Lauren Bateman teaches Wham!'s "Last Christmas" with a capo on the 2nd fret using only open chords. She shows three strumming patterns from simple to complex, and the whole song uses the same four-chord loop.
Last Christmas gave you my heart but the very next day gave it away.
Last Christmas is an amazing song to play on the guitar, and I'm gonna make it a little bit easier for you guys because that's what I do. I make guitar easier so that you can have more fun playing with it. So we're actually gonna use a capo on this song so that we can eliminate some of the bar chords, and we're gonna put the capo on the second fret of the guitar.
So by putting the capo on the second fret of the guitar, we now only have to use open chords to play the song. So we've got a C major chord, an A minor chord, a D minor chord, and a G chord. And these are all relative to the capo. Now, what do I mean by that? Essentially, the capo is now acting like the nut of the guitar. So technically, this would be your first fret, second fret, and third fret.
So.
So now that we know what chords we're going to be using on the song, let's talk about the different strumming patterns. And I always like to give you guys some options. So if I were going to play this song, I'd probably stick with an eighth note downstrom beat. So what does that mean? That's going to be 1 and 2 and 3 and 4. And 1 and 2 and 3 and 4. And all downs.
1 and 2 and 3 and 4, and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4.
And.
Now you can probably hear I'm not strumming the entire C chord. I'm not really getting these bright tones out of the chord, which is great. I mean, you can basically just play the top two fingers of your C chord if you wanted to. But we'll put the whole chord down just so you can get the practice on that. So that's what I would do. That's option number one. That's probably going to be the easiest option for playing this song. Another option, which is a very popular strumming pattern, would be to be doing a down, down, up, up, down, up, down, down, up, up, down, up, or 1, 2, and, and 4. And. Okay, it's still an eighth note strumming pattern. And again, if I play that C chord. So we've got down, down, up, up, down, up, down, down, up, up, down, up.
So let me just show you what each would sound like over this chorus just a little bit. So we got.
Last Christmas I gave you my hug but the very next day you gave it away.
And then here's option Number two.
Last Christmas I gave you my hug but the very next day you gave it away this year to save me from tears I'll give it to someone special.
Now if you wanna add some more stuff, Spice, I'm going to give you a third option. And I really love putting lots of dynamics into songs. People ask me all the time, Lauren, you know, when I'm by myself, it sounds so boring. It sounds like I'm doing the same thing all the time. So adding a little bit of dynamics can really bring a song to life, especially when you're playing by yourself. Now, quick story, you guys may not know, I was actually a busker in the subway and I learned a lot about getting people's attention and playing dynamics by being in the subway because you're always trying to get people's attention. And I apply a lot of those things that I learned busking to music here. So this third option requires palm muting. So we're going to stick to that eighth note pattern. We're still doing 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and. But I think it would be good to give a little bit of dynamics on these first choruses or verses.
Last Christmas gave you my heart but the very next day you gave it away this here, save it from tears I give it to someone special.
Now I'm doing a little bit of an accent there. You can hear that the guitar is ringing through. So I'm letting the first beat stick out as well as the. And after two, so it's 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4. And.
Now if you're not familiar with palm muting, I do have a lesson there that goes over palm muting in detail. You can check that out if want to make this part of your playing. And finally, the last thing I'm going to add in that you'll probably see me do in the playthrough are some flourishes. Now, flourishes are quick little 16th notes that you would throw in on the very end of the chord. So these flourishes, I would say for more of the bigger chorus that we're going to do at the end where we're really going to open up the strumming and not do so much palm muting, we would sound like this.
Last Christmas I gave you my heart the very next day you gave it away.
So you can just hear how those flourishes bring just a little extra energy to this song. Depending on where you are, whether you're a beginner, late beginner, intermediate, you choose what works Best for you to play over this song. Before we get into our playthrough, the final note I want to make about this and why this is such a great song is that the chord progression is the same for the entire song. So it's going to be two measures of C, two measures of A minor, two measures of D minor, and then two measures of G all the way through. Now, when you listen to this song, it does have some instrumental spaces, but to save time and fill in, because I don't have a piano player with me, I'm going to skip the instrumental parts and just go double chorus right into the verses 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and.
Last Christmas I gave you my heart but the very next day you gave it away this year to save me from tears I give it to someone special.
Last Christmas I gave you my heart but the very next day you gave it away this year to save me from tears I'll give it to someone special.
Once bitten and twice shy I keep my distance but you still catch my eye Tell me baby, do you recognize me? Well, it's been a year, it doesn't surprise me. Merry Christmas. I wrapped it up in Santa with a note saying I love you, I meant it. Now I know what a fool I been but if I kiss me now, you know you'd fool me again. Last Christmas gave you my heart but the very next day you gave it away this year to save me from tears I'll give it to someone special.
Last Christmas I gave you my heart but the very next day I gave it away this year to save me from tears I'll give it to someone special.
A crowded room, friends with tight eyes I'm hiding from you and your soul of ashes my doll for someone to rely on me I guess I was a shoulder to cry on A face on lover with a fire in his heart man undercover but you tore me apart.
Now I found a real lover Never fool me again. Last Christmas I gave you my heart but the very next day you gave it.
It's here. Save me from tears I'll give it to someone special.
Last Christmas I gave you my heart the very next day he gave it away this year to save me from tears I give it to someone special.
A face on lover with the fire in his heart man under cover Budget.
Maybe next year.
I'll give it to someone I'll give it to someone special.
As you can see, you can really build the dynamics in this song and make it a lot of fun as you get to the end. If you're looking for more great Christmas songs to have fun strumming along to. Check out my full Christmas playlist right over there.
