I Shot The Sheriff Guitar Lesson with COOL Reggae Strumming!

Hey, guitar enthusiasts, welcome back, Lauren Bateman. Here in this lesson video, we're going over a super cool song by Eric Clapton called I Shot the Sheriff. Let's get into the video.

So I know this was originally done by Bob Marley, but we're doing the Clapton version here because I like that version. And he's going to maintain some of the Ray Gay feel on this song. Now, the main riff I'm going to show you is definitely something you could play at the beginner level. But some of the strumming we're going to be doing will require. Require the use of bar chords. So if you're an absolute beginner, this may not be the best song for you. But feel free to scroll ahead to go learn that main riff because we're going to get into the chords right now. So the chords we're going to be using in this song is the G minor bar chord, a C minor bar chord, and a D minor bar chord. Now, could you use power chords? Yes. You could use a G5, a C5, and a D5 power chord. Those will work too. I like using the full bar chord because of the strumming pattern I'm going to show you later in this song, I think requires a little bit more of the full bar chord. Hey, guys, real quick, before we get into that strumming pattern, I just want to give a shout out to Jer Mooney for from Galway. He gave me a wonderful donation on the website. You guys can always go to laurenbatement.com backslash donate if you support what I do here. Really appreciate it. Just wanted to give a real quick shout out to Jer there. So this song actually starts on the chorus, right. Which is pretty cool. And the chord progression is going to be G minor, C, G minor C, G minor C, G minor C. So even though we're using barre chords, the chord progressions in these songs are very, very simple. So that's great. All right, so first, let's talk about the first strumming pattern, which is the simplest, which is just up strums. And we're going to be kind of muting the chord a little bit, which is why I like using the bar chord. But it's going to sound like this.

And then we go to our. What is it? C minor.

So what I'm doing is I'm strumming up on the chord and then I'm releasing the pressure on the chord to immediately mute the string. If I didn't do that, this is what it would sound like.

Now, while that doesn't kill the song. It would work if you're not used to doing this. So do that if you need to. But this will sound more like that reggae, that sharp sound. That's how they get it. They play up, strum, and then they release the pressure on the chord, which kills it very fast. So it'll sound like this.

That's how you get that really sharp kind of reggae sound on your guitar. So the strumming pattern that I like to use, and I think, which is a little bit more. What they're doing on the recording is more of a triplet kind of feel. So it's 1 and a 2 and 3 and a 4 and. All right, and we're going to be doing some muting on this. But before we get into the muting, let's just go through this harder strumming pattern and what it's going to sound like without the muting. So it'll be down, down, up, and then two and. Okay, so it's down, down, up, down.

Down.

Just like that. And then we just repeat that twice.

So it's down, down, up, down, down, down, down, up, down, down.

And I said it was a triplet feel earlier. It's not a triplet. It's a 16th note. Sorry, guys. Sorry about that. Don't want. Don't want to confuse you. So I want to correct myself. So it's going to be 1 and.

A 2 and 3 and a 4, and 1 and a 2 and 3 and A 4 and.

Okay, so let's add the muting now over this. So this is what it's going to sound like.

Super cool. I really like this song. Just for these strumming patterns. It's awesome. All right, so what we're doing is. We're doing all the muting with our fretting hand. We're not doing any of the muting with the palm. This is not a palm muting exercise. Okay, so what we're going to be doing is we're going to be releasing. We're holding the chord. I have the G minor chord ready to go, but I don't have any pressure on the strings. And it's just a scratch. We're just scratching down the strings. So we're doing down, and then the next down, up, we're going to squeeze the strings and then release them. Okay, so it's going to be.

Try that again.

So down, down, up.

Okay. And then on the 2 4, we're going to mute the 2, but we're going to do the. And. Okay. So it's going to be 1 and.

A 2 and 1 and a 2 and.

Hear that.

And then you just repeat that in a round. So three would be the same. We mute the three. So we're basically muting all of the downbeats. The 1, 2, 3, 4 on this. So if I played that, it's going.

To be one and a two and three and a four and.

All right, one more time.

One and a two and three and a four and.

All right, you're here. I'm muting every single. So it's kind of like doing what we did earlier. One.

Except I'm actually hitting the down strums. I'm hitting the down strums. And maybe that's how you want to start. You might want to go.

But the full version would be.

Okay. So that's the strumming pattern we're going to use for this song. Hey, guys, I hope you're enjoying this lesson so far. It's super cool with all this strumming. Don't forget to subscribe to the channel. Turn on the notifications this way. YouTube will let you know when I release videos just like this one. Alright, so before we get into what's going to happen on the verse, I just want to go over the main riff that comes in on this song. It usually comes in at the end of the verses. So let's get into that. We're going to be playing on the top three strings of our guitar and we're going to be using fingers three and one. Ok, we're going to be starting on the D string and it's going to go five, three. Ok? With fingers three, one. So it's going to be five, three. Then we're going to move up to the A string and it's going to be 5, 3 again. Okay, so we've got 5, 3 up a string, 5, 3. Then we're going to go to 1. Okay, so it's 5, 3, 5, 3, 1 on the A string. And then we're going to Repeat that again. 5, 3, 1 on the A string, 5, 3, 1 and then 3 on the final top string. So if I go again, it's going to be 5, 3, 5, 3, 1. 5, 3, 1, 3. And the timing of it sounds like this.

Okay, again, here it is.

And you notice when I'm going from three to one, I'm just kind of moving my first finger back on that fret. So again.

Last time.

All right, and we will throw this in at the end of the verses before it goes back into the chorus. So it'll be.

So that's where that main little riff would. Would come in. So the next section of the song is going to be what are we going to do over the verses? So this is where that D minor chord comes in. Now we have a couple splits measures. Fortunately, the chord progression remains the same for the entire verse. So we have C minor and D minor splitting a measure and then G minor doing a whole measure. So each one of those chords would be half of the strumming pattern. So if we started on C minor.

Okay. And then D minor would be.

Okay. So just take that strumming pattern we already had. Split it in half. C minor starting.

And then two measures of G, I think. Or no, just one measure of G.

Okay. So it's half a measure one and a two and half a measure three.

And a four and. And then G minor one and a two and three and a four.

And I did that inverted, but you guys get the gist of it. Here it is.

Again.

Alright, so that's how we're going to do the strumming pattern for the verse. And then of course, at the very end we've got our.

So I just went and checked to make sure I was fully accurate because I wanted to give you guys the right information. You do play that G minor for a full measure. So it would be.

And then you would jump into this the next chorus. This one might take a little practice with the strumming patterns, but go back, watch them over and over again. Make sure to like this video. If you thought it was a good lesson, I appreciate that. YouTube's gonna pop up a couple more videos over here. Go check those out or rewind this one to go back and practice.