Lauren Bateman teaches an easy, beginner-focused guitar lesson for John Denver's 'Rocky Mountain High', using four simple open chords (Em, C, G, D) with an optional A chord walk-down. She demonstrates capo placement at the 2nd fret, a steady strumming pattern (down, down, down-up, down-up), how the intro and verses map to chord changes, how to execute split-measure walk-downs to A, and performs a full playthrough (intro, two verses, chorus).
Chapters
In this guitar lesson, I'm going to show you a very easy version to play. John Denver's Rocky Mountain High. I'm going to show you step by step how to do it using simple open chords.
So if you want to keep this super simple, we're only going to be using four chords, but I am going to show you an option to use a fifth chord if you want to add in a nice little walk down. So most of the chords we're going to be using is E minor, C, G and D. Now if you know the two finger versions of these chords, my favorite four chords, because you can play thousands of songs with them, you can also use those two finger version of the chords as well. And for those of you later that are going to take on the challenge of that little walk down, we will be using an A major chord as well. I want to make a note that we're going to be using a capo on this song. If you watch John when he plays live, he also uses a capo. Capo is just a little spring and you squeeze it and you put it over the second fret. And we want to make sure that it's kind of like the middle of the fret towards the front of the metal fret. You don't want it right on top of the fret, just behind it. So all of our chords now are going to be played relative to this capo. And it has now made my guitar sound brighter. I just want to introduce myself real quickly for those of you who don't know me. My name is Lauren Bateman and I specialize in helping beginner guitar students have fun with a guitar. Just make it make sense. And I really specialize in helping older learners over the age of 50. You guys are my favorites. I just love music like John's here. So let's talk about the strumming pattern we're going to be using for this song. We're just going to keep it simple. Okay. If you listen to John, when you listen to the record he's doing.
He'S doing all these kind of cool finger picking things that we're not going to get into in this lesson. So. So we're just going to keep it simple. I just want you to be able to have fun playing through the song. So the strumming pattern we're going to use, let's use a nice E minor chord here to demonstrate this. And we're just going to be going 1, 2, 3 and 4 and. All right. And that's going to be played down, down, down, up, down, up again. 1, 2, 3 and 4. And down, down, down, up, down, up. Let's give that a try. Just hold that E minor chord. Ready? 1, 2, 3, 4.
So once you've got that strumming pattern down, we're going to use that for the entire song. We're not going to do any strumming changes here unless you decide to do that walk down that I'm going to show you in a little bit. So. So let's start off with the intro. The intro is going to start with a couple D chords, followed by an E minor chord and then a G chord. So you would play that strumming pattern once per chord. So the intro is going to sound like this.
Not too bad. Pretty simple, right? And then once we get into the verses, we're going to be alternating between. It's going to go double D, E minor C, double D, E minor G. All right, so I'm going to play through a verse here real quick so you guys can get a feel for it. And then I'm going to show you how to add in that walk down, if you're interested. Ready we go. 1, 2, 1, 2, 3.
He was born in the summer of his 27th year.
Coming home to To a place he'd never been before.
He.
Left yesterday behind him you might say he was born again.
You might say he found a key for every door.
So you can hear. This song is a nice, even kiltered song. That's probably about the speed. It might be just a little bit faster, depending on what version. I've listened to live versions of John and he'll play fast, and then I've heard the record. The record sounds a little bit slower, so tempo, really whatever you're comfortable with. It's not a super, super fast song. So I want to show you guys how to throw in that walk down now. And there's a little bit of a timing thing I want you guys to be aware of. So we're going to be splitting measures. This is where that A chord is going to come in. So. So instead of just playing a C chord or a G chord, we're going to be playing a C chord moving to an A chord or a G chord moving to an A chord. And to do that, we're going to have to change up the strumming pattern on these split measures. So it's going from G to a would be 1, 2. And so the G is going to get two beats. That's going to be A down, down, up and Then we're going to go to the A. Down, down, up. Okay, so it would be 1, 2, and 3, 4. And same from C. 1, 2, and 3, four, and. All right, so let's try that again. We're going to go G, a C, a 1, 2. Ready?
And 1, 2, and 3, 4. And 1, 2, and 3%, 4. And.
One more time.
So if I take that same verse, how is that going to sound? Now we're going to throw it in and I'm going to show you guys how we're going to play through the chorus. And we'll do a full playthrough at the end here. So let's take it from that same spot. One, two, ready?
He was born in the summer of his 27 year.
Coming home home to a place he'd never been before.
He.
Left yesterday behind him you might say he was born again.
You might say Found a key for every door.
So you see, in order to do that walk down, your chord changes have to be be a little bit quicker. So if your A chord changes aren't up to speed yet, you don't have to throw it in. But I just wanted you guys to know about it in case you wanted to add that little bit of challenge into the song. So the chorus does feature the A chord a little bit more frequently here. We do have some split measures that common and there's one in particular that when we get there, I'll explain it. It's basically a D chord for two measures. Then we have a G chord for one measure and an A chord. But fortunately it's time to write over the lyrics. So when we get there, we'll go into that in a little bit more detail. But we're starting off with the G chord and A chord and then 2D chords and we're going to repeat that. So it'll start like this, but Colorado.
Rocky mountain high.
I've seen it raining fire in the sky.
Okay, now we start the same.
The shadow from the starlight.
Now this is where that timing comes in. Right here is if you want to just keep it simple. You could just do is softer than.
A la.
So it's softer than a la.
Okay, those are the chords. Those are the words that the chords change over.
But it's softer than a lullaby and.
Then he holds that really long note. I'm not going to hold it if you guys can tell or not. I got a little bit of a head cold still, so my nose is all stuffed up. So please forgive me if my singing is not the best in this lesson. But we're going to hold that bi. He holds it for a long time. And we're going to play a G chord for four measures and then we go back to the double D. E minor G. We play that twice again. You can throw in the A. Walk down if you want. What I'm going to do, I'm going to take the chorus through from the top so that you guys can hear it. Just this section. And then I'm going to play through a couple verses through a chorus so that you guys can play along with me. So let's just go through this chorus one time really fast. One, two. Ready? But.
Colorado, Rocky Mountain high.
I've seen it raining. Windflier in the sky.
The shadow from the starlight is softer than a lullaby.
Rocky mountain high.
Colorado.
Mountain high.
Colorado.
Alright, so let's take this thing from the top from the intro. We're gonna do two verses and a chorus. If you want to follow along with the notes on my website, you can go over to my website and check it out there once again, if I'm going too fast, you can always use the settings cog down there to slow me down. But I'm gonna play it all the way through. So let's get started. Ready? One, two, one, two. Ready? And intro.
He was born in the summer of his 27th year.
Coming home to a place he'd never been before.
He left yesterday.
You might say he was born again.
You might say he found a key for every door.
When he first came to the mountains his life was far away.
On the road and hanging by a song.
But the strings already broken. Daddy doesn't really care Keeps changing fast and it don't last for long.
The Colorado, Rocky Mountain high.
A scene in rain and fire in the sky.
The shadow from.
Softer than a lullaby.
Rocky Mountain high.
Colorado.
Rocky Mountain high.
Colorado.
So if you guys really love John Denver as much as I do, then make sure to check out my country roads. Strumming lesson Right over there, where I show you how to play the song step by step.
