Counting Crows Mr Jones Guitar Lesson

Hey guitar enthusiast lauren bateman here in this video we're going to be doing a super fun song by the counting crows it's called mister jones has some really cool rhythms throughout let's get into the lesson video.

So in this lesson i'm going to be going over the chords we use for mister jones i'm also going to be going over for the different strumming patterns we'll be using throughout the song and we'll also be touching on a concept called cut time which we're going to find out about in the bridge section of the song so let's get into it so first let's talk about the chords we're going to be using for this song we're going to be using an a minor a c chord a g chord and an f bar chord okay now if you're more of a beginner now i just want to preface this really quick this is more a late beginner to early intermediate song because of the some of the stuff we're doing in here but if you don't know bar chords yet you can always use an f major chord it'll sound okay but it's not going to sound as nice as the f bar chord all right that's just an option for you guys now we have the verse chords here so the chord progression is going to be a minor f d minor g okay and then it's going to be a minor f g g and then it repeats that over and over again so our verse is a minor f d minor g a minor f g g and if you want the chords and lyrics for this song you can go to my website laurenbateman dot com i'll put a link in the description below so you can go check that out now the strumming pattern we're going to use for this has a hopping rhythm and what do i mean by hopping it feels like almost like the chord is being you're being catapulted into the next measure because what we're doing most straight songs you know you've probably done all the chords change on a down strum right down strum well in this song at least for this verse section of the song the chords are going to be changing on the up strum they're going to be changing on the and after four so let's see what that sounds like so first i'm going to play the strumming pattern without the hop and then i'm going to play the strumming pattern with the hop and you guys will feel the difference has a very distinct feel to it so the strumming pattern is one two three and four and down down down up down up so it'll sound like this and i'm just going to do a minor to f for now so we.

Have one two three and four and one two three and four and one two three and four and down down.

Down up down up now you're like.

Lauren that sounds great can i use that yes if you're a beginner and you don't want to do this hopping pattern i'm going to show you you can use that and you probably get away with the song fine but this is what the song really sounds like here's the hop see if you can hear it see if you can feel it okay one two three and four.

And one two three and four and one two three and four and one two three and four and one two three and four and one.

Hear that it almost when you get to that end you almost feel like you're jumping ahead to the next measure so it gives a real push to the song it gives a lot more movement to the song so this is a great song that has an example of that so what i'm going to do is i'm going to play this over the chord progression of the verse so that you guys can hear it what it's going to sound like and here it is starting on a minor so we got one two one two three four.

One two three and four and one two three and four and one two three and four and one two three and four and one two three and four and one two three and four and one two three and four and one two three and four and now.

You'Ll hear when we stay on that double g obviously we're not changing a chord so it doesn't have that hop feel to it what i'm going to do now is i'm going to demonstrate this at a faster speed so that it's a little more tempo with the song here we go ready one two.

One two three four.

A minor.

Down.

Up down up down down down up down up down.

Now the strumming pattern itself is not hard that one two three and four and i would consider that a beginner level strumming pattern it's the hop that adds the intricacy so if you're not used to switching chords on an up strum yet what i would practice what i would start with is just going one two three and four and okay and then go to.

The next one one two three and four and one two three and four.

And i would just four focus on timing that chord on the up strum it's a weird coordination between these two hands if you've never done it before so if you're stumbling a little bit that's okay like i said just take it one one pattern at a time.

One two three and four and okay do it again one two three and.

Four and all right so that's how i would work through the verse now an interesting thing is going to happen in our chorus we're actually going to completely change strumming patterns so i'm going to tell you what that is and also how you can put these two strumming patterns together hey guys hope you're enjoying this video lesson so far don't forget to subscribe to my channel and turn on the notifications this way you'll know when i release new lesson videos just like this one let's get back into the lesson so our chord progression changes a bit on this chorus we've got cfgg cfgg it just keeps repeating that over and over again c f g g now the difference is we're using a completely different strumming pattern so first let's talk about that strumming pattern and how i help my students work in and out of those first two strumming patterns so the strumming pattern for this chorus is going to be down.

Down up up down up down down up up down up down down up up down up down down up right.

It'S going to.

Two and four and.

Down down up up down up down down up up down up now that's.

A very common very popular strumming pattern it's a syncopated pattern because we don't have a down strum on the third beat and a lot of students can find this very tricky going from this kind of hopping rhythm in the verse to this kind of straight syncopated pattern in the chorus and then getting back out so this is what i work on with students to try and melt these two together because this is going to happen a lot of songs most songs don't play one strumming pattern all the way through there's a lot of variation a lot of times especially when songs get more intermediate so the last two chords in the verse is g and g and the first chord in the chorus are c and f so what i would tell my student is say we're going to do the strumming pattern the first one on g and then we're going to do the second strumming pattern on g we're not going to change the chord we're just going to work on the strumming pattern so i would have them start with one.

Two three and four and one two.

Three and four and and then we're going to go right into down down.

Up up down.

Up up down up.

And we would do that again one.

Two three and four and one two.

Three and four and down down up up down up down down up up.

Down up and once they figured that out i'd say okay now let's put the chords in there let's do the double g and then the c and the f so we've got one two.

Three and four and one two three and four and.

Down up down down.

Up up down up and then we would do that again and again until they could smooth it out that transition's not so bad sometimes usually people have transition getting back into the other one with that hop so we would do the same thing the last chord on the chorus is a g chord the first chord on the verse is an a minor so again i would just say hey let's we've already practiced it going back and forth let's try going from g to a minor so we would have g with the second strumming.

Pattern down down up up down up down down up now a minor down down down up down up down down down up down up down down up up down up down down up up down up down down down up down up down down down up down up down down up up down up so.

You see just take small pieces you take the weird like the seam is and we work on the seam and fit those together smooth that out and then we go back and play through the entire thing if you guys are enjoying this video and looking to get into more intermediate type strumming patterns check out my course below i'll give you guys a special discount just for being my youtube viewers i'll see you guys back in the lesson alright so welcome to the bridge of this amazing counting crows song something super cool here i love when this happens it totally opens up the music we're hitting cut time so what does that mean so this song is played at about one hundred and thirty beats per minute okay and all of a sudden the song sounds like we're playing it at sixty five beats per minute so even though these measures are only one measure long it feels like all of a sudden they've gotten two measures long what do i mean so this is how i would count it i for me instead of being like well it's sixteen sixty five beats per minute and now i have to count quarter notes i just double the measures so what does that feel like so it's going to be like.

I will never be one two three four one two three four one two three four one two three four one two three four one two three four one two three four so you see.

Now i'm counting two measures instead of one measure because essentially what that's doing is i'm taking the timing of the song and i'm cutting it in half cut time cut it in half okay so all of the these chords we're just going to be strumming once but it's going to seem like a really long space of time so the chord progression here let's just go over that real quick it's going to be a minor g a minor f okay and then we play that again a minor g a minor f and then we have a minor and then this final g we start strumming on again so if i go through this i'll never.

Be lonely three four one never gonna be lonely.

I wanna be a lion and everybody wanna pass this cast we all wanna be big big stars yeah but we got different reasons for that believe in me cause i don't believe.

In anything now this last line here a minor c we're still gonna do the strums on the a minor and.

I wanna be someone who believes who believes who believes yeah now you can.

Either go back to the down down up up down up strumming pattern so on that g that final g we're back to one hundred and thirty beats per minute so it's a very strange thing because you go from being very slow to being very fast we're back up to normal time so you can either do down down up up down up down down up up down or i like to do like a crescendo like a all downs and one two.

Three four one two three four one two three four.

And me so i'll kind of do a build on the first measure and then the second measure i'll throw on the regular strumming pattern just some ideas for you guys to get in and out of this bridge and then after the bridge we're just.

Back to the chorus mister jones and.

Me you're right back into this and that finishes out the song so take a listen to that bridge part it's very cool something very cool rhythmically called cut time so check that out hope you guys enjoyed this lesson don't forget to give me a thumbs up i love thumbs up youtube's gonna pop a couple more videos up over here make sure to go check those out and again if you're interested in my intermediate strumming course check out the link below this video.