D. 1, 2, 3, Four.
There you go. You can just now play the entire song. So once you get to that D, you stay on D. So we're going to play the chord progression all over again. So we start at D again.
1, 2, 3, 4. To C.
3, 4. To G. 2, 3, 4. To D. 2, 3. Again. Now D again. 3, 4. To C. 2, 3, 4. To G. 2, 3, 4.
To D.
And my friends, that is the entire song. It does not change. The only thing that changes is the lyrics to the song. So it sounds something like this.
I'm gonna take a freight train.
Down to the station.
I don't care where.
It goes and even when you get to the chorus.
Can't you see.
Can'T you see.
What.
That woman knows she's been doing to me?
So whether you're on the verse or you. Whether you're on the chorus, the song is so repetitive that once you get those four chords down, you can just play the song all the way from the beginning to the end. And that's why I like this song. It's very simple, easy to memorize, and pretty easy to play. Now, if those four strums are too much for you. You can always take one or two of them away and do either. Two strums per chord. Giving yourself tonight time to switch to the next chord. So if I go from the beginning, if you want to play along a little bit, we'll start with a four measure intro. So we're going to play each chord.
For four counts for an intro and then we're going to go into a verse. We'll do intro, verse, chorus. Ready? 1, 2, 3, 4.
Intro, D, 2, 3, 4. C 2, 3, 4. G, 2, 3, 4 and D. Now keep that up.
I'm gonna take a freight train down to the station.
I don't care where it goes.
Gonna climb me a mountain.
The highest mountain Lord gonna jump off Nobody gonna know.
Can'T you see.
Oh can't you see.
What that woman knows? She bend in front of me one more time can't you see.
Can you.
See.
What that woman she bent you into me.
Now if you want to spice up the rhythm because you're feeling like, hey, this is, this is pretty. I can do this, this is easy. You can add some up strums in.
So that's what we call an eighth note strumming pattern. So that can spice it up a little bit. But again, these are simple songs. So I'm trying to keep them simple just for you so that you can learn how to play them beginning to end. So that is Marshall Tucker band. Can't you see. Keep practicing and I hope you pick it up very quickly.
