For What It's Worth Guitar Lesson - EASY BEGINNER GUITAR SONG!

Hey, guitar enthusiast Lauren Bateman here in this video, we're going to be going over Buffalo Springfields. For what it's worth, let's get into the lesson.

Now, this lesson was a song request from an online student. So if you guys have a request for a song, comment below on songs you might like to see me do here on YouTube. So this lesson, what we're going to do is we're going to keep it very, very simple. This is going to be a beginner lesson. I will show you a little bit more intricate strumming. I'll give you very basic. Then we'll get a little bit harder. And then towards the end of the video, I'm going to show you a little lick that you guys might want to try playing along that's in this song. So let's get started. First off, let's talk about the chords we're going to be using for this song. We have all open chords, which makes it great for beginners. So mostly we're going to be playing an A chord, E chord and a D chord. Okay. And then every once in a while, a C chord pops in on the choruses. But in the verses, we're mainly just playing E and A. So that's a great way to practice those chord changes. Now, if you guys need the lyrics in chord chart, you can go to laurenbateman.com I'll put a link in the description below so that you can open up that website and follow along with me. So the easiest way to play this song for an absolute beginner is we're just going to do one strum per chord. So this verse here is just switching between an E major chord and an A major chord. Okay. Again, E major to A major. Very simple. And we do that 1, 2, 3, 4 times. So we got.

There's something happening here.

See? Very simple.

And what it is ain't exactly clear.

Now you can hear that the chords. This is a great song for practicing strumming and singing at the same time because the chords change on the down strum right over the word. And the next one, there's a man with a gun over there Telling me I've got to beware okay, so that's all I would do for these verses. Very, very simple. Let's talk about how we're going to play the chorus for this very simple version. So the chorus, the chords get a little bit faster in how we're changing them. Because each chord is going to be two beats because. So it would be E for two beats, D For two beats. A for two beats and then C for two beats.

So it's going to be.

It's time to stop.

Stop, children, what's that sound? Everybody look what's going down.

And then we would go right back into E and A. Okay, so let me demonstrate very quickly this beginner version. And then I'm going to show you some little more spices you can throw in. Still at the beginner level, but maybe to just give it a little bit more energy and spunk. So let me do this real quick demo. I'm going to do a verse and chorus here.

So we got 1, 2, 3, 4. Something happening here.

Da da da da da da da. 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4.

1. Here's the chorus.

3, 4. And 1, 2, 1, 2. A, 2. And C2. And E. 2, 3, 4. A, 2, 3, 4.

All right, so that's how we would play through the verse in the chorus at the most simplistic level of this song. What I'm going to do next is show you some other strumming patterns that you might want to do to spice it up a little bit. If you're enjoying this lesson, make sure to subscribe to my channel and turn your notifications on this way. YouTube will tell you when I release more lessons just like this one. So all we're going to do for this kind of late beginner or more advanced beginner is we're just going to add in some more strumming. So we're going to actually be doing quarter note strumming. 1, 2, 3, 4. And we're going to put an up on the end. So instead of just holding a strum for a count of four. 1, 2, 3, 4. We're going to do four down strums.

1, 2, 3, four.

And then we're going to do an up on the end.

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

And then we're going to switch to an A chord.

Down, down, down, down, up.

Right back to the E chord.

Down, down, down, down, up.

And then back to the A.

1, 2, 3, 4.

And so if I played it up to tempo, it's going to be 1.

2, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. And 1, 2, 3, 4. And 1, 2, 3, four. And 1, 2, 3.

One more time.

1, 2, 3, four. And down, down, down, down, up.

All right, so we're still keeping the verse very, very simple. The chorus, we're going to do something a little bit different because the chorus has a bit more energy to it. So we're going to actually do something different. So this will be interesting. If you're used to sticking to one strumming pattern, maybe you just keep doing that for the chorus. Or if you're looking for a little challenge, you can try this. So when we get to the chorus, we're going to be going down, down, up. So one, two, and. And we're going to do that for each chord.

So it's going to be 1, 2.

And switch to D3, 4. And now switch to a 1, 2, and switch to C1, 1, 2, M. So how's that gonna start?

It's time to stop, children. What's that sound? Everybody look what's going down.

And then right back to your first strumming pattern.

Okay, now I did that and you were like, oh, yeah, that's starting to sound more like the song now. There's a little bit more energy to it. So those are your strumming options. You can keep it very, very simple with just doing one strum per chord and letting it ring out for four beats.

Or you can do 1, 2, 3, 4, and.

Down, down, up.

And then when you get to the.

Chorus, it'll be up, down, up, down, down, up, down, down, up, down, down, up.

Okay, so there you go. That is kind of a little more spice for you guys who aren't absolute beginners. So now I'm going to show you a little bit of a little intro lick. This plays throughout the song. So let's get into that. If you're liking this video so far, I would really appreciate a thumbs up because it shows more of my videos to viewers just like you. All right, so now I'm going to play a really simple intro for you. And this is played over the verses between the E and the A chord. And you're going to hear this distinctness because when we play over the E, we have the open E string, this top string ringing. And when we play over the A chord, the open A string is ringing the fifth string. So you'll be alternating between E and A. But let me just show you what it's going to sound like first. So it's going to sound like this.

So you hear that? The alternating between those bass notes. So let's talk about how exactly we're going to go about playing this. So the first note is the open E string. Okay. Nothing with your fretting hand. Open E string, we're going to play with our third finger on the second fret. Why? I'm going to show you in a second. So we're going to play the second fret on the A string and going to slide it up to the fourth fret.

Hear that? So it's one pick, two notes.

Hear that?

So if you're not good at sliding, you can just play 2 4. But the song is definitely has a slide in it. So it's the Open E String 2 slide to 4. And now you'll see why we did that because now our first finger is in place for the second fret on the D string. So we have Open E string 2 slide to 4, second fret on the D string, back to the fourth fret on the A string and then open A string so it's open E2 slide to 4.

Second fret first finger on the D string, back with the third finger to the fourth fret on the A string and then open A. So all of that together is.

Alright, that's the first part.

Now the second part that open A rings and carries over into the next part which we just kind of almost repeat exactly what we do. We come back to the second fret on the D string, slide up to 4, first fret again down to the D string, second fret back to the fourth fret on the A string. But this time we hit the open E string on the end. So the first time through it's this.

Open A. And now we loop.

Okay, so first time E.

To A. Second time through.

To E.

A.

So it kind of becomes a round once you play that first bass note. So it starts with the open E. So it's gonna sound like this.

A slide 2, 4e slide 2 for A. Slide 2 for E. Slide 2 for A. Slide 2 for e. Slide 2 for A, slide 2 for E. All give that a try. See if you can figure that out and get that working. It's a cool little thing that you can play over the music if you're interested in giving that a try. Hope you guys enjoyed this lesson. Just so you know, I do have a beginner guitar course. Or if you're looking for a way to learn guitar in a step by step manner that makes a lot of sense. Go check that out. I'll put a link in the description below. YouTube's gonna pop up a couple more videos over here. Feel free to go and check those out and see if there's something else you guys enjoy. I'll see you in another lesson video.