Crazy on You Guitar Lesson | Amazing Strumming & Lead Guitar Lesson

Hey, guitar enthusiast Lauren Bateman here, and.

I'm on with Rob Swift, and I'm here today to break down some lead guitar parts for you.

Yeah, we're gonna be doing a really great song by heart called Crazy on youn, which is one of my favorites. It's got a lot of cool strumming, and Rob's gonna be helping me with some of the lead guitar parts. So if you want to strum and you want to play lead, this is a great song to learn both.

All right, so we're gonna start off with the intro section of this song. All right? And first we're just gonna talk about the timing, and then I'm gonna tell you about a little extra strumming. So when I was kind of working on this song, there's three chords we're gonna be moving between. On this intro. There's gonna be an A minor chord, an F major chord, and very slightly. Sometimes we're on a G chord. Okay. Now the F chord, unfortunately, is a bar chord. All right, I would highly.

If you have trouble, you can use the F major 7. It's just going to be a brighter sound versus the really dark tone that you hear in the song. So let's start off with the chords. We're mainly going to be moving between A minor and F. And there's going to be a specific timing I want to talk about here. Okay, so we're starting off with A minor. And what we're going to do, we're going to. I just want you to hold that right now for three counts. So we're going to go 1, 2, 3. And then on beat four, okay, I want you to basically lift your hand off the guitar and play it out. You're going to see why in a second. So it's going to be 1, 2, 3, 4. And then on the. And we're going to play our F. So it's going to be one, two, three, four.

And again.

One, two, three, four. And. Okay, so if I pick that up to speed a little bit more, it's going to be 1, 2, 3, 4.

And again 1.

1, 2, 3, form.

And one more time, one.

Okay, so what we're doing on these first two measures is we're going to play that little shift, and then the second measure is going to be a full measure of F in the simplest strumming pattern. There is some improvisation in this song on these types of songs. You know, I'll give you a foundation to work off of, but if your hand starts doing its own thing, that's a really awesome thing to happen. So what we're going to be doing here is almost like a gallop rhythm, okay? So it's gonna be down, down, up, down, down, up, down, down, up, down, down, up. I kind of listened to the song and that was what I was hearing a lot on this intro. Now, you might notice I'm actually playing with my fingers today. Usually play with a pick, but I really feel Nancy, after she plays that really, really cool intro with all the picking, she jumps into this with her hands because she was finger picking. So that's how I'm gonna play it. So I'm strumming down with my thumb, and I'm strumming up with my index finger. For those of you who aren't familiar with strumming with your fingers.

So.

So what we're going to do is.

We'Re going to go down, down, up, down, down, up. Down, down, up. Down, down, up.

I just want you to work on that on the A minor. Ready?

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

Then it's 1 and a 2 and.

A 3 and a 4, and a.

1 and a 2 and a 3 & a 4 and a.

You're just going to pick up the speed. It might be a little tricky in the beginning. You might have to play so slow, but work up the speed as you go. So what's going to happen here.

Is we're going to go 1 and a 2 and a 3 and a 4 and. Okay, so 1 and a 2 and a 3 & a.

4 and. And then we get on.

That F. 1 and a 2 and a 3, and a 4.

And a. Okay, then we go back to A minor. Now this is important because this intersection is basically the chorus. All right, so this next couple measures, we've got A minor. We do the.

Same thing. One and a two and a three and a.

Four and. All right, and then we're.

Gonna stay on the G. 1 and a 2 and a 3 and.

A 4. And we're gonna jump to a G real quick. If you listen, I think it's more of like a 16th note that you'll hear her strumming. It's very, very, very slight, but you will hear it if you really, really listen for it. Okay, so let's do that again. So we got from the top, it's.

A minor. 1 and a 2 and a 3 and a 4. And stay on the F. 1 and a 2 and a three and a four.

And a. Then we're going to go back to A Minor one and a.

Two and a three and a four and stay on the F. One and a two and a three and.

A four. And right then we're just going to repeat that back to.

A minor. One and a two and a three and a four and. And then one and a two and a three and a four.

And another time just like that. Then we're going to change it up just a.

Little bit. One and a two and a three and a four and one and a two and a three and.

A four. And now this is the ending where it really changes. It's going 1 and a.

2 and a 3 and.

A 4. And this time we're going to G. Now we're going to stay.

On G. 1 and a 2 and a 3 and a 4 and this time to F. 1 and a 2 and a three and a four.

And a. Okay, I play this through a little bit faster so it all makes sense to you. And then you guys can slow it down, practice it. And then Rob's going to hop on, he's act. There's a really cool lead line that goes over this, so Rob's going to show you that in a few minutes. All right, so I'm going to do a little playthrough. I'm going to do it a little bit faster and sometimes when I do that, I play what naturally comes to my strumming hand. So it may not always stick to that gallop rhythm, but I just want to give you guys a framework. All right, here we go. So we got 1, 2, 1, 2, here we go.

So take your time with that. Go slow, practice it. There is a lot going on in that intro and if you're interested in learning how to put the really cool lead line over it, we're gonna switch over to Rob who's gonna show you that.

Right now. Okay, great work everybody. You have the rhythm down for that intro section. Now it's gonna be my job to break down that lead part. It's that iconic main riff of the tune we're gonna be playing here. And also in the chorus sections it's gonna look and.

Alright, that's all coming from the natural minor scale, which in the key of A minor is all naturals. Okay, so we're starting off with this. A minor riff going to an F note, first fret of the loe string.

Alright, Starting with the open A, then we're descending down.

The scale.

Oh I.

So cool. So fun to play. And a great exercise for beginners.

Alright, then in the next measure we're going to go up a full step to the G note. Third fret of the low E string, and it's a sneak attack G note just as Lauren had broken down. It's coming in a half beat early.

Gotta get the timing right. All right, then it's going.

To.

Switch up.

Landing on the G note that time. Then we're going to repeat that descending lick.

Land on the F and.

Wrap the whole.

Thing up. Playing 2:03.

2, 3.

Put all that together and we have that iconic line. Check it out.

And you can decide if you want to play the open string at the end or you want to slide up a full step to the fifth fret of the low E string. Okay, now let's see if we can put the rhythm and lead parts together. I'm going to do a little jamming with Lauren. Ready? I'm ready. Here.

We go. One, two, one, two. Here we go.

So if you guys enjoyed that little intro lick, it is super cool, it's super fun, it's super recognizable. So we're now moving into the verse section of the song and fortunately we're staying on chords a little bit longer, which is nice. So the strumming pattern again, can be very improvised on this section. The strumming pattern that I wrote down that my hand tends to naturally want to go to is a 1 and 2 anda, 3e and 4 anda. So what does all that mean? Okay, so that's a 16th note pattern. For those of you who aren't familiar with 16 note patterns, it's counted 1e and a, 2e and a 3e and a 4e and a. So this pattern will start off with an A minor. Okay, so it's going to.

Be one and, which is two downs.

Down, down. And then we're going to have a two anda, which is kind of that gallop that we've already done in.

The intro. So it's going to be down, down, down, down, up. Okay, one and two.

And up. Okay, so that's the first half of.

The rhythm. Down, down, down.

Down, up. Then we have the second half of the rhythm, which is going to be three E, M, which is A down, up, down and then four and up, down, down, up. Okay, so the whole thing together is 1 and 2 and a 3e and 4 and a 1 and.

2 and a 3 and 4 and a down, down, down, down, up, down, up, down.

Down, down.

Okay, so again, you might just want to practice that a little bit before we bring it into the verse. So we have for chords there's going to be an A minor, a C chord, a D minor chord, an E7 chord, and then we're going to repeat that again. And there's the cool little fun ending on this as well that we're going to talk about in a second that has a specific timing. So again, A minor, C, D minor, E7. All right? All one measure and then it repeats.

All right? So yeah, one.

Two, Ready? We may still have time But I still get by Every time I think about it I want to cry with bombs and the devils the gifts keep coming no way to breath easy no.

Time to.

Now the ending you hear, there's a really cool timing, very, very common timing that you'll hear a lot in rock music. We're strumming an A minor on the one, we're strumming it again on the and of two and then we're switching to a D chord on the four. So it's one, two and four. Okay.

And if that syncopation is a little bit difficult for you, try.

Singing it. Bum, bum, bum, bum.

Bum bum. Here we go.

Ready.

Again. Three, four, Pump.

Pump, pump. Two.

Three, four. Pump.

Pump, pump. Now if you're a harp fan, you know that there's a really cool little lead line that goes over that. And my friend Rob is going to show you how to play that.

Right now. Okay, now you have the strumming for the verses down. Let's take a close look at the fretboard and learn that super cool, very, very interesting.

Kind of post verse lick. So here we're going to grab A minor, but we're way up here up the fretboard, grabbing frets 14, 13 and 12G and high U strings. And we're gonna play.

Alright, we're taking that shape and bringing it up a full step, effectively going from A minor to what you might recognize as being B minor. But as Lauren showed you, they're playing a D chord here. Well, B minor is the relative minor to D major. So.

Alright, that's gonna sound fantastic and it's gonna give it a jazzy feel. So we're gonna play.

With those chords coming in on beat number two. So one.

Next we have this little lick.

Alright, so right there I've got a pull off on the high E string, pinky note, 17th fret down to 14 to the G string, 14th fret. Then we're doing a pull off on the B string and then going to the 14th fre down on the G string. Alright, so let's make that really, really simple. It's A pull off on the E to the G string, then A pull off on the B and then back to the G string and you're going to repeat that.

Then we're going to play A down, up and slide away. Alright, you're going to put that together and.

Then it's going to basically repeat verbatim one.

And then just one strum at the end of that second go around. Alright, so one more time.

Just.

Like that. Alright, so now you're going to hear how this all sounds together.

Ready, Rob?

I'm ready. One, two, three, four.

Alright, so pre chorus, we've got a few split measures here. We've got D minor, E minor, C and F splitting a measure. And then we have a D minor and an E7 chord. Now you can take the gallop rhythm and just split it over the two measures. So for D minor I.

Would do 1 and A, 2.

And A. And then for the E.

Minor I would do 3 and a 4.

And a. Then for the C, 1.

And a 2 and a, an F3 and a 4.

And a. That would sound like this. 1, 2, 3, 4.

And I can't sing that high, so I'm not even gonna try singing that part for you guys there. But you hear it. So if I sing it.

Lower and you can tell yourself that I'm doing all right there's nothing left to.

Do tonight. You know, again, if you want to improvise a little bit for me, if I were gonna play this live, I would probably put a little bit of like a crescendo on that E7 to really. Because we're going into the chorus next and this is where the electric guitar goes crazy. That lick comes back in. So if I were gonna do this and I was playing with a band or something, I would take that E7 and I would probably do it as all downs.

And kind of build on it. So again, if I just show you that section again, it's gonna be one.

Two, ready? And tell myself that I'm doing all right there's nothing left to.

Do tonight Go crazy on you and now we're back into the chorus section. But before we get get into the chorus section, there's also some really cool electric guitar parts over here. So we're gonna hop on over to Rob, he's gonna show you what's going on here on the electric guitar and then we'll jump back in to the.

Chorus section. Okay, great work thus far everybody. Now we're jumping into the lead lines for the pre chorus. I'm gonna Play it for you nice and slow. Then I'll break it down for you. It's gonna look and sound.

Like this. 1, 2.

3, 4.

And 1. 1, 2.

3, four.

Okay, so we're starting off grabbing frets 10 of the G, B and high E string. And then we're going to take the shape and bring it up a.

Full step. Strumming 1, 2.

3, 4. Next we have these really sweet harmonies. We're going to play.

That was 12 and 12 sliding up into the position.

Then we're going to go up to fret 17. So slide from 12 up to 17.

Put that together, we have the.

First half. So 1, 2.

3, 4.

Alright, then we're just going to stick in the 10th fret position with the index finger. But to my ear it sounds like they're playing this chord.

D minor frets 12, 10, 10, 10. If you want to, you could just stick with the index finger. That's going to sound fantastic and no one's going to hear.

The difference. So 1, 2.

3, 4. Then we're going to play.

Alright, it gets pretty gnarly right here. Very interesting amount of dissonance. We're sliding from fret 10 up to 16 and we're going to pick apart, alternating between the G and high E strings.

Alright, you put all that together and we have some really beautiful.

Lead lines. So 1, 2.

3, 4.

Alright, then the.

Second half. One, two.

Three, four.

And you just want to make sure that you get the rhythm of those notes, how those harmonies are being separated. And of course I'm using hybrid picking here, which is something that's going to give your playing a little bit more complexity. So you're just kind of mixing the timbres of the pick and the fingers. Okay, A little extra technique there.

For you. Alright, so we are on to the chorus. Now the great thing about the chorus section is you've already learned it because the chorus section is essentially the intro section all over again. All right, so we're going.

From that A minor to.

The F.

So everything we did in the intro is just going to be the same thing over this chorus section. Now as you're going through the song, some of the chorus sections vary. They're a little bit longer, sometimes they're a little bit shorter. So just listen to those changes. And again, I have all the notes on my website@laurenvatement.com youm can go check it out there if you want to know which choruses are longer and which ones are shorter. So we're gonna do the final section of the song, which is this bridge where we kind of have a key change. So instead of playing our wonderful F major chord, we're now playing an F sharp minor. Okay, I know it's another bar chord. I'm sorry if you're not great with bar chords, you might want to skip the bridge section, but I always encourage you to try. Alright, so we're going from F sharp minor into a D chord. Okay. And then we are going from that into C.

Sharp.

Minor. Okay. And then D. Okay. And then it's back and forth. C sharp minor, D, C sharp minor. And then we have this really cool build where we come from A, B minor for two measures. We're gonna do A major for two measures and then there's this big E major chord and we're gonna hold on to that for four measures. Okay. And again. Strumming. What can I use on this? I've already given you a few different strumming patterns to use. I would probably go back to that verse strum here. You know, the 1 and 2 and A, 3, E and 4 and A. But at this stage of the game, I would just try and see what your hand feels, what you want to play on this section. So if I take it from the top, I'm not gonna sing. This one section's really, really, really, really high and my voice is not that high. So I'm just gonna play the chords. We got 1, 2, 1 to f shut minor.

And then right from that bridge we jump right back into the chorus section. And Rob actually has some really cool things to teach you on this bridge section as well. So we're going to hop on over to Rob and he's going to show you how to play that.

Right now. Okay, now let's get the lead parts down for this bridge section once again. We're going to get into that.

Kind of ska style rhythm. Doing those downstrokes on beats two and four. Alright, it's going to look and sound like this. I'm going to play the rhythm part and then there's another lick that's kind of challenging, but I'm going to make it as digestible for you.

As possible. So 1, 2.

3, 4. D major.

C sharp minor, D major.

C sharp minor, D major.

C sharp minor, E minor 7.

Alright, that's slightly simplified. Then we have this very, very cool little lick.

Alright, tricky stuff. Let's break it all down. Okay, so we're starting off, we're playing the progression, F sharp minor, D major. Then just alternating back and forth. D minor to C sharp minor. Alright, Finding different partials up and down the fretboard.

All of them nice and chimy and super, super beautiful. Alright, so join me here. Second fret position, G, B and high E string. We're gonna play one down, two down. Do the same thing on a common d major shape. 1, 3, 4. Find a partial of your bar chord. C sharp minor frets 6, 5.

And 4. 1, 2.

3, 4. All right, we're going up a half step now finding a piece of the D major bar chord shape. Playing partials.

Easy stuff. 1, 2.

3, 4. Next, another partial of C sharp minor. All right, nice.

And easy. 1, 2.

3, 4. Next we're going to grab a partial of D major bar.

Chord shape. 1, 1, 2.

3, 4. Alright, now C sharp minor played as a D minor.

Shape transposed. 1, 2.

3, 4. And then an interesting way of finding the ingredients for A B minor seven chord frets. 12, 14, 12. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, four. Now in the actual track, it gets a little funky here. You can stick with what I just showed you, but if you want, you can play something like a 1, 2.

That will sound fantastic. And you can throw those, those embellishments in on those various chord shapes as you see fit. All right, you put all that together.

We have.

D.

C sharp minor, D major, C sharp minor again, D.

C minor.

B minor.

And then over the A major chord.

Okay, so we can make that pretty digestible. We're going to start off, we're barring the A major chord up an octave. Here's A. Here we are on the 14th preposition, right? That's going to be kind of your anchor. We're going to start off.

Playing that little phrase, alright, that's going to be 14, 15, 14 on the B with hammers and pulls. And actually I like to start it with an upstroke. So we're going to play.

Alright, then we're going to do a pull off 17 down to 14 and then go back to the G string. Do the same thing with the 19th fret.

All right? You should be feeling that stretch, right?

Then we're just going back the way we came and repeat it.

Alright? Once you've done that last little hammer pull, slide away on the 14th frets of the G and B strings. Alright? Put that lick together and we have something tricky but very fun to practice. And it's something that you, you can play to a metronome and work up.

To.

Speed. So.

So we're going to be playing the bridge section together so that you can hear how it sounds from the top. Now, this is going to be interesting lesson on playing with someone else. Because I taught you a rhythm. I said you could use that verse rhythm. And then Rob taught you this kind of ska rhythm. So what I'm going to do so that we sound good together, I'm going to change up what I'm doing on my guitar to match his part a little bit more so that it sounds a little bit better. And sometimes you have to do that when you're playing with other musicians. You gotta lock in together rhythmically on what you're doing. So let's take it from.

The top.

One, two. Here we go.

So I hope you guys really enjoyed this lesson by heart. I want to thank Rob for hopping on and teaching us some lead guitar parts. And if you really like this genre of music and this style of strumming, I highly recommend that you go check out my lesson on Go youo Own Way by Fleetwood Mac. We're gonna do a lot of really cool strumming over there, so go check that out right now.