Don't Stop Believing Acoustic Guitar Lesson - EASIER CHORDS

Hey, guitar enthusiast Lauren Bateman here. In this lesson video, we're going to be doing an awesome song by Journey called Don't Stop Believing. Fantastic song. Let's get into the lesson.

All right, so what we're going to talk about is first we're going to talk about the chords that we're going to use for this song. I'll go through a couple different strumming pattern variations as well as the overall format of the song. So the first thing I want to talk about, so I'm going to make this a little bit more of a beginner level and easier version of the song. So we're going to be using a capo and this capo is going to help us with eliminating some of our barre chords and making it easier for students to play. So we're going to put our capo, it's just a little clamp and we're going to squeeze it on the fourth fret of the guitar. Alright. And if you don't know how to use a capo, I'll put a video up here to my capo lesson and you can go check that out. All right, so here we have the capo at the fourth fret. And because I now have the capo on the fourth fret, the chords we're going to be using are C, A minor, E minor, G. We do have an F bar chord, but if you're a beginner and bar chords are not your friends, this will actually, because we're using the capo, first off, it's going to make play playing that bar chord so much easier than if it were at the first fret. So your bar chords might be a little bit easier to play here. The other option is to play an F major 7 chord. It's not going to sound as nice as this full bar chord, but you can play the F major 7 chord. It'll work just fine. The other option is you could just play an F power chord since we're mostly going to be doing down strums on this song. So you could just play an F power power chord as well. A couple options for you beginner players. Now, if you need the chord chart for this lesson, I'll put a link in the description below. You can go over to my website, check that out so that you can follow along with what I'm doing here. So let's talk about the strumming we're going to use for this song. We're going to keep it very simple and then I'm going to make it harder as we go. So the simplest way to do this is to do all down strums, eighth notes. So if I took a C chord here, it would sound like this 1.

And 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4, and down and down, down, down.

So it's eighth notes, 1 and 2.

And 3 and 4.

And we're going to play it a little bit quicker than that. But I just want you to know what strumming pattern we're going to use. That's the simplest way to do it. If you don't know 8th notes yet and you're stuck on quarter notes, just do four down. 1, 2, 3, 4. That's even simple, simpler. So second strumming pattern that I want to give you that you might want to use is kind of like an accented pattern. We're just going to really be accenting those down strums, the extra down. So it'll sound like this.

It's still 1 and 2 and 3.

And 4, and it's like this.

So that's what we can do strumming pattern wise, as something a little bit different if you want to try and spice it up just a little bit. So there's one more strumming pattern that I'm going to show you later that you might want to incorporate on the chorus. But first, let's get into the chord progressions for the song. Hey, guys, hope you're enjoying this lesson so far. If you haven't subscribed to the channel yet, make sure to subscribe so that you see when I release new video lessons just like this one. Let's get back into the video. So the first thing is the intro where we have C, G, A minor, F. And then you're going to repeat that, except you're going to replace the A minor with an E minor. So it's going to be C, G, E minor, F. All right, so the intro is C.

And G.

A minor and F. Then we've got C.

G.

E minor and F.

So once we get through the interlude, that chord progression is just going to carry over into our verses. And we're going to do that twice. So we're going to do C, G, A minor, F, and then C, G, E minor, F. So we're going to do that twice, and you're going to repeat that, and that is the full verse. And then after that verse, we have another interlude which is just going to be the same chord progression. And then we have another verse. And then after that, we get to the chorus. We're going to show you a slightly different strumming pattern that you might want to try. So before I show you that strumming pattern, let's talk about the chord progression, because the chord order is going to change here. So we have a double F, double C. So it's F, F, C, C. And then it repeats that three times. And then at the end it's F, F, F. And then we're going to hold a G for two measures. So we're only going to strum once, but we're going to count it an eight. Count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Okay, so that is the chord progression. I'm going to play through this once I show you this strumming pattern that we're going to use, which is an accented rhythm. So the rhythm here is going to.

Be 1 and 2 and 3 and 4. And 1 and 2 and 3 and 4. And 1 and 2 and 3 and4. And 1 and 2 and 3, and 4.

And that's going to be our accent. And we're acc. The one, the and after two, and then the fourth beat. So it's going to sound like this. Ready? One, two, three, four.

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

All right, so that's what it's going to sound like.

One and.

Oh, sorry. One and two and three and four.

And one and two and three and four.

And a little bit of a seven syncopated rhythm. So probably a little bit more on, you know, the late beginner intermediate level. If you can't do that, just stick with the straight up 8th notes. It'll work perfectly fine for this section. So let me do a little playthrough on this chorus for you guys. All right, so basically this is what our chorus would sound like. So we'd have.

Like, people.

Living just a fun emotion.

1, 2, 3, 4. And then right back to the beginning.

So you can see here dynamically, what we're doing is we're kind of going from this straight eighth note rhythm of.

To a switched rhythm of.

And I'm playing. Actually, I'll show you guys another strumming pattern, since I just did it randomly there. So it's the same strumming. We're just going to throw in a little flourish at the end. Again, a little bit more of an intermediate thing.

So.

So we have a flourish coming in here. So it's the same rhythm. It's 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and A. So we have a little extra. So it's going to be down, down.

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

Very quick up on the end. So it'll sound like this. I'll play it a little bit slower first and then I'll speed it up. So we've got 1, 2, 3, 4.

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

So if we. I would throw this in because these are two measure chords. I'd probably throw it on the second measure. So if I was playing my F.

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

4And A and then C 1 and.

2, 3 and 4 and 1 and 2and 3 and 4 and that's where.

You can throw those in. Now that we've gone through the verse and the chorus, all that's left for us to go over is the outro. There is a solo that comes in here, but we're not going to be playing the solo. It's just basically the intro chords playing played over again. So the only other part that's different is going to be our outro. So let's take a look at it. I play this outro section. I usually start mixing up my strumming patterns a lot. Again, if you're at the beginner level, just stick with the straight eighth note pattern. But if you're looking to build your dynamics a little bit, we can start mixing things in. So the chord progression isn't really any different. The chord progression is just that intro. The C, G, A minor F, C, C, G, E minor F. I usually stick more with the accented rhythms, but I might mix in some of those eighth notes. So if I were playing this, you know.

Oh, I just dropped my pick. So I've been playing guitar for over 20 years and they still drop my.

Pick on the ground sometimes.

Leave that blooper in there for you guys. Just so that you see I still do this. So. All right, where was I? So here we go. Outro. 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4.

So you can hear on those builds where he hits those high notes. I'm kind of sticking more to just straight 8th notes. I was using the accents in the beginning.

Don't stop believing.

Hold on to that feeling. Strengths, people.

So I was kind of doing like a build there. So you can really work on getting some good emotion out of this song and some cool dynamics. So even if you're a beginner work on those highs and lows. You can really get a lot more out of this song. If you enjoyed this lesson. Don't forget to give me a thumbs up. And as a reminder, I do have a guitar course if you guys are interested in learning more about guitar laurenbateman.com course I'll put a link in the description below. YouTube's gonna pop up a couple more videos over here. Make sure to go check those out and I hope to see you guys in another lesson video.