Lauren Bateman teaches Bob Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" using four chords: G, D, Am, and C. The lesson includes two strumming patterns, from super simple to slightly more complex, with counted demos and a full playthrough.
Questions this video answers
G, D, A minor (Am), and C.
September 4, 2021.
Two down strums per chord (G, G, D, D).
A minor: four down strums plus an up on the end (counts 1-4 then up). C: four down strums (counts 1-4).
Down, down, up, down, down, up (repeated across the G and D positions).
Chapters
Hey, guitar enthusiasts, welcome back. In this lesson, we're going to be doing Bob Dylan's Knocking on Heaven's Door. Let's get into it.
Now, whether you like Bob's version or the Guns N Roses version, this is going to work for you guys. It's super simple in that we've got four chords we're using. We're using a G chord, a D chord, an A minor chord, and a C chord. Now, the great thing about this song is that the chord progression is very repetitive. It goes really G for two beats, D for two beats. So you'll see the G and D in brackets. And then we have a minor for a full four counts. Then we have G for two counts, D for two counts, and then C for four counts. And it goes over and over and over again. If you guys need to pull up the chord chart, you can go to laurenbateman.com I'll put a link in the description below. You guys can pull that up and watch the video at the same time. So now that we know the chord progression we're going to use for the entire song, let's talk about the strumming pattern we're going to use. So I'm going to give you two strumming pattern options. The first one is super simplified, and the second one adds a little bit of spice if you guys feel like you're ready for that next challenge. So let's start off with our G chord. Now, these first two chords, they're splitting a measure. That means they're each two beats. So you can just do simply two down strums per chord. So we have G, G, D, D. And then when we get to A.
Minor, we're going to do 1, 2, 3, 4.
And we're going to throw an up on the very end of that A minor. So back to the G. We've got G down strum twice, G, G, then D.
And then the next chord, A minor. We're going to do 1, 2, 3, 4. And so four downs and an up.
So you can hear. It's a nice, slow, even kiltered song. It's a great beginner song because it's not super fast and it is pretty easy to get through once you get the feel for the rhythm and the chords. So let's jump into strumming pattern option number two. Hey, guys, if you're liking this video, don't forget to give me a thumbs up below. This way. YouTube will show it to more people just like you. So if you want to spice it up just a little bit more, what we're going to do on those G and D chords is we're going to add some up strums in there. So instead of just doing two down strums on G and two on D, we're actually. It's going to sound like this. Ready?
Okay. So it just has a little bit extra oomph to it, makes it sound a little bit nicer. So all we're doing is we're going.
Down, down, up, down, down, up.
And then we get to A minor. It's just two down ups.
So now let's do a little bit of a playthrough. I'm going to do one verse and a chorus with that strumming pattern so that you guys can hear how it sounds. And try playing along a little bit with me.
All right, so we've got 1, 2, 3, 4.
Mama, take this badge off me.
Cause I can't use it anymore.
It's getting dark, too dark to see.
Feels like I'm knocking on heaven's door.
Knock, knock, knocking on heaven's door.
Knock, knock, knocking on heaven's door.
Knock, knock, knocking on heaven's door.
Knock, knock, knocking on heaven's door.
Yeah, yeah.
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