Lauren Bateman teaches the guitar part to Indigo Girls' "Closer to Fine." You'll learn the capo placement, chord shapes that stay mostly in one position, and the specific strum patterns for the intro, verses, and chorus, demonstrated at both slow and full speed.
Questions this video answers
Capo at the 2nd fret.
G, Cadd9, A7sus4, Dsus4 (also uses regular D and Dsus2).
Slide a C chord up two frets (forms a D major 11).
Bass down, up, down, up.
Up, up, up, up, down, up.
Chapters
Hey, guitar enthusiasts, I'm going to be teaching you Closer to Fine by the Indigo Girls today. It has an amazing intro, but there is this really cool D chord trick I want to show you. And there's a specific timing to it, so let's get into it.
So before we get started, let's start off with our capo. We do need a capo at the second fret for this song. So I'm going to throw that on there at the second fret. So. And all of these chords will be relative to the capo. They will also sound much brighter. We're going to be using a lot of my stuck like glue chords. Okay? Those are the ones with the third and fourth finger are at the third fret of the B and E string. Okay? So you're going to be holding the fingers there when you're playing this intro. So the chords are G, we've got C, add 9. We have a 7 sus 4 and dsus 4. Okay, those are the four stuck like glue chords. G C at 9 a 7 sus 4 d sus 4 we also have a regular D chord that's going to come in as well as a DSUS 2 on our intro. We also have a regular C chord that's going to pop in. We have this fancy D chord. It's called a D major 11. Don't worry about it. It's just a fancy D chord. And if you know a C chord, guess what? Boop. Just slide it up two frets. So I'm going to be on the fifth, fourth, and third frets. And we're going to just be sliding back and forth and you're going to hear that string noise. It's okay. It's totally normal. So. So you're just going to be going from C, D major 11. C, D major 11. It's a funky sounding chord, but it's an easy chord to play if you know the C chord. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to play through this intro so that you guys can see. I'm going to do it at full speed and then I'm going to break it down step by step for you. So here's what we're going to be learning to play.
All right? So you can see it's a peppy song and there's a lot of movement. All right. This song is definitely a little bit more in the intermediate realm, but we're going to break it down step by step. Let's start with the foundation rhythm. Okay. We're going to start with that G chord and it's going to be a bass down. So instead of just doing two down strums, instead of going, we're kind of catching the bass notes of that G chord. It's going to be like if you can get the one string or one or top two strings.
So it's bass down, up, down, up. So it's 1, 2 and 4 m. 1, 2 and 4 m.
And you're going to do the same thing on that a 7 sus 4. You're just going to move that first finger.
And then we're going to do the same thing on the CAD9 chord. Except on that last upstrum, we're going to play a dsus 4. All right, so let me play the three chords so that you can hear what it's going to sound like. So we got bass down, up, down, up. Bass down, up, down, up. Face down, up, down, up. Okay, that last up, let's just do that C chord. So it's bass down, up, down, up. One more time.
Okay, so that last up on the CI9 chord is going to be a DSUS4. And this is where we start doing all those funky things with the D chord. Let's go over it step by step. So starting from that DSUS 4, that up, we're going to do another up, except we're going to a D chord. Then we're going to do another up, we're going to DSUS 2, another up, staying on DSUS 2. Then we're doing a down strum D and then an up strum DSUS 4. So it's up, up, up, up, down, up.
And now more with the timing.
So if I put it all together and play it slow, it's going to sound like this.
So if you need to pause the video to rewind this and practice it over and over again, feel free to do that if you need to. The strumming pattern, if it's helpful, all my notes are on my website, laurenbatement.com I do have the strumming pattern written out there for you so that you can practice along and play along with my notes. And for those of you who don't know me, my name is Lauren Bateman and I help make the guitar make sense. I love breaking really difficult things down step by step into little bits and pieces that you guys can put back together to play the songs that you know and love. Just like this. Now, the great thing about that intro is, is once you know that you've already played half of the verses. Because the verses start off the same exact way, same strumming pattern.
I'm trying to tell you something about my life.
Maybe give you insight between black and white.
So now this is where that fancy D chord comes in, where we're sliding to the C chord. We're going to change the strumming pattern. Okay? So we have a different strumming pattern. There's a lot of improvisation going on here. So I don't hear this strumming pattern the entire time. There's some openness. This is going to be a foundation. You can play with it as much or as little as you want to. The strumming pattern we're going to use is down, down, up, up, down.
Okay? And we're going to do two measures of the D chord, two measures of C, two measures of D, two measures of C. And then it jumps right back into the intro. So it's going to sound like this.
So the Indigo Girls, they're not just straightforward people. We're going to jump into a second verse, but this verse ends a little bit deeper, differently than our first verse. There's going to be a mute. There's going to be a timing pause that comes in. And very quickly we're going to be going from a CN9 chord to the G chord. So it's going to be 1, 2. And then we're going to mute the guitar. And this comes off of a G chord. Okay? So we're going to do a full measure of the G chord.
And then C3, little pause. All right, let me play through the second verse so that you guys can hear how it sounds. Ready? So we got.
Well, darkness has a hunger that's insatiable.
And lightness has a call that's hard.
To hear.
While I wrap myself around me like a blanket Wrong lyrics. I sailed the ship of safety till I sank it Crawling on your shores.
Okay, so you can hear that mute. And I'm glad we're going over that now because in this next chorus section where that mutes gonna pop up as well as a different mute and a different strumming pattern. Okay, we're getting into intermediate level songs here. We're not just playing the same strumming pattern anymore. Beginning to end. We gotta mix things up. And that's what's so great about this song. There's so many different dynamics. There's a lot for you to learn here. Strumming wise and rhythmically. Let me play through the chorus and then I'm going to go back and tell you what the different strumming patterns are that I'm doing.
A creepy land.
And the less I see my soul seems undefinitive the closer I am to find.
So you can see we had that first pause that we did in the verse that happened. And then there was a different pause after this D major 11 chord. We were doing our strumming pattern.
And that's a very aggressive one and two. Down, up, down.
And the less I seek my source for some definitive.
And it goes along with the lyrics.
Definitive.
It's definitive. Okay. Down, up, down. And then it goes right back into that intro strum. But we're singing closer to fine. And this song is also difficult from the intricacy of trying to sing and play this strumming pattern at the same time. You really have to have the strumming pattern down memorized. And you should be able to walk around the room and play this strumming pattern at the same time to really be able to sing and play the song at the same time. So what I want to do now is I want to do a full intro, the first two verses in the chorus. Because once you can play through that, you can play through the entire song. I'm going to do it a little bit more at full speed. So if you need to use the settings clog to slow me down, go right ahead and do that. One, two, Here we go.
Well, I'm trying to tell you something about my life.
Maybe give you inside between black and white.
And the best.
Thing you've ever done for me.
To help me take my life necessary it's only life after all yeah.
Well done. Just has a hunger that's insatiable.
Hell I miss how's he?
I wrapped my fear around me like a blanket.
Sail my ship of safety till I sank in crawling on your shore.
I went to the doctor I went to the mountain look to the children I drank from the fountain this.
Morning Answered his question.
I hope you guys enjoyed all this strumming in the song. If you're interested in learning more intricate strumming patterns using the same stuck like glue chords, then I highly recommend you check out my Wonderwall video right over there. We're going to be learning a super fun strumming pattern. I'm going to go through it step by step. See you in that lesson.
