Lauren Bateman teaches Simon & Garfunkel's "Cecilia" with just three chords: G, C, and D. Learn the fingerings, two-beat chord changes, and two strumming patterns to get the song down.
Hey, guitar enthusiasts. I have a very simple three chord song by Simon and Garfunkel called Cecilia. Those chords are going to be the G chord, the C chord and the D chord. Now, if you know my simple two finger variations, you can use those on this song as well. Now, with the G chord, students always ask me, lauren, do I have to use the third finger? If you are someone that's more comfortable with the pinky on the bottom, you, that's totally fine. Whichever chord works easiest for you.
So we're going to be teaching this song at a very beginner level, but there is a few things I want to make note of. There are some split measures in this song. So if we take this first line of the chorus, we have Cecilia, you're breaking my heart. There's a G chord for a full measure. That means we're going to be strumming four down strums, 1, 2, 3, 4. And then we have C for half a measure. So that means it only gets two beats. One, two, and then G for two beats. So if I just did all down strums on this, it would be, Cecilia.
You'Re breaking my heart, you're shaking my confidence daily.
And you can see on that D chord, we go back to a full measure. So anytime you see two chords in a bracket like this, they're going to be splitting the measure. That means they're going to be two beats each. Now, if you're an absolute beginner, I would recommend sticking with this all down strumming pattern. This way you have enough time, especially on those two beat chords, to change very quickly, because C to G is a very, very hard chord change for a lot of guitar students. So you might want to pause the video, practice that a little bit. And then if you're ready to jump onto a little bit more of an intricate strumming pattern, we're going to talk about that. So when this song starts, we hear a lot of drums. We don't hear a lot of guitar, we hear a lot of clapping, a lot of percussion. But you can easily start this song by just doing a simple eighth note strumming pattern, which would be 1 and 2 and 3 and 4. And played as down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up. All right, it'll sound like this. 1, 2. Ready AM.
1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4.
And.
Now that's what we would do on the full measures. On those split measures, we're going to take that strumming pattern and we're going to cut it in half. And we're going to go 1 and 2 and on the C chord and then 3 and 4 and on the G chord. So to be.
Okay again. Now, if that C to G chord change is tricky for you, you might want to start changing into the G chord on the second up strum of that C chord. So a lot of students, they ask me about timing and, you know, they stop the strumming hands to let the fretting hand catch up. Let the fretting hand catch up to the strumming hand. All right? You always want to keep that timing going. So if this is our strumming Pat.
Okay, 1 and 2 and 3 and 4. And.
Even if you have to form this chord one finger at a time, keep the strumming going. I'm going to show you what that looks like right here. So we got 1 and 2 and 3 and 4.
See how I just. As I was going to that G chord, I built it. All right, now, if we do the strict. The split measures like I was just showing you.
Okay, it might take you the whole strum to get that chord down, but it's okay. The timing is the most important part. So keep that timing in mind as you're working on these chord changes. And if you have to slow it down to start.
Slow it down to start, build the chord, but keep the strumming hand going all the time. So I'm going to do this little playthrough here for you, so you can play along with me a little bit on the chorus and the verse. And again, if you need any of my notes, you can always go to my website, laurenbateman.com and I have all the notes up there with the different strumming patterns. So let's take it from the chorus, all right, we're going to start right at the lyrics from Cecelia. Okay, here we go. We got 1, 2, 1, 2, here we go.
Cecilia, you're breaking my heart, you're shaking my confidence.
Oh, Cecilia, I'm down on my knees I'm begging your knees to come home.
Cecilia, you're breaking my heart, you're shaking my confidence daily.
A Cecilia, down on my knees begging you please to come home Come on home.
Break in love with the afternoon Ms. Cecilia, up in my bedroom I got up to wash my face and when I come back to bed someone's taking my place Miss Cecilia, you're breaking my heart, you're shaking my confidence daily O Cecilia, I'm down on my knees.
Now, if you're looking for another simple beginner song that uses these three chords. Go check out my beginner Sweet Home Alabama lesson right over there.
