Lauren Bateman teaches a simplified version of The Band's "Up On Cripple Creek" using open chords A, D, and E in the verse, with F# minor and G for the chorus. She breaks down a two-measure strumming pattern and shows how to fake the F# minor bar chord by playing just the top three strings of an A shape.
Questions this video answers
A, D, and E major.
F# minor and G are added; D and E also appear (two A's, two D's, two E's, then F# minor and G).
Measure 1: down, down, down, down, up. Measure 2: four down strums (counts of four).
Play an A-shaped chord on the bottom three strings (play only the lowest three strings of an A shape) to approximate F# minor.
Chapters
Hey, guitar enthusiast. Lauren Bateman here. And in this lesson we're gonna do a super easy beginner version of the bands up on Cripple Creek. Let's get into the lesson.
Now what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna tell you the chords we're gonna use for this song. I'll go over some simple strumming patterns and then we'll get into how to play along with the verse and the chorus. So first off, let's talk about the chords. The this song's great because we're mainly using open chords. We're going to be using an A, D and E chords. And those are the ones we use the most. We only use those in the verse. In the chorus we're going to do an F sharp minor and a G chord. Now I do have an easy fix for the F sharp minor. I'll get to that when we get into the chorus. But for the verse now all you have to worry about is the A chord, the D chord and the E major chord. If you got those, you're going to be good on this verse. So the first thing is the intro and that's all just A. There's going to be like this really intricate bass line. Don't worry about that. Remember, we're keeping this super simple. So all I want you to do for strumming pattern is we're just going to do. It's going to be a two measure pattern. But you're going to see what I'm going to talk about. I'm keeping it really simple here. So the first time we play a chord, because most of these chords are two measures, that means we're going to count to four two times. 1, 2, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. There's a couple instances where that doesn't happen and I'll let you know where that is. But the first time we play on a chord, I want you to go.
1, 2, 3, 4. And down, down, down, down, up.
And then the second measure we're just going to do four downs.
One, two, three, four. So together it would be one, two, three, four. And 1, 2, 3, 4.
Okay, one more time.
1, 2, 3, four. And 1, 2, 3, 4.
Super simple, right? Not too hard. Now let's talk about the verse chord progression and then we'll play through with the rhythm. All right, so the verse is going to be double A, double D, double A. Then one measure of D and one measure of E. And then it repeats that. So for those chords you can choose whichever one you want to do you can do the down, down, down, up or just the four downs? I'm probably going to throw the upping because I think it will probably sound a little bit nicer. But if your chord changes are slow, don't worry about throwing that up in just yet. All right, so let's take it from the verse. I admit I don't know the verse as well as the chorus. I'm not going to sing, so I don't butcher it. But we're going to go through this progression twice. All right, and ready?
One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four dot and one, two, three, four. D, two, three, four. And 1, 2, 3, 4. A, 2, 3, 4. And 1, 2, 3rd, 4. 1, 2, 3,4. And 1, 2, 3, 4. And 1, 2, 3,4. And 1, 2, 3, four, three. 1, 2, 3, 4. And 1, 2, 3rd, four. 1, 2, 3, four. And 1, 2, 3rd and 4. 1, 2, 3rd,4. And 1, 2nd, 3,4. And.
And there you go. That's how you're going to play all of the verses in this song. So now let's talk about our chorus. Hey, guys, I hope you're enjoying this lesson video so far. If you if you're not subscribed to my channel, make sure to subscribe and turn the notifications on so that you can see when I release new lessons just like this one. So the first thing I want to talk about is the different chords. So we're still using a D and E, but we do have a measure of G that comes in at the end and a measure of F sharp minor. Now, I said I was going to give you an easy fix because F sharp minor unfortunately is a bar chord. And a lot of beginners have very hard time playing bar chords. So I teach you easy fixes. So the easy fix for the F sharp minor, it's not the great. It's not as great as a full bar chord, but it'll work. For this song, you already know an A chord because you're playing it in the song. All you have to do is take your A chord and move it down to the bottom three strings and play those bottom three strings. Okay, so that's going to be your easy F sharp minor. So we have an A chord down three strings each. Easy F sharp minor. A chord, easy F sharp minor. Alright, there you go. So that's what we got. Let's talk about the chord progression. So we have two A's, two D's, two E's, F sharp minor and G. All right, I'm going to play through this once and we're going to use the same chord progression or same strumming pattern. Sorry.
One, two, three and four.
One, two, three, four.
And one, two, three, four.
So ready? We're going to play that right now. 1, 2, 3, 4.
And that's what I would recommend you do. Just strum that G chord on the end and let it ring out. I think it's gonna sound a lot cooler and be a little bit more reminiscent of the song. So again, that F sharp minor is.
1, 2, 3, 4. Or 1, 2, 3, 4 and. And then G2, 3, 4.
And then we get back into the verse. So there you have it. That's up on Cripple Creek by the band. If you guys are interested in learning more about simple guitar techniques and learning how to play guitar, I do have a guitar course, a seven level guitar system that teach you all about strumming chords, how to make the chord changes faster and stuff like that. I'll put a link in the description below and you guys can go check that out. YouTube is going to pop up a couple more videos over there, but go check them out. Maybe there's something you like and hopefully I'll see you guys in another lesson video.
