Lauren Bateman teaches a two-chord version of America's 'Horse with No Name' for beginners. You need E minor and a D6/9 chord (just shift two fingers), then strum four downstrokes per measure. The whole song alternates between these two chords.
What I'm going to do today is show you a very, very simple chord. Not a chord, a song that you can play. This song is called Horse with no Name by the band America. And the reason I like this song and it's great for beginners, is that the chord changers are very simple. Technically, you can just use one chord for this song, but adding the second gives it a little bit more dynamics. So for this song, just to keep it simple, I'm just going to show you a quarter note strumming pattern. So that's going to be four down strums per chord or per measure. Each one of these chords is one measure. So we are going to start by playing an E minor chord.
And then to move to the next chord. This D6,9 chord. Don't worry about the name, all you have to do is worry about that you can play the chord. So we've got this E minor chord. All you have to do is take your first finger, move it up one string, and take your second finger and move it down one string. So you should have your first finger on the second fret of the top string and your second finger on the fourth, or, sorry, the third string at the second fret.
It should sound like that. So you have an E minor.
Move the first finger up one string, move the second finger down one string in the same frets and strum. So the rhythm for this is going to be four strums.
1, 2, 3, 4.
1, 2, 3, four.
1, 2, 3, Four.
1, 2, 3, FOUR. So what I'm doing is I'm just playing each chord for four strums, or we're counting to four and then I'm switching chords. So each chord is what we call one measure. Now you can get fancy with the strumming on this. And the strumming for the actual song is a little bit fancier than that. But literally that is the entire song, the entire song just keeps switching back and forth between these two chords. And that's why I like this song, because there's not a lot to memorize in terms of playing. And you can actually play an entire song from beginning to end, which is something most people can't do when they play guitar. So if we. If I just did a little bit of this for you, it would sound like this.
On the first part of the journey, I was looking at all the life. There were plants and birds and rocks and things and there was sand and hills and rings.
And that's it. And then we get to our chorus.
Which is I've been through the desert On a horse with no name Belt Good to get out of the rain? In the desert you can remember your name? Cause there ain't no one more to give you no pain. La la la la la la la la la la la la.
Very simple. If you're finding that four strums is too fast for you, then just do three strums.
1, 2, 3.
Switch.
1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, four. 1, 2, 3, Four. 1, 2, 3,4. 1, 2, 3, FOUR. 1, 2, 3, FAce. 1, 2, 3, FIne.
So there it is. Horse with no Name by the band America. Probably one of the easiest and simplest songs you can learn on the guitar.
There you go.
You can play that all the way from beginning to end. So keep practicing with that and hopefully you will get it in no time.
