JOLENE Guitar Lesson EASY STRUMMING Version

Hey, guitar enthusiast Lauren Bateman here. And in this video, we're going over a classic by Dolly Parton called Jolene. Let's get into the lesson video.

Now in this lesson, I'm going to go over the chords we're going to use to play Jolene. I'm also going to go over some different strumming patterns you can use to play this song. All right, we're going to be doing this somewhat at the beginner level, but I will introduce the some more strumming patterns that can spice it up for you guys a little bit. This will not be a finger picking lesson. I will do one of those separately because that's a little bit more intermediate in style. So without further ado, let's get into Dolly Parton's Jolene. Now, fortunately, this song uses all very simple open chords. We're using an A minor chord, an E minor chord, a C chord, and a G chord. So. So Dolly's keeping it nice and simple for us. But something I do want to know is that we're going to need our capo for this song. If you want to sound like Dolly, we're going to capo at the fourth fret. So all you do is you squeeze your capo and you put it on that fourth fret and then you play all your chords relative to the capo. Okay, so the guitar is going to sound a little bit brighter than if we were playing the chords down here without the capo. So just wanted to make sure you guys have that capo so that you sound just like me. Now if you guys need the chords and lyrics to the song, go to my website, laurenbateman.com. i have all of the chord charts and lyrics on there so you can follow along. I'll put a link in the description below. So the first thing we're going to talk about is the intro. Now this is a really intricate finger picking thing that's going on that has all kinds of hammer ons and pull offs and fun stuff. And I'll do that in the finger picking lesson. But for here, all we're going to do is play four measures of A minor and the strumming pattern you guys can use. I'll go over the first strumming pattern. Now keep it simple. Super simple is it's going to be.

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

Up. And that's all you're going to do for the intro is you're just going to go.

Okay. While the other guitarist is doing all the crazy finger picking stuff. All right, so we're going to do four, four measures of A minor. And that's our intro. So next, let's talk about the chorus. Because this song actually starts on the chorus versus starting on a verse. Now there's something very interesting timing wise, that happens on this song. It doesn't happen very often, but I noticed it when I was working out the chord chart. Now this song is in what we call four, four time, meaning we have four beats. Four counts. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, four. Now four on the G chord in this chorus, sometimes it's only 2 4, meaning we have two beats. What does that mean? That means we would count to.

Four. One, two, three.

Four. Count to two, one, two, and then go back to.

Four. One, two, Three, four. So again it would be 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 1, 2, 3.

4. That's how we would count it. So now I'm going to go through the chord progression so that you guys can see it and I'm going to put the strumming pattern over. So our chorus. I'm looking at my chord chart here. We have a split measure of A minor and C. So each of those is going to be two beats. Then we have that half measure or that 24 measure of G. And then all we're going to do is play two beats of G. And then we have a measure of A minor, a measure of G and two measures of A minor. And then we repeat that whole thing again. And that's the entire chorus. So if I take that strumming pattern, when we play the A minor in C, each one of those is just going to get A down, down, up. So it'd be A minor down.

Down, up and then C. Down, down.

Up. And then when we get to the G again, we're just going to.

Play down, down, up, down, down.

Up. And that takes care of the two beats. So just the first three chords are going to be A minor, C, G.

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

Up. One more.

Time. 1, 2 and 3, 4. And 1.

2. And now once you get here, we have a full measure of A.

Minor. So it'll be 1, 2 and 3, 4. And then G. 1, 2 and 3, 4. And then 1, 2 and 3, 4 and 1, 2 and 3, 4.

And. And then we repeat the whole.

Thing. Jolene, Jolene, Jolene.

Jolene.

Did you hear that.

Again? 1, 2 and 1, 2 and 1 to a minor. 3, 4, 4. 1, 2 and 3, 4. 1, 2, and 3, 4.

And. All right, so that is how we're going to go through our courses. It's very cool. And just work on counting first. All.

Right? 1, 2, 3.

4. 1, 2. All right, for some of you, you might have heard the last time I counted it, I just counted everything as 1, 2. Make it simple for.

Yourself. 1, 2, and 1, 2, and 1, two, and 1, 2, 3, 1.

2. So count it whichever way is easiest for you to remember and to get through this chorus section of the song. So now what I'm going to do is I'm going to go into the verse and I'm going to talk about some other strumming patterns you might want to apply to this song. Hey, guys, if you're enjoying this lesson, don't forget to subscribe to my channel and turn your notifications on. This way, you know, when I release more lessons to just like this one. So our chord progression is going to change up again on this verse. A lot of these chords are sharing two measures. So for example, we have A minor and C splitting a measure, G. A minor splitting a measure, G, E minor splitting a measure. And then we have two measures of A minor. So I'm going to show you a little bit of a different strumming pattern. You can do this on the chorus as well. And I'll probably do a playthrough at the end where I can show you guys this, but I'm going to show you 16th note pattern. So you can, if you're just a beginner, just keep using.

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

Up. That's fine. You can use that for the entire song. But if you want to spice it up a little, you can do down, down, down, up. So it's 1, 2, and up, 1, 2, and up. So we have a little 16th note on the very end. 1, 2, and a 3, 4, and a 1, 2, and a 3', 4, and a. All right. Hear that? Sounding pretty cool, right? So Again, we have 1, 2, and a 3, 4, and a down.

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

Up. And then we have our A minor measures. Now, these are full measures, so I want to introduce another strumming pattern that you might want to consider. So a lot of times with rhythm, when you're playing songs, and you may have heard me talk about this before, rhythm's very fluid, so don't feel like you have to be stuck on one strumming pattern the entire song. I know when you're just starting out that's the easiest way to do it. But I will sometimes change strumming patterns depending on what's happening in the song. So these a minors, we just went from a bunch of measures that were chords where everything was two beats, and now we have two full measures of A minor. So I might switch the strumming pattern. I'm going to start with the 16th.

Note. Down, down, down.

Up. So I have one to. And. And then I'm going to do a couple more ups after that. So this is a. This is 16th note pattern. So it might be a little bit tricky for some of you, but I want to give you some spice. I always start easy and make it harder for you guys. So it'll be down, down, down, up, up. Okay, try that.

Again. Down, down, down, up.

Up. And then we're gonna go up, down, up, down, up.

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

Up. Okay, one more.

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

Up. So again, you could just use the 16th note pattern or you could do the spice. I'm going to show you one time through with just the simple 16th note pattern. And then I'm going to do it one time through with a little bit more of the spice. So we have 1, 2, and a 3, 4, and.

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

Up. Now, there's nothing wrong with that, right? Sounds fine. It would work out great. Let's see what it sounds like now when I change up the A minor on the end. So we have 2, 3.

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

Up. So see how the dynamic changed a little bit? So if I was playing it.

Now, this song is cooking. So this strumming pattern might be too fast for you right now. And again, if I go back to that first drumming pattern, it would sound like this. Again, this is going to be full speed. So down, down, up. 2, 3.

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

Down.

That's what that first strumming pattern would sound like. The easiest one there. If you like this video, don't forget to give me a thumbs up. I really appreciate it. Helps YouTube show my videos to more viewers just like you. All right, now that we've gone through the verses and choruses, I'm going to do a little demonstration for you guys. I'll probably use the 16 note strumming. I'm going to slow this down a little bit because this song really is cooking. Okay. It's a very fast paced song. I'll play it a little bit slower so you guys can maybe play along with me. Pick with whatever strumming pattern is going to work best for you. Probably won't do too much singing because sometimes we get hit with copyright notices. So I'll probably do a little bit of humming. I usually don't get hit with copyright if I hum. So we're going to start from the intro for a minors. I'm probably going to do the 16th note strumming patterns. But if you want to do the eighth note strumming pattern, that's perfectly fine. 1, 2, 3.

4. 1, 2, 3.

Four. 1, 2, 3.

Four. 1, 2, 3,4. Jolene, Jolene.

Jolene, jolene.

And then we're back.

To. Well, we play another verse at that point, but you can hear the timing. That little cut measure that comes in that was just straight 16th notes. I didn't do anything super, super fancy there, but it just gives you an idea of how you can play through parts of this song. So I hope you guys enjoyed this lesson. If you guys are interested in supporting this channel, I do have a guitar course. I'll put a link in the description below. Would love to have you guys be a part of that. YouTube is going to pop up some more videos over here. Go check those out and I hope to see you guys in another lesson video.