How To Play Surfin USA - Guitar Lesson with COOL INTRO LICK

Hey, guitar enthusiast Lauren Bateman here. In this lesson, we're going to be doing a Beach Boy song called Surfin usa So let's get into the guitar lesson.

So we're going to break this lesson up into two different parts. I'm going to go over the main verse section with the chords and the strumming. And then at the very end of the song, if you guys stick around, I'm going to show you the cool little intro lick that you can play with this song as well. So this is a great song for practicing your A, D and E chords. I There is an E7 chord that pops in, but an easy way to play an E7 chord is if you know E major, you just lift up your third finger and that's a simple way to play an E7 chord. If you're not used to doing that, don't worry. Just play a regular E major chord and you'll be perfectly fine. So there's a couple different strumming options here, depending on which verse. So let's start with our first verse because they do something a little bit interesting with this strumming. So we're going to be using an eighth note strumming pattern. And the basis of the strumming is going to be 1, 2 and 3 and 4. N. Down, down, up, down, up, down, UP. So it's going to sound like this. If I start with an E chord, it'll be 1, 2 and 3 and 4, and 1, 2 and 3 and 4S, and down, down, up, down, up, down, UP.

Okay, now what we do in this first verse, if you go to laurenbateman.com and you pulled up the chord chart for this song already, I'll put a link in the description below for you guys. But if you pulled up this chord chart already, you're going to see that it's going to say E and then it's going to say E mute. Well, what do you mean, E mute? Well, what we're going to do is we're going to play that strumming pattern one time through. And then on the next chord, we're going to strum down on the E chord. But then we're going to mute the chord very quickly. And there's a couple ways you can do that. So let me see how I normally do it.

So I'm kind of doing both and kind of using my right hand and my left hand, whichever is more comfortable for you. We just want to deaden the strings so it has this sound. 1, 2, 3, 4. 3, 4.

Okay, now That I did it a few times. I'm muting it more with my fretting hand, which would seem pretty normal for me. So that's the essence of this strumming pattern. So it's 1, 2, and 3 and 4, and 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, and 3 and four, and one, two, three, four. So we're just going E, A, E, A. Then we do a D back to A, then E. And then that's the first verse. So the first verse will sound like this. And then we'll go through what happens with the second verse. So the first verse would sound something like this. If everybody had an ocean across the USA.

Then everybody be suffering like California, yay.

You'd see I'm wearing the baggies Orachi sandals too.

A bushy, bushy blonde head surfing USA.

Now, at this point, when we go into the second verse, we don't do the mutes this time. You actually just keep playing that strumming pattern over the entire verse. So you catch him surfing in Delta.

Santa Cruz and Trestle, Australia's Narraban. So you kind of get the idea of the second verse is you just play the strumming pattern through until the very end. So just pay attention to where these mutes come in. Because it really, really does make the song. All right. That if you really want to play it the way the Beach Boys do, you're going to want to put those mutes in where they are applicable. Hey, Guitars, I hope you're enjoying this lesson. Don't forget to subscribe and turn on your notifications this way. YouTube will show you more videos just like this one. All right, so this is going to be our little lick that we're going to learn. I just got to make sure I get it on the right string here. So it's going to be.

You hear that? So it's fast.

But that's our little intro lick that. That's kind of cool. And it's fun to play. It's a good little finger exercise. So what we're doing is we're starting on the D string at the seventh fret and the fingers we're going to be using. So if you guys have practiced my spider exercise, this will come in handy because you're going to be using those first three fingers. So we're starting with the third finger on the D string at the seventh fret, okay. Then we're coming down to the G string and we're playing six, seven. Okay? So it's seven with the third finger come down a string Six, seven. With the second and third fingers. All right.

Those are the first three notes. Boom, bom bom. Seven, six, seven. And then we're going to hit three fives on the B string real quick. Okay? Five, five, five. So you got seven, six, seven, five, five, five. Now we're going to come backwards. So we're coming back up to the G string. 7, 6, and then 7 on the D string. Okay, there's still more, but let's go over what we've learned so far. So it's 7, 6, 7, 5, 5, 5. Now come backwards. 7, 6, 7. Now we're gonna go down one more time. 6, 7, 5. That's the whole thing. So it's 3.

Okay, one more time. Really slow from the top.

Pick up the speed just a little bit.

One more time at that speed.

And full speed.

Okay? So you can see it's really flying. But it is. It's a really great finger exercise. If you guys are looking for a fun little finger exercise that's musical and enjoyable, this is it all day.

And that's your intro to the song. And then you would just run right into those verses and start strumming. If you guys are learning guitar on your own here on YouTube and you're looking for a little bit more structure in your practice and you're playing and you enjoy my teaching, I just want to let you know I do have a full guitar course, the seven level guitar System. I'll put a link in the description below. You guys can go check that out. If you want more help with your guitar playing, YouTube's going to pop up a couple more videos over there. Go check those out and hope to see you guys in a lesson video real soon.