Cat’s in the Cradle Guitar Lesson – Easy Chords & Strumming for Beginners

Hey guitar enthusiasts, I have an amazing Harry Chapin song here, Cat's in the Cradle. This is a classic. I absolutely love this song, and I've turned it into a slightly easier version to minimize some of the chords and the chord changes. There is a really cool walk-down part that I'll show you if you want to spice that up, but for the beginning, we're gonna keep it simple and get through it step by step. Let's start with the chords. So the chords we're gonna need, we We have an E major chord, we have a G chord, we have an A major chord, and we have a D chord. Okay, so that's gonna be most of the song. Most of the song that I've written this as is gonna be an A, E, G, and D. Now there is a section that has a cool bass walk down. We'll talk about that towards the end. I promise I'll show you, 'cause it requires a little bit more intricate picking for us to get through. So there are a couple interesting things. I'm not going to show you how to pick the intro, but I'm going to just show you how to play it. And we're mainly playing this intro on an E chord. So for this song, I'm not going to show you how to pick the intro. I am just going to show you how to strum over it because there's some weird timing. Okay, Harry Chapin does this throughout the song where he uses different time signatures to cut up the chords into different lengths. So most of the time the song is in what we call 4/4 time, meaning we're going to be counting 4 beats or 4 strums.

1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4.

Okay? Or it's going to be in 3/4 where we're counting 3 strums.

1, 2, 3.

Or every once in a while it's in 2/4.

1, 2.

Where we do 2 strums. But before we start playing, got to make sure we put a capo on our guitar. Okay, so we're gonna put a capo at the first fret, and this will make it sound just like the recording. Okay, we play that beautiful E major chord. Our intro is just gonna be 4 strums on E, 1, 2, 3, 4, then 3 strums on E, 1, 2, 3, and then 2 more measures of 4/4, so 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4. Now I knew there was a timing thing because I was counting fours and I'm like, I keep ending up one beat behind. So I knew that there was a time signature change in the middle. So it's a measure of four-four. So it's a four count, a three count, and then two four counts.

Bam bam bam ba ba da dum bam bam bam ba bam bam bam.

Okay, so that's how that kind of intro goes over the top. Okay, and you're gonna see that throughout the song. That intro will come in, and that's how you're gonna play underneath that. It's just an E chord. All right, so then the verses, we've got split measures. Okay, so each chord is gonna be played twice. So how are we gonna strum this? So the verse strumming that I wrote down was just this: 1, 2 and a 3, 4 and a.

Okay, so it's a down, down, down, up, down. Down, down, up, down. Down, down, up, down. Down, down, up.

So each chord is just gonna get a down, down, up. Okay?

So if I did the first verse, it's gonna be child arrived just the other day. Came to the world in the usual way. There were planes to catch and there were bills to pay. He learned to walk while I was away.

Okay, so that's the strumming pattern over that section. So for each chord, these split measures, it's just going to be a down, down, down, up on the first chord, and then a down, down, down, up on the second chord. Okay, now the song goes a little bit faster than that. I was just playing it slowly for demonstration. But after that, he learned to walk away, this is where that walk down comes in. As I said, I'm going to discuss that later on how you can spice that up. So stick around to the end because it is pretty cool. But for now, what we're going to do is we're going to do a full measure of D. So you're going to do 2 of those strums: down, down, down, up, down, down, down, up.

And then there's going to be a half measure of D: down, down, down, up.

And a half measure of E: down, down, down, up. And then there's going to be a measure of G—

or half measure of G: down, down, down, up.

And a half measure of E followed by a half measure Okay, so let me take it through. I'm going to do that entire verse so we can— you can add that section in. But one more time, it's going to be a full measure.

And he was talking before I knew it.

He grew and he'd say, I'm gonna be like you, Dad. You know I'm gonna be like you.

Okay, and Harry Chapin— this song is low for my voice. If I, if I were going to sing this, I might move the So if you're a female and you're trying to learn this song and it's a little low for your voice, you can always move the capo up and keep the chords exactly the same. Okay? So let's take it from the top, from the verse. Okay? We're gonna play all the way through so that you can hear the entire thing. I'm gonna go very slow. Okay? I'm not gonna go full speed yet. So we go 1, 2, 3, 4.

A child arrived just the other day, came to the world in the usual way. But there were planes to catch and bills to pay. He learned to walk while I was away, and he was talking 'fore I knew it.

As he grew, he'd say, I'm gonna be like you, Dad. You know I'm gonna be like you.

Okay, now we come into the chorus. So that's most of this song is is three sections. It's the verse, it's the chorus, and there is a little interlude down the road where we're gonna change keys and add some chords. But we'll talk about that in a little bit. And and that's really it: verse, chorus, and intro. Okay, and then this little interlude section that we'll talk about. But let's talk about the chorus first because we're gonna change the strumming now. So for this chorus, I just wrote down a straight sixteenth note pattern.

Okay, so it's going to be alternating down-ups, and it's going to be one E and a two E and a three E and a four E and a one E and a two E and a three E and a four E and a.

Try that with me.

Okay, so it's just down-up, down-up, down-up, down-up, down-up, down-up, down-up, down-up, down-up, down-up, down-up, down-up, down-up, down-up, down-up, down-up, down.

And let's add an E chord to it. Ready?

One E and a two E and a three E and a four E and a one E and a two E and a three E and a four E and a.

Good. So each chord, they're still split measures. Okay, they're going—

it's one chord's going to be 1 e and a 2 e and a 3 e and a 4 e and a 1 e and a 2 e and a 3 e and a 4 e and a.

Okay, so you're going to play the first chord is going to get down up down up twice, and the next chord is going to get down up down up twice. So the chorus is going to sound like this.

And the cats in the cradle and the silver spoon, little boy blue and the man on the moon. When you're coming home, Dad, I don't know when. But we'll get together then. You know we'll have a good time then.

And then at the end of the chorus, we kind of have our intro again.

1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3, 4.

And then we jump right into our next verse, right back into the down, down, down, up, down.

Down, down, up, down. Down, down, up, down. Down, down, up, down.

Now if you're not used to switching between strumming patterns, this is a great time to practice. What I recommend is doing an E chord and maybe just doing your 4 down strums: 1, 2, 3, 4.

And then down, down, down, up, down, down, down, up.

1 E and a 2 E and a 3 E and a 4 E and a 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2 and a 3. 4 and a 1-e and a 2-e and a 3-e and a—

on your own.

One more time.

Okay, so you can just work on Transitioning between the chord changes if that's something you're not used to doing. So let's talk about this interlude section. Okay, so there are some chords that are going to change here. One of them unfortunately is a B minor chord. Ouch! I'm sorry, sorry. But the great thing about this song is if you ignored the interlude and just went from a chorus right into the bridge, you'd be totally fine and you wouldn't have to play it. But let's just go over it real quick because it is part of the song. So we have two beats on C. So we would do our down, down, down, up, and then we have a D chord. One strum down on D, one strum down on B minor, and then E. Okay, and then it repeats again.

C, D, B minor, E.

Okay, so that's how that whole section goes.

So one more time, if I play it through: 1, 2, 3, 4, down, down, down, up, down, down, down, down, down, up, down, down, down, up, down, down, down, up, down, down, down, down, down, up, down, down, down, up.

So this is a very long chart. Okay, I got 4 pages here in front of me. Okay, and I have all the notes. I'll have them all over on my website. But for this playthrough, I'm going to do an intro. I'm going to do a verse, a chorus, and another verse and another chorus. Okay, so we'll just do 2 verses, 2 choruses. That's plenty of a playthrough. That's going to be the majority of what you need for this song since it's so repetitive. But at least you'll have a little bit to play through with me. But stick around at the end because I'm going to show you how to add in the walk down for this song too. So first, let's do a playthrough from the top. 1, 2, 3.

1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2.

Here we go, ready?

The child arrived just the other day, came to the world in the usual way, but there were planes to catch and bills to pay. He learned to walk while I was away, and he was talking 'fore I knew it.

As he grew, he'd say, I'm gonna be like you, Dad. You know I'm gonna be like you.

Chorus!

And the cats in the cradle and the silver spoon. Little Bob being a man on the moon.

When you're coming home, Dad, I don't know when. But we'll get together then, Dad. You know we'll have a good time then.

Here he—

here's the verse.

My son turned 10 just the other day. He said, thanks for the ball, come on, let's play. Can you teach me to throw? I said, not today, I got a lot to do. He said, that's okay.

And he walked away with a smile, then he went and said, ah, I'm gonna be like him. Yeah, you know I'm gonna be like him.

Here's the chorus, ready?

And the cats in the cradle and the silver spoon.

Little Bobble and the man on the moon. When you're coming home, Dad, I don't know when, but we'll get together then, yeah. You know we'll have a good time then.

And if you make a mistake like me and mess up the lyrics when you're playing through on that walk-down part, don't worry. Keep playing through your mistakes. The best way to learn is just play through. If you make a mistake, don't stop and go back to the beginning. Play through it, get to the end. But I promised you I was going to show you how to play that walk-down. Okay, so in the part where it's saying, you know, he's talking, before I knew any grew any, there's this walk-down underneath that goes Okay. So in order to do this walk down, we're gonna have to move our hand a lot, or at least the finger, the fretting hand. Okay, we're gonna play a D chord, but we gotta make sure we get the bass notes. Bass notes are important. So you're gonna see a bunch of slash chords. So you're gonna see D, D/C#. So saying play a D chord, but I want a C# in the bass. Okay, now the bass player, you'll hear if you listen to the record, It's really the bass player that is taking care of this walk down. Okay, but we can play it too. So the first is a regular D chord. Just really hit the bass note. Okay, make the bass note ring out. And then I would just do a little down up. Now we need C sharp. I reach with my pinky. It's probably the hardest one.

Okay.

You could also, you know, Move some of the fingers. I find for me, and this is kind of muting. I'm muting the D note underneath. It's okay if you mute some strings, but we got D. Okay, you can hear I'd have to work on my positioning for this to get that to. That's better. And then I got D slash B. So I got this D chord. I'm just gonna move my first finger up to the B. So it's kind of. Not exactly a D major chord anymore, but we're the key. So I'm just trying to get that B note to ring. Okay, so we've got D. Now open A, so you can go back to your D chord there. Okay, then we've got D with G. I'm going to take my second finger, reach for the G, and then first finger, and then E.

Okay, something else I like to.

When I'm playing bass notes on the low E string, if you have the stretch for it, is I will use my thumb to play that bass note. I think Eric Clapton does a lot of that. So if I take it from the top, it's going to be D, C sharp, B, A, G, F sharp, E, and then we gotta walk down here. G, Remove your 3rd finger, bring your 1st finger up to the 2nd fret. That's your F sharp, and then E. If I play that whole section together, it is. Okay, so let me try. Let me see if I can sing it and play it. I didn't practice that part. Well, it's gonna sound like this. And he—

There were planes to catch and there were bills to pay. He learned to walk while I was away, and he was talking before I knew as he grew.

And he said, I'm gonna be like you, Dad. You know I'm gonna be like you.

Okay, so you can see how you can throw that in to create a little more movement, but you don't have to. You can always just stick to the regular D chord, but I did promise I was going to show you how to do that. Now, if you like that concept of bass walk-downs, I highly recommend you go check out my Johnny Cash Walk the Line video over there where I'm going to show you how you can use bass walk-downs to transition between different verses and different chords. Go check that out right over there.