Closing Time Guitar Lesson - COOL INTRO & LOTS OF STRUMMING!

Hey, guitar enthusiast Lauren Bateman here. We're going to do a great classic by Semisonic called Closing Time. Such a fun song to play on the guitar. Let's get into the lesson video.

I used to love teaching this song in groups because there's this really cool little picking part which I'm going to show you in this lesson video. And there's also a really cool strumming pattern. Now, the great thing about this song is that the chord progression is very repetitive, pretty much for the entire song, with the exception of the bridge section where something different happens. But we'll go over that. So if you need to find the chord chart for this song, go to laurenbateman.com I'll put a link in the description below so you guys can go check that out and follow along with me here. Now, the first thing I'm going to go over is kind of the intro and this little motif that keeps coming in. It's just a little picking part. And some people find this fun to play, especially if you're playing with someone else. And it's basically played over the chord progression. And this is what it sounds like. It's.

So if you're familiar with the song, you probably know how to do this or might not know how to do it, but you've heard it before. So what we're going to do is we're going to take our first finger on the 12th fret of the guitar, okay? And we're going to bar. That means this first finger is going to play two strings at the same time. And it's going to be the G string and the B string, okay? So those are the two strings that we are going to be barring. So what we're going to do is we're going to be alternating our picking in between these two strings. Hear that?

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

And it's on eighth notes, 1 and.

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

And so the first note that we're going to play outside of those double twelves is the 15th note on the B string. And the other note we're going to incorporate is the 13th note on the B string. So what it's going to be is it's going to be 12th fret. B, G, B, G. 15.

Back up to G. Lift your pinky B G. Okay? So it's.

Only. Play that 15 once you pick it and then you're right back off, back onto the 12th fret.

So again, that's dun, dun, 15 dun.

And then you repeat that again. Except the second time through, you throw the 13th note, the 13th fret on the B string. So it's.

And again, lift that 13th, that finger right up on the 13th fret. So all together.

So that's how you play that little intro part. Let me just go in for a very fast close up so that you guys can see my fingers up close. All right, Here I am at my hummingbird marking my 12th fret here. Alright, so I've got 12.

Pinky reaching to 15 on the B string. Lift up the pinky and then repeat again.

13.

Oops. 13.

Lift up the 13th fret. So here it is all together. Let's see if I can get my picking hand in here so you can see everything. Ready?

So you just see my picking hand doing this down, up, down, up in between those two strings. Hey guys, I hope you enjoyed that little intro section. And don't forget to subscribe to the channel so that you guys see more videos just like this one. Let's get into the verse. All right, so that picking part is super cool. But now we're going to talk about the chord progression, the chords we're using and what strumming pattern we're going to use if you want to strum on your guitar. So I'm an acoustic, but this song, I think is more played on an electric. But that's what I got in my hand and that's what I like to use is my acoustic. So the chord progression, we need G, D, A minor, C. And that's it. It just keeps repeating that the entire song. Now, each of these chords is two beats, okay? So you have G for two beats, D for two beats, A minor for two beats, and C for two beats. But that's it. That's the chord progression for the entire part of the song, except when we get to the bridge because something else different happens. So I'm going to give you a couple strumming pattern options. This way you guys can play at either more of a beginner level or maybe a little bit more of an intermediate level. So. So the most basic way to do this is just to go down, down, up for each chord.

Down, down, up, down, down, up, down, down, up, down, down, down, down, up, down, down, down, down, up, down, down, down, down, up. All right, so we're just doing down.

Down, up for each of the chords. That's the simplest way to do it. If you are a beginner. The next way to do it and probably the way they're doing it in the song. And there is a little bit of improvisation. So sometimes he hits an extra strum on the end, sometimes he doesn't. If you listen very carefully. But this is what I hear a lot happening in this song.

So we have down, down, down, up.

So we have a 16th note. So it's 1, 2 and A. And that's the first chord. The first chord is going to be.

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

Now the second chord is going to be down, up, down, down. 3E and 4.

3E and 4. Down, up, down, down, down, up, down, down.

Okay, Sometimes he hits the. And sometimes he goes three E and four. And every once in a while you'll hear that. Whichever you get, that's fine. So the whole strumming pattern would be 1, 2, and a 3, E and 4.

1, 2 and a 3, E and 4. 1, 2 and a 3, e and 4. 1, 2 and A 3, E and 4.

Okay, if I play that a little bit more up to speed, it'll sound like this.

1, 2 and a 3 and 4. 1, 2 and a 3 & 4. 1, 2 and a three and four. 1, 2 and a three & four.

And a. So again, if you want to throw in those extra strums on the end, you can. I think he's improvising, so sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn't. I think on the chorus, he definitely throws that in more. So let's talk about that on the chorus. So while the chord progression doesn't change here, I want to give you guys an option for this chorus. Because if you listen to the song, he's playing an electric guitar and there's a lot of kind of percussive strumming coming in. You hear a lot of this, so I'm going to give you the option to do that. Now, if you're just, you know, kind of that Beginner. Beginner to late stage. You don't know bar chords yet. Don't worry. For this part of the song, all I want you to do is play open chords. And the strumming pattern you can use is the same as before. We're just going to throw it down, up on the end. So it's going to be.

1, 2 and a 3, E and 4, and a 1, 2 and a 3, e and 4 and a 1, 2 and a three, e and four, and a one, two and a three, e and four and a. So it's down, down, down, up, down, up, down, down, down, up, down, down, down, up, down, up, down, down.

Down, up. So that's what you can do for this chorus section if you don't know barre chords yet. But if you do know barre chords, we're going to get into a little bit of percussive strumming here. If you guys are interested in learning more about intermediate guitar strumming. I do have an intermediate strumming course. I'll put a link in the description below if you guys want to go check that out. Talk a lot about accenting rhythm, percussive rhythms, kind of stuff we're doing in this video here. So go check that out if you're interested. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna be switching over to bar chords here on the chorus. Why would we do that as opposed to the open chords? Well, with the bar chords, I can get percussive.

Hear that? So what I'm doing is I'm pulsing my fretting hand. When I squeeze the chord, the strings ring through. When I let go of the chord, I get this kind of deaded. I call it a chicka chicka, chicka chicka. Hear it a lot in rock music. So if you don't know bar chords, no worries. But if you do, this is pretty cool. So the strumming pattern is going to stay the same. And all we're doing is instead of playing a G open chord, we're playing a G bar chord here at the.

Third fret. And we got down, down.

Down, up. And now when we go to this D bar chord, which is the fifth fret on the A string.

I'm going to do down, up, down. I'm not going to hear that. Nothing's ringing through. I'm.

Not going. I could go down, down, down, up, down, up, down, down.

Down, up. What I'm going to do.

Is I'm going to go down, down, down, up, down.

Down, up. Did you hear that? So the first three strums, down, up, down. I'm not squeezing the bar chord, so I get this kind of.

Percussive sound. So it's down, down, down, up, down, up, down, down.

Down, up. All right, now when we go to A minor, which is on the fifth.

Fret here. Down, down, down, up, down, up, down, down.

Down, up. So this is kind of what it's going to sound like if you throw in some of this percussive strumming.

So. Sounds much cooler. Has a lot more dynamics to it. Kind of definitely a very intermediate level thing to do because one, you have to know bar chords. Two, you have to have your. Your rhythm hand relaxed so that you can do the percussive rhythms. You have to be able to release and relax your fretting hand. Lots of cool stuff, but sounds so cool if you can do that and throw that in. So let's go to our bridge next where something interesting happens in the song. So very briefly, in this bridge we get a key change and unfortunately there is a B flat bar chord. Okay, really interesting sound. So we just came out of this chorus where we're going.

So it sounds like it's like a totally different change from what we've been doing before. So let's talk about how we'll strum this part. Hey, everybody, real quick, don't forget to give me a thumbs up on this video because it helps YouTube show more of my videos to students just like you. Let's get back into the video. So the way I'm going to to strum this is we're going to be alternating between the B flat and the G chord. And eventually we do jump back into the.

Regular progression. So it's going to be down, down, up, down, down, down, down, up, down, down, down, down, up, down, down, down, down, up.

Down, down.

So that's the only change we're going to do for this bridge. Now, if that's too, too much for you and too weird over timing, just hold the chords. 1, 2, 3, 4. And now the G. You can hear it is switching a little.

Bit early. 1, 2, 3.

And 4. And so it's changing on the. And of the 4. So we have this little bit of a hop, but that's all you can do. You can do 1, 2.

3 and 4 and 1, 2, 3 and 4, and 1, 2, 3, M4.

M1, 2. That's an easy way to do it. Again, if you don't know that B flat, just ignore it. And then when it comes back in, it jumps right back into.

So there you go, guys. That is Closing Time by Semisonic with a few variations for beginners, but a little bit more of an intermediate level song. Especially if you're gonna throw in the bar chords, then it's totally in the intermediate realm. If you're just gonna do the open chords. You could consider it more like a late beginner song, but very, very, very cool song. Especially if you throw in that percussive strumming. Thanks so much for watching. Make sure to give me a thumbs up on the video. Really appreciate that. YouTube's gonna throw up a couple more videos over here. Go check those out. Also, don't forget, I'm going to put a link in the description below to my guitar courses. Go check those out if you're looking to expand upon your guitar playing. And I'll see you guys in another lesson video.