Lauren Bateman teaches three ways to play "Leaving on a Jet Plane" with just G, C, and D chords. Learn a basic strum, a syncopated version with a muted beat, or a picking pattern that mixes both techniques.
I'm leaving on a jet plane I don't know when I'll be back again.
Leaving on a Jet Plane is an amazing three chord song. The guitar chords we're going to be using are G, C and D. And if you know my two finger versions, you can use those as well. For this song. This is really a lot of fun. I'm going to show you three ways to, to go about playing this. From probably the most simple to the most difficult.
Now I should mention that we're not going to be doing really any finger picking in this lesson. This is going to be a simplified strumming lesson because that's my goal here. My name is Lauren Bateman and I make guitar make sense so that you can have a lot more fun playing your favorite songs just like this one. So before we get into the chord progressions for the verse and the chorus of this song, let's, let's talk about the three different options that you can play strumming wise for this song. And you can alternate between these. Just because you start with one doesn't mean you have to stay on one. But for simplicity's sake, if you want to pick one and use it for the entire thing, that's fine. So the first one is going to be our non syncopated pattern, which is probably the easiest. And it's going to be 1, 2 and 3 and 4. And now for those of you who don't know what syncopated means, it means there's a down strum on every downbeat. 1, 2, 3, 4. We always have a down strum. So for this strumming pattern, if I play my G chord here, it's going to be down, down, up, down, up, down, up. So it's 1, 2 and 3 and 4 and 1, 2 and 3 and 4and 1, 2 and 3 and 4.
And.
I'm leaving on a jet plane don't know when I'll be back again.
Now the second strumming pattern I'm going to you is a syncopated pattern which means we're losing one of our downbeats. So it's going to be 1, 2 and, and 4 and 1, 2 and, and 4. And so we're eliminating the strum on the three. Now your hand is still going to do a down strum as if it's there. It's just not going to hit the string. So it's literally almost the exact same strumming pattern I just showed you. Except we don't hit the strings on the three for that down so it'll sound like this one, two M and.
Four and one, two M and four.
And down, down, up, up, down, up.
Down, down, up, up, down, up.
And then the third option is going to be a slight picking pattern that you guys can use for these verses. Like I said, this song, if you listen to the original, it's really intricate feel, finger picking pattern. But we're keeping things simple here so that you can have fun with the song. So what I would recommend is doing a strum on your chord. So if we have a G chord, it would be strum down 1, 2, 3 and 4. And so we're gonna pick the bottom three strings. Strings 1, 2, 3. So it'll be 1, 2, 3 and 4.
And 1, 2, 3 and 4 and 1, 2, 3.
Sound like this.
All my bags are packing I'm ready to go I'm standing here outside my door Hate to wake you up to say goodbye.
So those are your three options. The easiest is the non syncopated. The hardest is the picking because as you can see, I'm watching the camera, I'm not focusing on the guitar. So. So you're going to have to have a lot of spatial awareness on your strings. Now the great thing that I love about leaving on a jet plane is it's mostly G and C. And for those of you who know my stuck like glue chords, if you want a really bright sound, it's a really simple transition to go from a G chord to a C add nine chord. It won't sound exactly like the song but it's a great way to simplify things even, even more. If you find your G to C chord change very hard. A lot of students do. That's very common. So I'm going to do a playthrough of the song here and if you guys want to follow along, you can go find the lesson page on my website. Now the great thing about this song is the chord progression is gc, G, C, G C, D, D. It repeats that again and it does that for the chorus. The only thing to note is on the ending of the choruses. We sometimes hold, hold that D for four measures because John holds this really long go.
So he holds it for a long time. So if you guys need to slow this down to play along with me, you can always do the settings cog down there and slow it down. 3.
All my bags are packed I'm ready to go I'm standing here outside your door I ain't awake you up to say goodbye.
But the dawn is breaking it's early morning taxi's waiting. He's blowing his horn. I'm already so lonesome I could die.
So kiss me and smile for me.
Tell me that you wait for me.
Hold me like you'll never let me go.
Cause I'm leaving on a jet plane. I don't know when I'll be back again. Oh, babe, I hate to see you go.
All right, back to the verse. Ready?
There's so many times I let you down. So many times I played around. I'll tell you now they don't mean a thing.
And every place I go I'll think of you. Every song I sing, I sing for you. When I come back, I'll bring your wedding ring.
So kiss me and smile for me. Tell me that you'll wait for me. Hold me like you'll never let me go.
Cause I'm leaving on a jet plane. I don't know when I'll be back again.
Babe, I hate to see you go.
Last verse. Now the time has come for you.
You.
One more time Let me kiss you. Then close your eyes and I'll be on my way.
Dream about the to come. When I won't have to leave alone. About the times I won't have to say.
So kiss me and smile for me. Tell me that you're away from me. Hold me like you never let me go.
Cause I. I'm leaving on a jet plane. I don't know when I'll be back again. Oh, babe, I hate to have you go.
Cause I'm leaving on a jet plane. I don't know, but I'll be back again. Oh, babe, I hate to go.
You guys had fun strumming away to this John Denver song? I have a great video on how to strum Country Road right over there. Go check out another John Denver lesson and I'll see you guys in the next video.
