Lauren Bateman teaches a beginner version of Kansas's "Dust in the Wind" using strumming instead of fingerpicking. The lesson covers a simple down-down-up-down-down-up pattern and the chord progression for intro, verse, and chorus, with A minor held through most of the solo.
Questions this video answers
Down, down, up, down, down, up (counted as "1, 2 and 3, 4 and").
C and A minor.
C, G, A minor (twice), G, D minor, A minor (twice).
D major, G major, and A minor (A minor played twice in the progression).
Keep strumming and hang out on A minor until the intro returns.
Chapters
Hey, guitar enthusiast Lauren Bateman here, in this lesson video we're going to talk about an easy way to play Dust in the Wind by strumming instead of picking. So let's get into the video.
Now everybody knows to capture the real essence of the song we have to finger pick. But for some people that's a really intermediate skill and they want to be able to play the song in a way that's accessible to them. That's where I come in. So let's talk about how we're going to play the intro to this song without all this complicated picking. So the intro is only going to use two chords. Okay. We're going to use a C chord and an A minor chord. That's all we're going to use. And what we're going to do is we're just going to strum 1, 2 and 3, 4 and 1, 2 and 3, 4and.
Which is down, down, up, down, down, up.
And I'm playing a C chord here.
1, 2 and 3, 4 and alright.
And the same for A minor.
1, 2 and 3, four and so.
While the guitarist is doing all this fancy fun stuff, we're gonna be just strumming underneath it. So we would play that strumming pattern, we would do four down, down, ups.
Minor and down, down, up, down, down, up, down, down, up, down, down, up.
And then we would just repeat that and that's how we're going to get through the intro section of this song. So next let's talk about our verse, then we'll talk about our chorus and what we're going to do for the solo section of the song. Overall, the strumming pattern's not changing that much. It's just the timing of the chords is changing. So in the intro we really got to hang out on a C chord. So we got to hang out on an A minor chord. In the verse we're going to be moving a little bit quicker. Chords are only going to be two beats. So for this verse we've got C, G, A minor twice, G, D minor, A minor twice. And then we're going to repeat that again. So if we apply our strumming pattern, it's going to sound like this. It's going to be 1, 2 and G, 4 and A minor, 2 and 3, 4 and G, D minor and then A minor.
So we will repeat that twice. So C is getting 1, 2 and. And then G is getting 3, 4 and feel free also to always rewind and re watch sections if you need a little bit more time and a little bit more explanation on them. But what we're going to do is jump right into the chorus section now. So the chorus again, nothing's going to change on this strumming pattern. We're keeping this as simple for you guys as possible, but the chords are going to change. We're going to pull in a D major chord, not minor, D major. So you're going to need D major, G major and then A minor twice. And then we just repeat that D major, G major, A minor twice. It'll sound like this.
Dust in the wind.
All we have is Dust in the wind.
So you can see how we're making this apply applicable to a more beginner player so that you don't have to go and finger pick. Let's talk about that solo section of the song right now. Now the solo section of the song is going to be super easy for you. While the, you know, while the strummer is playing all these intricate crazy things.
While we're doing all these crazy things, we're just going to keep it simple. All we have to do is hang out on a min.
All we're going to do for the majority of this solo until the very end where we go back to the intro. So there's a bunch of measures of the violinist just playing their solo. But you're going to hear that intro section come in. So you're going to hear this.
And when you hear that, you're going to go back to the intro which is just playing C and A minor. But for the most of the solo, you're just going to sit there and just keep strumming that a minor chord. That's all I want you to do until you hear that intro part come in. Once that's done, we're going to jump right back in to a verse and then another chorus. Make sure to like this video and comment below and let me know what other songs you would like me to do on my YouTube channel. You'll probably see some videos pop up over here. I have lots of lessons for you guys to learn from, so check them out and I hope to see you guys in the next lesson video. Also, don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already.
