In this instructional video, Lauren Bateman teaches absolute beginners—especially adults over 50—how to play the 1950s classic “Earth Angel” by The Penguins. She begins by placing a capo on the first fret to simplify chord shapes, then introduces the four core chords (G, Em, C, D) and an occasional Am for the chorus, explaining how to form each chord relative to the capo and offering two‑finger versions. Bateman explains the song’s 6/8 (waltz) timing and demonstrates an all‑down‑strum pattern, emphasizing the importance of accenting the first beat. She outlines the verse progression (G‑Em‑C‑D) and details variations for the chorus, including a challenging C‑to‑G change and a final Am. Practical practice strategies are provided: slowing the tempo, adding an extra strum for chord changes, or building chords while strumming. She also notes a transitional G‑C‑G pattern before the chorus. The lesson concludes with a full play‑through, encouraging viewers to use the video’s speed control, practice regularly, and gradually increase tempo.
Chapters
Hey guitar enthusiasts, we're gonna be doing a 1950s classic by the Penguins called Earth Angel, and we're gonna put the capo on the first fret because it's gonna make for very, very simple chords for this song. Okay, so the chords we will be using, and it's gonna be relative to the capo. So usually if you play a G chord without the capo, you play it here in the third fret. But now that we have the capo on the guitar, your fourth fret is technically the third fret. So we want to play a G chord, but we call it Relative to the capo. Okay, so you play a G chord, an E minor chord, a C chord, and a D chord. Okay, now if you know my easy two-finger versions, you can easily play that easy G chord, the E minor chord, the easy C chord, and the easy two-finger D chord for this song as well. Now there is an A minor chord. Okay, if you don't know that one, you just take my easy C chord. And you put a 3rd finger right below that 2nd finger, and we have A minor. The A minor chord only shows up on the chorus, um, for a couple measures. Most of the song is just G, A minor, C, D— my favorite 4 chords that I teach in my 7-Level System and my Guitar Crash Course. Um, if you don't know who I am, my name is Lauren Bateman, and I specialize in teaching absolute beginners, especially older adults over the age of 50. How to have fun and play guitar and play fun songs like this one by the Penguins. So this song has a special timing to it. Okay. It's called 6/8 timing. Okay. So instead of us counting to 4, we're gonna be counting to 6 instead. It's gonna be 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. I ran out of fingers there, didn't I? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. It's a waltz feel. You can kind of sway with the music, and what we're going to be doing is we're going to be doing all down strums on that strumming pattern. Let's demonstrate it right now. So let's just do an E minor chord. Okay, most people seem to like playing the E minor chord. Now when you play this song with the recording, if you play it on YouTube, sometimes it can sound a little sharp or a little off. Sometimes when you play along with recordings, when they get transcribed, it can change the Tuning a little bit, especially on these older songs. But it is the correct key for this song. So if you play along with the record, I just want to make a little note of that for you. But we're going to start with an E minor chord, okay? And we're going to go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, all down strums.
Now on 1/6 or 6/8 patterns like this, when we count to 6, sometimes it's very helpful to accent that 1. This way you keep track of where the beginning of the measure is.
Now if we put this into a chord progression, the majority of this song Has a great chord progression. It's G, E minor, C, D over and over again with some minor variations when we get to the chorus. Okay, we'll talk about that next. So the first thing we're gonna do: G, E minor, C, and D, and we're just gonna put six counts over each chord. Here we go, starting from the top. We'll go a little bit slower than the song.
Good. Now if you're someone whose chord changes are still a little bit slow, that's okay. What you can do— there's 2 options.
One—
or technically I guess 3 options. One, you can play slower. You can go as slow as your fastest chord change and slow the strumming right down. It's Better to play in time than play and have all those breaks in between the chords. So I'd rather you slow it down is option one. The other option is give yourself an extra strum to change.
Okay, so you can go one two three four five six one two three four five six one two three four five six.
1.
So basically you're only gonna strum 5 times, and on that 6th count, that gives you an extra split second to change into the chord. That's option 2. Option 3 is don't stop strumming and just start changing the chord early. Okay, so build the chord as you go. It'll look something like this. So just watch my hand on this.
So you might be building the chord while you're still moving. You might have a point where maybe you like don't have any strings down, but I'd rather you keep the strumming going and force the fretting hand to catch up to the strumming hand versus going— okay, the other way it's gonna sound Better musically, trust me. All right, so we took care of our verses. Now we're going to talk about the chorus. So the chorus has a lot of C, and unfortunately it's C to G, which is one of the most hated chord changes by my students. I do have a video that gives you some tips on how to work on this C to G chord change. I'll put it up there for you guys if you want to go watch that.
But it's mostly going to be 2 measures of C: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, followed by 2 measures of G: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
So it does this one, two, three times. Okay, so it does that three times, and then on the very end we go to that A minor chord.
Okay, that's the only time the chord progression changes. For the rest of the song, it is mostly that G, E minor, C, D, with one exception I just saw in my notes here. On the end of the second verse and the third verse, they do change the strumming a little bit to transition into the choruses. So instead of going G, E minor, C, D, we're going to be going G to C to G twice. Okay, so it makes for a nicer transition into the verse.
Section.
So what we're going to do is we're going to play a playthrough right now, beginning to end, so that you have something to play along with me. If I'm still going too fast, just use the settings cog on the video and just slow me down a little bit. Okay, just slow me down a little bit, or as slow as you need me to go for you to be able to keep up playing with me. Okay, remember, you don't have to be perfect today. Just know where you are today and then keep practicing along with the video. And each week, hopefully you can get a little bit faster, a little bit faster, And eventually you'll be able to play up to full speed with me. All right, so we're going to take it from the top. This is going to be the tempo: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Okay, so we're playing it pretty quick.
Okay, so if you need that settings cog, go ahead and slow me down right now. So we're gonna start it off.
Here we go: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
Earth angel, earth angel, will you be mine? My darling dear, love you all the time. Well, I'm just a fool, a fool in love.
With you.
Earth Angel, Earth Angel, the one I adore. I love you forever and evermore. Well, I'm just a fool, a fool in love with you. I fell for you, and I knew the vision of your love, loveliness. I hope and I pray that someday I'll be the vision of your happiness. Oh, earth angel, earth angel. Angel, please be mine, my darling dear. I love you all the time. Well, I'm just a fool, a fool in love with you. I fell For you, and I knew the vision of your loveliness. I hope and I pray that someday with a vision of your happiness. So earth angel, earth angel, oh, please be mine. My darling dear, love you all the time. Well, I'm just a fool, a fool in love with you.
I hope you enjoyed this guitar lesson, and if you're interested in learning another great song from this time, check out my Fats Domino video, Kansas City, where I'm going to walk you through step by step on how to play that fun song. Go check that out right there, right now.
