Lauren Bateman teaches Tom Petty's Free Falling with three D-chord shapes and two strumming patterns, from simple down-strums to 16th-note variations. Use a capo at fret 4 to match the original key for singing.
Hey, guys, Lauren Bateman here, and I'm going to show you a really simple song to play. It's Free Falling by Tom Petty. I'm going to show you a very beginner way to do this as well as how to spice it up as well. So let's get into the lesson video.
So if you guys need a chord chart to see the lyrics for this, go over to my website, laurenbateman.com I'll put a link in the description below for you guys to go check that. That out. So let's talk about the chords we're going to be using first. We're going to be using three variations of a D chord. So we're going to be using D major, so hopefully you know that chord already. We're going to be using a DSUS4, which is we're going to put the pinky down on the bottom E string at the third fret. So you have a D chord. You can leave this finger down for now. Put the pinky down.
All right, so it's D. We have DSUS 4. Lift up your pinky. Play a D again and then lift up your second finger. And we have dsus2. You hear that? So we have dsus2d, d4. Dsus4. All right, one more time. Starting from dsus4, we have dsus4 with the pinky down. Lift up the pinky. You have a D chord. Lift up your second finger. You have a DSUS 2. So I would just work. Start by practicing, working through those changes. DSUS 2, D4, 4, D2.
So this is a very common thing that is done in music. I mean, you think of, like, Led Zeppelin, Stairway to Heaven.
So that's Osaso. It's a very, very common, this D, DSUS 2. DSUS 4 thing. So great skill and technique to get yourself familiar with hearing, because you're going to hear it a lot in music. It's used over and over again. So first, let's talk about the timing. Let's talk. Let's do the beginner version first, and then I'm going to do the more intermediate version and show you how this all comes together. Now, I'm going to try and make this as beginner level as possible for the timing here. And there's a little bit of syncopation, but I think if you just do one strum per chord, you're going to be fine here. So we're going to start with our d chord on one. And the timing is 1, 2 and 1 and 2.
And it's going to be d and sus 4.
Those are the two chords.
So it's going to be 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4, and.
Just use down strums. All right, there's the timing.
1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and.
One more time.
1 and 2 and 3 and four and.
All right, so a little more up to speed.
One and two and three and four and one and two and three and four and.
All right, that's the timing of your first two chords. Now the timing to get back. And then once you get this, it's just a loop over and over again. The next parts we've done. So we're going to start on dsus4 and we're going to go dsus4 d dsus2. All right, and it's going to be 1 and. Okay, so dsus4 is 1. D major is. And.
Okay, 1 and.
And then it's the and of 2 again. And.
Let me just play that for you guys to process.
So it's going to be 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4and.
All right, so let me do this at a very, very slow tempo, so bear with me. But I'm doing it slow so that you guys can hear these rhythms. And then I'll play it up to speed.
So we got 3 and 4, 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3, 4 and 1 and 2 and three and four and 1 and 2 and 3 and four and.
All right, so if I play it a little bit faster.
1, 2, 3, 4.
1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4, 1 and 2 and 3 and 4. 1 and 2 and 3, and let's loop it again. 1 and 2 and 3 and four and 1 and 2 and 3s time. 1 and 2 and 3 and Four and 1 and 2 and 3 and four, and.
If you guys are interested in learning a little bit more about rhythm in strumming, I do have an online guitar course. Laurenbateman.com course I'll put a link in the description below and you guys can go check that out. Let's get back into the video. Now, what I'm going to do is I'm going to show you an intermediate way. This is usually how I will play this song live. When I play live, because my voice is higher, I'll usually capo. I'll put a capo on this to make it a little bit easier for me to Sing, change keys. So what we're going to do here, we're using the same thing and we're using the same accents, the same timing, except I'm going to throw a 16th note strumming pattern underneath it. So it's going to sound like this.
One E and a two E and a three E and a four E and A.
Right.
So this is what I'm throwing under it.
So all I'm doing is I'm throwing the accents on top of that rhythm in the same example, exact spot. So if this is my 1e and.
A 2e and a 3e and a 4e and a 1 and.
And 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and two and three and four and one and two and three and four.
And so I always tell people, like, if you're having a hard time figuring out the timing, sing it.
And 4 and da da.
Da.
She's a good girl.
See, this is why I capo it. If you are a female and you want to sing this song, you might want to capo it because if you play it down there for me, it's. It's way too low. So when I play this song and I play it live, I always capo it, and I usually capo it around the fourth fret, which makes it. I'm an alto, so it makes it a little bit easier for me to sing, you know, so that when you get to those high parts and the chorus is the same thing.
And I'm free.
Free fall.
So that's the great thing about this song is because once you learn that little progression, it's the same thing for the entire song. You don't have to change. You can keep the strumming pattern the same. Super cool song. I love performing this song live. Hope you guys enjoyed this lesson and that you're able to pick this one up pretty quickly. At least the beginner version. YouTube's gonna pop up a couple more videos over there. Go check those out. And finally, don't forget to like my video. Hope you guys enjoyed it and I'll see you in another lesson video.
