In My Life Guitar Lesson with FUN Intro

Hey, guitar enthusiasts. I have an amazing song we're doing in My Life by the Beatles. This is going to be a great guitar lesson. We have a really fun intro section, we have multiple strumming patterns and it's just a really fun song to play. So let's get started by just talking about the chords we're going to be using. I would not consider this song a beginner song because there are a couple bar chords that come into play, but mainly it's going to be an A major chord with. We have a seven, we have a D chord, we have a D minor chord. We have E major. We have F sharp minor, which is our first. It's a horrible bar chord. Lauren. F sharp minor. And then we have a B bar chord. You can play a B bar chord up here if you like the F shaped version better. But you can hear how bright it sounds. So I prefer to play it more down in this open position, the lower. The lower frets because it's. It's warmer and it just sounds better. Okay. If you're not great at the B bar chord, you could always play a B power chord. It'll work. It's not the full B chord, but it will help you. Another option is to play B7, but B7, it's very, very twangy. So it might not fit the song, but you can give it a try and see what you like. Hopefully you can do a B bar chord, but those are a couple options if you. You can't. So those are our chords. Before we get into what the strumming pattern is, let's talk about how this song starts, which is the really, really fun intro section.

So we're kind of going to be using some hybrid picking on this. Let me just show you what it's going to sound like first and then we'll go through it step by step. So it's going to sound like this.

Okay. You can kind of hear that intro and it comes into the song a few other times. So what we're going to do is we're just going to take it step by step. So the first part, I'm kind of hybrid picking. Okay. Because I'm using my pick. Because I have a pick in my hand. I'm using my pick to hit the A string. Okay. Because it's almost like we're playing an A chord here. But all we're doing is we're picking the A string and the B string. Okay. So I don't need to play an entire A chord. So I'm Going to use my first finger and I'm going to show you why in two seconds. So we're going to pluck the bass note with the pick. And then with my ring finger. Okay, My ring finger, I'm grabbing the B string. So I'm playing both of those strings at the same time. And the reason I'm using my first finger, because I'm going to use my pinky to stretch to that fifth fret on the high E string. Now, some of you, that might be too much of a stretch. You might have to let go of the second fret to reach that note. That's okay. But I'm going to show you why I'm going to try and reach. Because the next note.

We'Re coming back to that second fret for a hammer. Okay. And you'll. If you're watching the close up, I'm actually finger picking this intro. Other than that bass note with the pick, I'm using my middle finger.

Ring finger.

Middle finger. Okay? So I'm going.

Now that note. I'm plucking the second, the second fret on the B string. And I'm hammering with my third finger. Now, with hammer ons, you have to go fast. If your hammer on is doing this.

It means one, you're probably not using enough strength. And maybe you're going too slow. I tell people it's like snapping your finger. If you go slow, you don't hear anything. But if you go fast.

You actually get the snap of the finger. So it's the same thing with the hammer on.

You really gotta hammer that finger down onto the string. If you have trouble with hammer ons, you could just pluck the string twice. All right, but I'm gonna do a hammer. So far we have.

And then with my ring finger, I'm gonna grab the open E string.

And then it's the fourth fret. Okay? So I'm going to grab the open E string and then the fourth fret.

Okay. And for that I'm just using my ring finger to pluck twice.

Okay. And at that point, you could release the second finger from the fret. But that is our intro. So let's give it a try. One, two, three. Here we go.

Let's try it again. And.

Okay, and that's our intro. And then we start strumming. So let's talk about the two strumming patterns. There's actually going to be three strumming patterns, but I'm going to talk about the two for the verse first. So we're going to Start. A lot of these chords are split measures. And if you need notes, I do have lesson notes over on my website, laurenbatement.com all right, we're going to start off with split measures. So the strumming pattern we're going to.

Be doing is down, down, up, down, down, up.

Okay. Just a down, down, up for each chord. And then what we're going to do is we're going to be splitting to.

A down, down, up, up, down, up.

So we're going to be switching between two strumming patterns. So let's just practice that. So we'll just stay on an A chord for now. And we're going to go down, down.

Up, down, down, up, down, down, up, up, down, up, down, down, up, down, down, up, down, down, up.

All right, now on your own.

Okay, so now if I put the cords over it, it's going to be an A, E, F sharp minor, A7. Okay. But the caveat here, okay, is that the A7 is switching on the up strum after the two. This is what it's going to sound like.

So it's going to be down, down, up, down, down, up, down, down, up, up, down, up.

Okay, so there's a little bit. We call this syncopation in music, a little bit of a syncopated timing. So it's going to be 1, 2.

And 3, 4, and 1, 2 and.

And 4. And. Okay. And then our next measure, the D.

Would be down, down, up. D minor would be down, down, up.

And then the A is a full measure here.

Down, down, up, up, down, up.

So the first measure, we're doing this.

Down, down, up, down, down, up.

And then the second measure, we're doing the fold. Down, down, up, up, down, up. So we're going to put the chords on screen here just to play through this first section so you can see how it sounds and how it feels. So we got one, two.

There are places I remember.

All my.

Life.

Though some have changed some but ever not for better.

Some have gone.

And some remain so there you go.

But you can hear when we go from that F sharp minor, A7, it sounds a little rushed. We call that we're hopping the rhythm. We're kind of rushing. Feels like we're rushing because we're changing the chord on the up strum versus the down strum. So that's what creates that feel in that verse. Now, the bridge section next. We don't have any split measures, but what we do have are two strumming patterns. Or when I play it, I would like to play it this way because I feel like, you know, for me, whenever I'm playing, I'm usually playing by myself. I don't sometimes have a band anymore. I used to, but I'm trying to create the feel of the music. So what I'm going to do on this bridge section is the two strumming patterns. We'll do a D chord here. It's going to be 1 and 2 and 3 and 4. And we're going to do that for two measures, and then we're going to.

Switch to down, down, up, up, down.

Up for two measures. Okay, so what we're going to do is we're just going to try going between these two strumming patterns. Two measures, 1 and 2 and 3 and 4. And. And then two measures of down, down, up, up, down, up. And then we'll throw it over the chord progression. Okay, so we got 1, 2, 3, 4.

1 and 2 and 3 and 4.

And 1 and 2 and 3 and 4. And down, down, up, up, up, down, up, down, down, up.

Let's do it again.

One more time.

All right, so if I put this over the bridge section now, it's going to sound like this.

All these places have their moments with lovers and friends I still recall Some are dead and some are living.

In my life I love them all and.

Then right after that bridge, we go right back into.

Okay, so that interlude or that intro comes in now as the interlude between the next verse. Okay, so that is essentially the entire form almost for this song. There are a couple spots. The solo, we're just going to be strumming chords because that's where the keyboard comes in and. Or the organ comes in and does its really, really cool solo. And then we have another bridge. After that, we do an interlude. And then after the first interlude, we're going to do D minor.

My life I love you more.

We have our intro, but the ending is a little bit different. So we're going to do the intro one time.

As normal. Now, my third finger is on the fourth fret of the high E string. What we're going to do is we're going to make a D7 chord shape here. So it's going to be 4, 3, 4. And it's going to be strum 2, 4. And then we're going to play an A chord.

Okay, so the ending is going to be.

I hit the right chord. See, I've been playing guitar for years, and I still make mistakes. So if you're making mistakes, don't worry. And I leave My mistakes in. So people see, I'm not perfect. I'm definitely not a perfect guitar player. But we're all. We're learning, right? We're all learning. I literally just learned how to play this song last week. I'd actually never play. I love this song. I love the Beatles. I'd never played it on the guitar before, so. See, sometimes even I have to practice things, too. So, speaking of practice, let's try playing this through, beginning to end, as best as possible. If you need to use the settings cog to slow me down, you can. Fortunately, this is a slower song. If you cannot transition in and out of the intro yet, don't worry. Just focus on the strumming. And if you can't play that B chord, don't worry. Just count to four and jump back in with me when you're on the chords that you do know. Let's give it a try. All right, let's take it from the top. Ready? 1, 2, 3, 4.

There are places I'll remember all my life.

Though some have changed Some forever Not for better.

Some have gone.

And some remain all these places have their moments with lovers and friends I still can recall Some are dead and some are living.

In my high life I love them all.

But of all these friends and lovers there's no one compares to you and these memories lose their meaning When I think of love as something new Though I know I'll never lose affection For People and things that went before I know Fall off and stop and think about them My love loved you more.

Though I know I'll never lose affection.

People and things that went before I know I'll often stop and think about them in my high love loved you more.

In my high life I loved you.

All right, so there you have it. And you can see. Sometimes when you play a song, your hair falls in your face or it's in your mouth and you have to keep playing and singing. But these are things that happen, you know, when you are playing live. So when you're practicing and it happens, play through those things because you never know what's going to happen when you play a song for someone. Now, if you are a huge Beatles fan like me, I have a Beatles song playlist right over there. We have a bunch of other Beatles songs that you can go and learn. Go check that out and pick out another song that you love as well.