Lauren Bateman teaches a simplified arrangement of Pearl Jam's "Black" aimed at late-beginner to early-intermediate players. She reduces the intro/verse to two main shapes (E major → Asus2), offers two strumming options (light open strums or a down-up-down pattern with an optional omitted downbeat for more space), then moves to a higher-energy section using C → E minor → D progressions with a fuller strumming pattern. The lesson concludes with an outro melody (single-string lick on the B string using frets 12,13,15 and suggested finger assignments and vibrato). Chord chart link (laurenbateman.com) and playthroughs are provided in-video.
Chapters
Hey guitar enthusiasts, welcome back. This is going to be a Pearl Jam Black lesson. I'm going to show you some really cool strumming patterns that you can use for this song. Let's get into the lesson.
So this song really is a lot more intricate. I would consider it more of like an intermediate level song, but this lesson's going to simplify it a bit because that's what I do best. I take hard songs, I try to simplify them for beginner to late beginner, early inter intermediate players. So I'm going to be showing you a way to play this sign that makes it accessible. We're going to be going over two different strumming patterns as well as a cool little lick that you can play at the end of the song. So stick around for all three parts of this lesson. And if you guys want to follow along with a chord chart on my website, go to laurenbateman.com I'll put a link in the description below. And I want to give a quick shout out to Rob who I did this lesson for. Rob's down there in Australia. We Rob, I hope you enjoy this. I know you're a big Pearl Jam fan. Let's talk about the chords that we're going to use for this song. The beginning is really simple. It's two chords that are coming out of the same position. What do I mean by that? So we have an E major chord and right below it, if we just lift up our first finger and we move these two fingers down one string each, we have what's called an ASUS2 chord, very nice sounding chord. So we've got EE Major and ASUS 2. And that's what we're going to be using for the intro and for the the first part of the song. Just those two chords. And I know there's a lot more going on in this intro, but we're keeping it simple. The other chords I want you to be aware of for the next part of the song are going to be a C chord, an E minor chord and a D chord. Okay. If you know my two finger versions, you can use that on this song as well. Whatever you are most comfortable with. But those are the chords we're going to be using for Pearl Jams Black. Alright, so let's start off with the strumming pattern, the first strumming pattern. We're going to be using this more for the intro and the verses. I'm going to give you two variations and you choose which one you like better. So all we're going to be doing. This intro is very open. There's a lot of improvisation going on in the strumming. Okay. And that's why this song is a little bit more intermediate. But we're going to give you a strumming pattern. The first one is just going to be really open. I'll do the E chord, and it's going to be 1, 2, 3, and 4. So it's going to be down.
Down, up, down. Okay? So that's what you can do. The other option, because it's so open and it's an intro, is you can just strum each chord once.
You know, he sees kind of doing, like, these weird humming things. You can just strum once per chord for the intro. I think that's a really nice dynamic play for this song. So whichever option you want to use, we will then continue on into the verses. And it's really the same thing. E ASUS 2, just back and forth between these two simple chords. Back and forth. So if you're doing the one strum for the intro.
2, 3, 4. 1, 2.
When we get to the verse, when he starts singing.
Sheets of empty canvas.
Untouched sheets of clay.
Now, if you want to open this up even more, if you want it to be a little bit more relaxed so that that next part has more punch to it, we can leave off the down strum on that second beat. It would sound like this. 1, 2, 3 and 4.
1, 2, 3 and four.
1, 2, 3 and Four.
All five horizons.
Okay. So again, it just opens up the space more. But you have to be able to count pretty good to do that. So if you're not good with counting yet, put a down strum on each one of those. 1, 2, 3, and 4. I will do a little playthrough for you guys, so don't worry. Gonna jump on to the next section of the song, and then we're gonna put it all together, and then I'll show you the cool lick at the end. All right, so this next part of the song, we're changing chords. We're going to the C, the E minor, and the D. Now, in the song, if you listen really carefully, these chords change on an up strum. But for this lesson, we're going to change everything on the down strum so that it keeps everything easy. It also means that the chords are going to change directly over the lyrics of the song, which is great. So the chord progression for this, it's A double C, double E minor, double C, double E minor. Then we have D, C, E Minor, D, C, E minor. All right, and that's this section of the song. Now, I would change up the strumming here. If you're not good at changing between strumming patterns, you can just keep doing the same strumming pattern for the entire song. But the energy picks up at this part of the song. So I would recommend doing something like this. 1, 2, 3, and 4. And 1, 2, 3, and four.
And down, down, down, up, down, up, down, down.
Sounds like.
So you can hear it has a little bit different of a feel versus.
That little extra strum adds. And especially if you're doing a more open pattern, it will really open up this section of the song where the band comes in more and Eddie's voice really has a little bit more emotional dynamic to it. Hey, guys, hope you're enjoying this lesson so far. Don't forget to hit the subscribe button and turn on those notifications if you haven't already. This way. YouTube will let you know when I release more videos just like this one. All right, so let me do a real quick playthrough of the intro, the verse, and the next section of the song before I get into the lick that we're going to use at the very end of the song.
Here we go. Ready?
Sheets of empty canvas.
Untouched sheets of clay.
Were laid spread out before me as a body once dream.
All five horizons.
Revolved around her soul.
The earth to the sun.
Now the air I tasted and breath has taken a turn.
All that I thought of was everything.
Oh, all I know she gave me all she w.
And now my bitter hands ch. Beneath the cloud of wobbles Everything.
All.
The pictures have all been washed in black and tattooed Everything.
So hopefully that gives you a good feel for the song and what we're gonna be doing on these two sections. Now, what I'm gonna do briefly is show you a nice little lick that you can use for the outro section of this song. Now, the outro in the section of the song is really just repeating an E minor chord.
To C.
To E minor, and it just keeps going E minor dc E minor DC E minor dc and it keeps repeating that all the way out. There's a big outro on this song, but you'll also hear the vocal melody going.
So if you don't want to be strumming chords the entire time, what you could do is play this cool little melody lick, which sounds like this.
Now, this lick is going to be much easier playing on electric guitar or if you have an acoustic guitar with a cutout like mine because we do have to reach to the 15th fret. So all of this is taking place on the B string, the second string, and we're going to be using the first finger, the second finger, and the pinky. Okay. The first finger is going to own the 12th fret. The second finger is going to own the 13th fret, and the pinky gets the 15th fret. Okay. Just kind of like my spider exercises, one finger per fret. Okay. And the pattern is 12, 13, 15, 13, 12, 13, 12. I'm going to repeat that again, and then we'll talk about the timing. 12, 13, 15, 13, 12, 13, 12. And that last 12th fret, if you wiggle the string, we call that vibrato. Just push. Pushing the string up and down with your finger can add a little nice little sound to that last note. So this will be the rhythm. If you can sing it, you can play it.
So it's.
So if you know the song, just play it.
Hear that vibrato on the end?
You don't have to put virato, just let it ring.
So that's an option for the ending of the song. If you don't want to just be strumming chords for a while, you can play that and make it a little bit interesting. It's also fun to have a little lick that you can play when you're learning a song. If you guys enjoyed this video, make sure to leave me a comment below and give me a thumbs up. YouTube is going to pop over some videos over there. Make sure to go and check those out. And I hope you guys enjoyed the lesson. I'll see you in a video real soon.
