FUN & EASIER Way To Play Fire and Rain on Guitar

Oh, I've seen fire and I've seen rain.

I've seen sunny days I thought would never end.

Hey, guitar enthusiasts. We're doing an amazing song by James Taylor called Fire and Rain. I'm going to show you some really simplified ways to go about picking this song as well as how to strum it. And we're going to go through it step by step. Let's get started.

Now, first things first, you guys will see. I have a capo here on the third fret, my kaiser capo. So all of our chords are going to be relative to the capo. The chords we're going to be using in this song are going to be A, G, D, E major and E minor. And we will also have a B minor chord that comes in. Okay, if you can do the full bar chord, awesome. If not, you can always do my four fingered easy version or the three fingered version if you have to. 4. Unfortunately, that bar chord only shows up in the choruses so it makes playing the verses nice and easy. Now, I was surprised that I hadn't done any James Taylor yet. Being from the Boston area, James was born here in Boston. So I said I gotta do a James Taylor song for the channel. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna start off with this intro and I'm gonna show you a simplified way to pick it because the song is really intricate finger picking. So let me play it first and then I'm gonna show you guys step by step how we're gonna accomplish this.

Alright, so what did I do here? What we're doing is we're working a lot on a quarter note count. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, four. And we're starting on an A major chord and we're strumming all the way down the chord and and then we're picking our way back up. We're going strings 1, 2, 3 or E, B, G. Okay, so we're strumming down and then we're picking up E, B, G. Okay, so that's what we're doing on the A chord. Now the G chord which is next, we're doing the same thing.

Okay, so we're strumming down the chord and then picking strings 1, 2, 3. Okay, but on the next chord we're going to do something just a little bit different on this D chord we're strumming down but we're only picking up on the bottom two strings because we're gonna jump to an A chord real quick on that fourth beat. So the D chord is 1, 2, 3, 4. So if I put just those first three chords together, we have the A chord.

G.

Okay, time. Starting on the A chord.

So that's kind of like the first half. Now what we're going to do is we're going to let that A chord ring into halfway into the next measure. And we're not going to start strumming again until beat three. So it's going to go 1, 2, 3, 4. Okay, so the next A chord, we're just getting the 3 and 4. Then we're going to play another A chord. This time we're going to strum and pick a.

Then we have an E major chord.

Then we have a G chord.

And then we have another G chord. And we're going to strum on 1, 2, 3, 4. Okay, so let me go through that whole intro so that you guys can hear it. So it's going to be ready.

1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, four. 1, 2, 3, Four. 1, 2, 3,4. 1, 2, 3, FOUR. 1, 2, 3, FIl. 1, 2, 3, FA. 1, 2, 3, fOUR, FOUR. 1, 2', 3, FOUR.

And again, if I play just a little bit more up to speed, it'll sound like this.

So that's probably the hardest part of the song. So it gets a little bit easier from here. We're going to be strumming from here on out. Now, the easiest strumming pattern that you could use for this, I'm going to give you two different strumming patterns. The easier one is just to do.

1, 2, and 3, 4, and. Or down, down, up, down, down, up.

Okay. And a lot of these measures in this verse are going to be split measures. So it's going to be A for two beats, then E minor for two beats, D for two beats, then A for two beats. Okay, so what does that sound like? If we go through the first chord chord progression here in the verse, it's gonna be A.

So we do it down, down, up, and then E minor.

And then D.

And then A.

If I just play through the first part of the verse, it's gonna sound like this.

Just yesterday morning, you know you were gone.

Susan, the plans they made put an.

So you see, all those chords are split except for the G chord on the end, where we would do down, down, up twice on that G chord. So maybe you're someone whose strumming is a little bit more advanced. You might want to throw in a quick 16th note. So we would be doing down, down, down, up for each chord. So that'd be 1, 2, and a 3, 4 and a. So it would sound like this.

Just yesterday morning they let me know.

You were.

The plans they made Let.

It end to you.

I walked out this morning and I wrote down this song.

I just can't remember who to sing to.

So see if you can accomplish that little extra 16th note. I think it adds a lot to the song. Go back and practice and see which strumming pattern works best for you. So the chorus is where things can get a little bit interesting. If you heard on the intro to this video, I had a little spice in there. Now the strumming patterns are basically the same. You can use the same two strumming patterns I've already showed you. Unless you want to add this little spice in there.

So what am I doing? Throwing in a little hammer on it makes it sound a little bit more like James Taylor esque. Okay. Adds a little bit of an interest, you can see. So instead of just going, you know.

1, 2 and 1, 2 and 1.

2 & 3, 4, and we can.

Throw in this little hammer. And I think it works better with the 16th note pattern. So the first two chords are the.

Same. It'd be the 1, 2 and A, 3, 4 and.

A. And when we get to this full measure of A, we're still essentially doing one, two and up, but we're throwing a hammer in the middle. So we're doing down strum on the A chord. And then we're lifting up this third finger. This third finger is lifting up. So we're basically doing an ASUS 2 chord. Okay. And we're going to strum down on the second beat. So here these sus chords have a much more open sound to them. Very, very cool sounding chords. So this is your second beat.

And then if you can see really quickly on the 16th note after the 2. So it's going to be 2e. I'm going to hammer. It's going to sound like this. So we have 1, 2, E. Okay. So we had 1, lift up the finger, two E. Okay, so that hammer is a 16th.

Note. So it's going to be 1, 2, E and up. So it's still down, down, down.

Up. For the first half of the strum, we're just adding in that little hammer.

Can you hear.

It? One, two, E and.

A.

One more time.

Okay, so that's one, two, E and A. Then we're not going to follow the same strumming pattern. We're going to do another up, down. So this would be E.

And. And then 4 and.

A. So a Little bit more of an intricate strumming pattern here. Let's go through it one more time. Okay, from the.

Beginning. So we got 1, 2, E and A, E and.

4. And. Okay, so it's down, down, down.

Up, up, down, down, down.

Up. One more.

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

Up. And I always tell people with these types of strumming patterns, sing them. Even if you're not the greatest singer, sing them. Because if you can sing something, you can usually play it. So let's go back to the A chord on the one.

Beat. So we got 1, 2, E and A, E and 4 and.

A.

One more time.

And just a little bit more up to speed for you.

Guys. I've seen fire and I've seen rain.

Seen sunny days that I thought would never end.

Seen lonely times when I could not find a.

Friend.

But I always thought that I'd see you.

Again.

They probably heard of that. A couple times I did a double hammer. So the things with. With these songs, you start getting into these more intricate songs is you start improvising a bit. You start feeling the music. That's a great thing. When that starts happening, you start feeling the music and your strumming just lets loose. And that's super fun. So it's a great song to practice some different types of strumming patterns on. Now, if you're looking for another great song to practice these types of hammer on patterns on, go check out Working Class Hero by John Lennon over here. It focuses all around an A minor chord. And I'm going to show you a bunch of different ways to pick and hammer on through this song. It's awesome. Go check it out.