Come to My Window Easier Acoustic Lesson

Hey guitar enthusiasts, Lauren Bateman here, and we're going to be doing a simplified version of Melissa Etheridge's Come to My Window. Uh, the majority of this song is going to use the C, the G, and the D chord, so that's great. There are a few other chords and we'll go over those right now. So as I said, we're gonna be using a G chord. Okay, I like to play mine with the third finger, but if you use your pinky, that's also fine, doesn't change the sound at all. We have a C chord, okay? We have a D chord, and we also have a few minor chords. So we have an E minor chord, okay? And if you know my two-finger chords, you can use those as well. Um, the addition is an A minor chord, okay? And in our intro, we use A minor 7, which is just basically an A minor chord, uh, without the third finger. But I'm going to show you, it just happens over the intro section I'll show you right now. If you play a C chord and you just lift up your third finger, that's A minor 7. All right, and that's going to be the transition because we're actually going from a C chord to an A minor 7 in the intro. So even if you don't know that chord, um, you've just learned it, and it's a very, very easy transition from the intro. So let's start right there. So if you listen to the song, I think this is more of like a keyboard that plays the intro, but since have a guitar, we're just going to play one strum per chord, and each one of these chords is 2 beats. Okay, so it's going to be 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4. So on the 1, we're going to play the first chord, and on the 3, we're going to play the second chord. So we have our G, then we have our C. This is where that A minor 7 comes in. So you're just gonna lift up that third finger Okay, very easy transition. And then our D chord, so it's going to be—

come to my window, crawl inside and wait by the light of the moon. Come to my window, I'll be home soon.

So in that last chord, you just strum the A minor 7 and you let it ring. Okay, after that we will never use the A minor 7 again. We will see an A minor chord come into play over the bridge section, but we will talk about that when we get there. So let's go to our next section, which is going to be the verse section. Now we're still splitting some chords here, so the C chord and the G chord are going to still be 2 beats each. The D chord now has gone to a whole measure, so a whole whole 4-count. 1, 2, 3, 4. I'm going to show you how we're going to strum each of these chords. So I'm going to show you 2 different strumming patterns we can use for the song depending on where— actually, I'll show you 3 because of those split measures. So if you're a beginner whose chord changes aren't quite quick enough, what you can do is just strum on the 1 and the 3.

Okay, so you'd have 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4.

By doing that, it allows you— later when we do a play-along together, it allows you to stay in time with me, but it gives you enough time to change chords. So you can strum your chord and start switching to your next chord, because I know most people in the beginning, you're building your chords like this. Okay, so that gives you enough time. If you're past that stage and your chord changes are a little bit faster we can always do down, down, up per chord.

Down, down, up, down, down, up, down, down, up, down. That would be 1, 2, and 3, 4, and 1, 2, and 3, 4. And again, 1, 2, and 3, 4, and 1, 2, and 3. Last time, 1, 2, and 3, 4, and 1, 2, and 3, 4 and.

And then kind of like the late beginner version, if you're someone that's like, Lauren, my chord changes are super fast, I've got this, I want to sound a little more like the song, we can do a 16th note strum pattern, which is going to be 1, 2 and a 3, 4 and a. And it's going to be down, down, down, up, down, down, down.

So C would be down, down, down, up, down, down, down, up, down, down, down, up, down. Down, down, up, 1, 2, and a 3, 4, and a 1, 2, and a 3, 4, and a—

Now if you use that, the song's very fast, okay? So your chord changes are going to have to be that much faster, but it's another option.

So if I just went through just a couple lines of this verse, it would be: I would dial the numbers just to listen to your breath, and I would stand inside my hair and hold a hand for death.

So you can see The tempo on this is pretty speedy, so for you to be able to do that strumming pattern, your chord changes have to be that much faster. That's why this second one might be really good for a lot of people who are just getting started, more for beginners.

I would dial the numbers just to listen to your breath, and I would stand inside my head and hold the hammer dead.

Okay, so it'll just give you a split second more to to do those chord changes. And again, if that's still too fast, a down strum on 1 and a down strum on 3 will work perfectly fine. So let's go to the end of this verse, because most of the verse is C, G, D. On the very end, we're going to go to some split measures, which is the just to reach you part. Okay, so it's going to be E minor to C and then D, and then we're going to repeat that again. E minor to C to D. So instead of C and G splitting a measure, we now have E minor and C splitting a measure. Okay, so that is kind of our— I would almost call that like the pre-chorus. It's kind of the part that's taking us into the next chorus section. But before we go into that, let's just do a quick playthrough of the verse right now so we can put it all together. And don't worry, at the end I am going to do a full playthrough. And if you need to follow along with notes, you can always go to my website laurenbateman.com and check it out over there. All right, so let's just take it from the top of that verse. I'm just going to do the down, down, up strum. Okay, if you want to use the more complicated one, you can do that as well. Let's take it from the top. 1, 2, 3, 4.

I would dial the numbers just to listen to your breath, and I would stand inside my hell and hold the hammer of death. You don't know how far I go to ease this Precious sake, you don't know how much I give, how much I can take just to reach you, just to reach you, how to reach you.

And now we come back to a split measure with the full measure of D, except this time the G chord's first. So it's going to be G to C to D. Okay, so it's the same thing, just a slightly different order. And we call these chord progressions— it's the order in which we play the chords. So for this chorus, it's just going to be G, C, D, G, C, D over and over again. Okay, where G is 2 beats, C is 2 beats, and D is 4 beats.

So if I use the same exact strumming pattern and I take it over to this chorus, we've got <LYRICS>Come to my window, crawl inside, wait by the light of the moon, come to my window, I'll be home soon.</LYRICS> And there you have it.

And I apologize, it's early in the morning and my Melissa Etheridge voice is not quite warmed up yet. Um, but there we have the chorus. So it's just G for 2 beats, C for 2 beats, and then 4 beats for D. Okay, so, so far we've gone through the intro, the verse, the chorus, and now we need to talk about the bridge section before we do a full playthrough. And this is where that A minor chord is going to come in, but there is a slightly different timing. So let's go check that out right now. So this bridge section has a slightly different timing. Okay, some of these chords are going to be— that's not 3. Hold up, wait a minute. Some of these chords are going to be 3 beats, which means we're going to change this chord on the 4th beat. What do I mean? Let me just show you this first section. So we got—

I don't care what they think.

Okay, so we might only be on a chord for 1 strum. So in that section, we had E minor, regular strumming pattern: 1, 2, and 3, 4, and 1, 2, and 3, 4. Okay, so you're gonna do down, down, up, and then you're gonna do one more down on E minor, 3, and then 4 is gonna be D. Okay, and then the next line, it starts on the C chord and we change on G on the end.

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

Okay, so that's changing to the D. This is where the A minor comes back in. Same thing here, we're going to be— um, actually there's no change here. It's 2 measures of A minor.

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

Then 2 measures of D.

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

And then we go right back into kind of the chorus. G, C, D. Repeat that. G C, D. Okay, and then we get to that part. We're gonna come back into the big chorus, the final chorus. We're gonna go, come, come to my window. We're gonna start on a C chord. C, G, D.

Then again, D. 3, 4, and 1, 2, and 3, 4.

Okay, so that is that bridge section. If I play it all the way through very slowly, it's gonna sound like this. 1, 2, here we go.

And I don't care what they think, I don't care what they say, they know about this Slow.

Anyway, here's the switch to see.

Come, come to my window. I'll be home, I'll be home, I'll be home.

I'm coming home, come to my widow.

And then we go right back into the final chorus. So that's that bridge section very slowly. And again, it'll be much faster when we play through it. So if you want to do that other strumming pattern, I— the, the 1-2 and a 3-4 and a I would still recommend doing the down strums 3, 4.

So 1, 2, and a 3, 4, and a 1, 2, and a 3, 4, 1, 2, and a 3, 4, and a 1, 2, and a 3, 4.

Okay, because remember, this song is fast. I played through that very, very slowly, but this song does have a bit of pep to it. Now I'm gonna do a full playthrough, but before we do, because I know when I start playing I sometimes go crazy and do things a little improvised, I want to tell you about a crescendo that I will probably throw in for emotional punch that you can as well after the fact. So a crescendo is when we do— instead of doing downs and ups, we do all downs, eighth notes.

1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and.

Okay, and we kind of build it, so it's kind of a louder part. And if you're not good with dynamics, it might be hard for you to grow that Crescendo goes from very small sound to a very big sound. So where would I put this? I would probably put this at the end of the choruses where it's just to reach you, just to reach you, and I'll reach you.

Come smile with a bell.

So you can see this crescendo, it it kind of prompts us into the chorus, which is really cool. Um, so if you want to add that in, you can. So again, it was just— I was doing down, down, down, up, down, down, down, up, regular D.

And then again, down, down, down, up, down, down, down, up. 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and into the chorus.

All right, so I'm probably going to do that through on the playthrough And then people always ask me in the comments, what did you do? What were you doing there? I was like, I was improvising. But before I throw it in on the playthrough, I just want you to be aware of it. I'm not going to hold you to it for the playthrough, but if you want to try adding it in in your practice, go right ahead. Let's go to the playthrough. So I'm going to admit, I just personally tried to play this song 4 times in a row, and every time I made a mistake. Because I was thinking about my strumming. So this is something that happens when you try to sing and play at the same time. If you are thinking, you cannot sing and strum at the same time, um, even if you've been playing the guitar for as long as I have. So because I know this song so well and I have such a strong muscle memory for performance, um, I'm going to perform this song as opposed to trying to stick to a particular strumming pattern, okay? So this will give you a good play along with me, but like I said earlier, there's probably gonna be a lot more improvisation because I'm gonna play typically what I would play live, but it's going to give you something to play off of without me making a mistake halfway through all the time. So let's take it from the top, okay? 1, 2, 3, 4.

Come to my window, crawl inside, wait by the light of the moon. Come to my window, I'll be home soon.

Let's start here.

Keeping my eyes open, I cannot afford to sleep. Giving away promises I know I can't keep. Nothing fills the blackness that has seeped into my chest. I need you in my blood. I am forsaking all the rest just to reach you, just to reach you.

Oh, reaching low, come to my willow, come inside, wait by the light of the moon, come to my willow, be home soon. Bridge, ready. I don't They don't care what they do. They don't care what they say. They won't buy this love anyway.

Come, come to my window. I'll be home, I'll be home, I'll be home.

I'll come home. Come to my window.

Call inside.

Wait by the ladder. Come to my window. I'll be home soon. So, all right, so there you go.

That is Melissa Etheridge's Come to My Window. You can see, um, how I didn't even have to look a lot at the paper for that playthrough because this is just a song I've played so much. It's awesome. I love this female rock style style music, especially played on the acoustic guitar. And if you're a fan of that too, I have more songs just like this by female artists that rock. You can go check that playlist out right over there. There are some beginner songs, there are some more intermediate songs, there's even an intermediate version of Come to My Window if eventually you want to learn to play it the way I did here. But go check out that playlist right now to find another song that you're gonna love.