Fast Car Guitar Lesson with Fingerstyle & Strumming by Tracy Chapman

Hey, guitar enthusiast Lauren Bateman here. We're going to do an amazing song here by Tracy Chapman called Fast Car. Super cool. I'm really excited about this song. Let's get into the lesson.

All right, so this is a phenomenal song. It's a little bit more late beginner to intermediate because we're going to be doing some finger picking and we're going to be doing some strumming on the chorus that's a little bit syncopated and interesting. So. So first we'll be going over the picking pattern, the finger picking, what we're going to do there, and then I'll talk about what we're going to do in the chorus for the strumming of this song. Now, if you want to follow along with the tab and the chords, you can go to my website, laurenbateman.com you can pull that up and keep this video up and you can follow side by side. Now, some of you guys may have noticed my orange capo here. And these are actually my new capos. So these are my Kaiser capos. And Kaiser was kind enough to put my name, my logo on here. So these are my new Lauren Bateman Kaiser capos. So thank you for that. This is. I did not get a paid promotion for that. I just. I just like the company and the brand, but I wanted to thank them for that. So first picking exercise here, let's go over the chords. So the chords we're going to be playing over is basically a C chord in a C major 7. So C major 7 is a C chord with your first finger lifted up. And then we're kind of going to be doing. We're going to be doing a G chord almost like the bright stuck like glue G chord. But I'm only going to be using the third finger and the second finger because we're finger picking. I don't actually have to play the entire chord, so I'm just going to use the fingers that I need to. The C chord I usually do, it's just a comfort thing. But the G, when you see my hand here, you're probably going to see the third finger and the second finger only touching the strings. Okay. There is a D chord, but we're going to be playing some different stuff up here, higher on the neck of the guitar to get these melody lines in here. So we're going to be using a lot of the fretboard on this song. So first let's start off with this C chord. So we're going to be starting with the C major 7, first finger lifted, and we're going to do a pluck. Okay, so we're going to be playing the thumb on the fifth string. And the second. I'm sorry. Yes, that's my second finger. The second finger on the second string. And just so you know, we're mainly going to be using the thumb, the first finger, and the second finger. The second finger is going to own the G string. All right, so we have the thumb playing the bass notes, and then we have the second finger, Lauren, playing the B string and the first finger playing the G string. So in this particular case, we are going to pluck the first finger and the second finger at the same time. So you'll be playing the third fret on the fifth string and the open B string. Okay, that's what it's going to sound like. And then we're going to hammer in time on an eighth note. So this first finger is now going to come down to complete our C chord. Okay, so the first part.

Those are your first two eighth notes.

One and one and again one and.

All right. And on the two.

We'Re just going to play the first finger. So we're rounding out with that open G string.

Now on the third beat, we're going to switch to our G chord, and we're going to do the same thing. We're going to pluck again. So it's going to be the thumb on the top string, getting that sixth string, third fret, and again the B string. But now we've got our third finger here, so we're getting a brighter note. Okay. Instead of that string before. So from the C chord, we've got 1 and first finger, 2.

And then G chord.

So that's all we've got so far.

One more time.

And then we're going to do almost the same thing. We're going to pluck that B string again with our second finger. And then we're going to play the first finger and get the open G string. And the timing of this is 1 and 2 and. And 4. So we're holding that G a little bit longer.

Again, 1 and 2 and 3 and 4.

So that's the timing of the first measure. Now the second measure, we're going to be moving up to the seventh fret and the eighth fret. Okay. And this is a very common shape. If you've ever played a song like Blackbird, they use these same shapes. So the first finger is going to be on the seventh fret of the A string. And I know you guys yell at me. I don't have dots on the front of my guitar. I'm sorry. But I do have dots on the top. I promise. But this is the seventh fret. My first finger is the seventh fret. Third finger is the eighth fret on the B string. Okay? And we're going to pluck those together. So it's a very bright, pretty sound. Okay, so we have first finger on the seventh fret, third finger on the eighth fret.

And then we're going to hit that top bass note again.

Okay? And that's a 16th note. So it's one and one and. Okay, so you'll hear it when I play it. Let me get through the whole line. But it's a little bit of a hop. And it's because it's the 16th note. So the first part is. Okay, play that bass note again, then slide back fifth fret and seventh fret. Okay, we're just kind of widening the shape here. So fifth fret, seventh fret, and that we're going to pluck again.

And then two, one. Okay, so again, that one is going to be pluck. So the fifth string and the second string at the same time. Two, one. So if I go play this whole thing. So listen, first listen before we try playing it together.

Hear that hop on that bass note? Let's listen again. Here it is.

It's kind of. Kind of like rushing into that second chord.

So it's one and a two. One and a two, one and a bottom.

Hear that? Okay, so.

Okay, one more time. And then we're going to play the whole thing together.

Okay, so if I take this from the very top, here's what it's going to sound like.

Hear it.

One more time.

So there you go.

That is the entire picking pattern for the majority of the song. That's played over the verses. It's played over the intro. The only part that's different is the chorus where we're going to throw in some strumming. So let's talk about that section next. Hey, guys, I hope you're enjoying this guitar lesson so far. This is such a great song. Make sure to subscribe to the channel if you haven't already and turn those notifications on because YouTube Bell will let you know when I release videos just like this one. Now for the chorus, we're going to be getting into some intricate strumming. The only thing is, we've just been finger picking. So how do we strum without a pick? Well, we're just going to use our thumb in our first finger. I'll put a video up here if you guys are interested in learning more about strumming without a pick. But we're just going to strum using our fingers for this section of the song. So let's go over the chord progression first. For this chorus. So we have a circle chord, a G chord, an E minor chord and a DSUS 4. So for this course, you may want to keep things bright and use those stuck like glue chords.

I think that works great.

Remember when we were driving?

So I think that sounds. That sounds really good. I have to listen to the track to see if that's what she's doing. She's definitely using the DSUS4 here. I just have CG and E minor on my chart. So if you want that brighter sound, use the stuck like blue chords. If you want a darker sound, use the regular chords. I'm probably going to use the brighter chords. And then that's the first four chords. Then we have some split, split measures. And there's some interesting timing. There's a hop rhythm on these split measures. So we have a C chord and an E minor chord splitting a measure followed by a D chord. Then we have the same thing again. C and E minor splitting a measure, a D chord. And then at the very end we have a C and a D chord splitting a measure. So let's talk about how we're going to approach each one of these sections, starting with the full measure chords. So we are going to be using a C 16th note rhythm pattern on this song, which is why this is a little bit more intermediate. And what we're going to be doing is we're going to be starting with a down strum on the one and a down strum on the two. Very simple.

One, two.

And then we're going to do an and on the 2.

So 1, 2, and up, down, down, down, up.

Okay, one more time.

Down, down, down, up.

And now this is where the tricky part comes in. Because there's some syncopation. We're going to be doing a couple up strums in a row. So we're going to be doing two ups again.

So it's going to be down, down, down, up, up.

Let's try that.

Down, down, down, up, up.

Okay, so It's E. Ah, 1, 2.

And A, E, A.

That's the timing.

Down, down, down, up, up, up.

Again.

One more time, down.

Okay, and again. It's always helpful to listen to these things first before you try playing them. And then at the very end of that, we're just gonna have a 4, E and A.

Down, up, down, up.

4 E and up. So the whole thing together sounds like this.

1, 2 and A, E a Fourianda 1, 2 and A, E, A fouriana.

I'll do it with the down ups now.

Down, down, down, up, up, up, down, up, down, up, down, down, down, up, up, up down, up, down, up.

Now I will admit I probably improv a little bit on these chorus sections, but in general that's prob song. So let me play it a little bit more up to speed over the chord progression just so you guys can hear what it sounds like. Alright, so we got 1, 2, 3, 4.

And now this DSUS I'm going to do a crescendo all downs, 1 and.

2 and 3 and 4.

And there's a little build there. Let me play that again. So we got the seven C chord.

Okay, I would do like a little build for that part because we're going to change rhythms now. Okay, so we have these split measure chords that we're going to talk about next. All right, so these split measures, this C and E minor is going to be doing something different. This also adds to the difficulty of this song because we're doing multiple strumming patterns. So, so the C chord is going.

To be one, a, two.

That's it.

Down, up, down.

That's what we're going to be doing on the C chord.

1, A, 2, down, up, down.

So here it is.

3, 4, 3, 4, 3, 4. Okay, so that's what our C chord's doing. The E minor chord is coming in on the and after the two.

So it's 1, A, 2 and down, up, down, down, 1, 2 and.

So it feels like you're hopping into that next chord.

And you could just either hold that or if you wanted to throw in a couple extra strums, you could do the and of three and the and of four. So it'd be one, a, two and three and four.

Again, one a two and three and four.

Okay, that's what you could do there. And then for that D chord, I would do something even a little bit different. We'd have 1, 2, A, 3 and 4.

Okay, 1, 2, A, 3and 4. Down, down, up, down, up, down, down, down, up, down, up, down.

Okay, so we'd have all together.

Play that. I just played it that D. I might do all downs on the end. So.

I'm going to do it as all downs.

Okay. I like that as all downs better. And you can see here I'm not using the bright sounds anymore. I'm using the dark sounds. And you can go listen to Tracy and see what she's doing. If she's using bright sounds, I think she's really using the open chords here because I think it's a darker part of the song. So that's how we're going to handle those split measures. And then the very end, I think we just strum for each chord for the. What is it? I'm finding my chorus here. C and D. Be someone, be someone. So if I go through this whole chord so you guys can hear what it sounds like in its entirety. Here we go.

I remember when we were driving.

Speed so fast.

Be someone, be someone and I have.

A pick in my hand. I don't know how I got the pick. We're supposed to be strumming without a pick, but maybe you'll be able to clearly hear because at that point, once.

We get through, you know, I.

Had a feeling I would need someone.

Be someone we got right back into.

You would go right back into the picking. So you can't switch. I don't know how I got that picking in my hand somehow. And there it goes. It's on the floor now, so I can't have it anymore. So I don't know how I got that pick in my hand. But when you're strumming, the down strums would be your thumb, the up strums would be be your index finger. So one more time, I'm just gonna play it through you guys. I'll play it a little bit slower. So if you guys want to play along with me. 1, 2, 3, 4.

Still gonna do cresc.

And there you go right back into the verse. So that's what it sounds like with your fingers without the pick. If you guys enjoyed this lesson, make sure to give me a thumbs up and leave me a comment below. Make sure to say hello. I love hearing from you guys. YouTube is going to pop a couple more lessons up over there. Go check those out. Hope you enjoyed the lesson and I'll see you guys soon.