Lauren Bateman teaches the bass lines and strumming patterns for Elvis's "Don't Be Cruel" using just four chords. Learn a slide lick from the 2nd to 4th fret on D, two strumming options including an accented 2-and-4 beat, and how the song breaks down: four D chords in the intro, then verse and chorus patterns that stay simple and playable.
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Hey, guitar enthusiasts, I hope you're excited because we're going to be doing some Elvis. In this lesson, I'm going to show you how to seamlessly go from playing that cool little bass line into the cool strumming patterns for this song.
So before we get into the bass line, I just want to let you know what chords we're going to be using for this song later. And we're going to keep it simple because that's what we do on this channel. We keep it simple. We're just going to be using an E minor chord, a G chord, a D chord, and an A chord. Now, to the music purists out there who are surely going to yell at me, I know there are some seven chords in this song, but we're trying to keep it simple for now. For those of you that don't know me, my name is Lauren Bavan. And that's what we do on this channel. We just have fun. It doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to be fun. And speaking of fun, let's talk about this first bass line. Now, we're going to be starting on an open D string, okay? Because we're playing over a D chord. Now, if you listen to the record, this is played by a bass. It's. And we would actually have to play in what's called drop D tuning to make this sound exactly right, like the record. So we're going to make it close enough. So we're going to play an open D, okay? And then we're going to use our second finger, and we're going to slide from the second fret on the D string up to the fourth fret on the D string. So it's going to sound like this. If I went really slow, okay? So this is something you might have to practice for some of you, if this is your first time sliding, it might sound like this, you know, like you're dragging your finger. Finger. It's a speed thing. Think about snapping your finger, okay? You're trying to do that in a very split second. And the tip that I tell people, look to the fret you are trying to slide to. So if I'm in the second fret, I'm already looking at the fourth fret. I'm targeting where I want to go. So you're going to play the open D string, okay? Open D, second finger on the second fret. Slide to the fourth fret. Okay? Those are the first couple notes. Then we're going to come down to the G string, and we're going to use fingers 1, 3, 1. And it's going to be frets 2, 4, 2. Okay. So 2, 4, 2. So we've got.
It's the whole thing.
Okay. And it has kind of like a little bit of a swing to feel to it, but bump, bump.
Bump.
Okay. And if a little bit more up to speed, we have.
Now just a note on the picking for you guys.
Down, down, down, up, down.
And then when I come back to that open string, actually getting that on an up pick. I just noticed that while I was doing it, so I wanted to make you guys aware. So I have a down.
Down, up, down, up.
So that would be the intro of our song. If you wanted to incorporate this bass line, I would play it through three times and then end on a D chord.
2, 3, 4.
Because then we're going to start the verses with strumming on a D chord. Now, I'm going to give you two strumming pattern options, and you can use whichever one is easier for you. I think they both work really well. You can. For this song, the first one is just going to be a simple eighth note pattern. One and two and three and four. And one and two and three and four. And it's going to sound like this. If I use my D chord, it's going to sound.
So just down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up.
Now, if you're savvy and you can do this, you can accent the 2 and 4 beat, which gives this song a little bit of a kick to it. It sounds really cool. It's going to sound like this. Ready?
Can you hear that? 1 and 2 and 3 and 4. 1 and 2 and 3 and 4. Let me slow it down a little bit.
So what I'm doing is I'm just trying to keep my picking a little bit lighter on the other strums. And two and four. I'm whipping my hand.
See, watch. Watch my strumming hand here.
You can see on that 2 and 4. I'm whipping my hand like a whip. All right. So you can really get a loud accent on those strums. So that's option one. Now option two follows along a little bit more with the bass line. All right, so if you can sing the bass line, hopefully you can play this strumming pattern. So it's going to be bump, bump, bump, bump. So we're going to go down, up.
Up, down, up, down, up, up, down, up.
One more time.
So you can hear the bass line.
Down, up, up, down.
Down.
It's a little Bit more of an open strumming pattern. So if, if doing all those eighth notes, if that's too fast for you, too much, because this is a little bit of a peppy song, you could try doing the less strumming just to get the feel for it and then upgrade to the eighth note strumming, whichever is easiest for you to start playing the song and having fun. Now there's a few different forms and chord progressions that we'll need to get through this song. So. So we have our intro which is going to be 4D chords. And like we said, if you're going to play that lick, play the lick three times and then end by strumming a D chord. And then our verse starts. It's almost like a 12 bar blues form. It's really, really cool. It's 4D chords, 2G chords, 2D chords, an E minor, an A, and then another 2D chord. If I use my accented rhythm, this is what it's going to sound like.
You know, I can't be found sitting on my alone if you can't come around at least please telephone don't be.
Cool To a heart that's true.
You can see how that rhythm really makes this song kick and go. So it's a really great rhythm to use. Now the form for the chorus is going to change up a little bit and this is where you can seamlessly again if you want to throw this bass line in. So let's talk about what's going to happen here. So we have a G chord for only one measure this time, A chord, G A. And then we have 2D chords. So the option here is you could strum the whole thing, you know.
I don't want no other love.
Baby.
It'S just you I'm thinking of.
And then we would start another verse. Or instead of playing the D chords, you could go from that A.
And then you can jump back into the verse. So whatever you want. But if you can get a hang of switching between the bass line and the strumming, it'll add a lot of cool stuff into your playing. There's one more strumming thing I want you to be aware of that happens in this song with muting. So as we get to the end of the song, there is a chorus where we do something a little bit different on the D chord. So it starts off the same.
I don't want no other love.
Maybe.
It'S just you I'm thinking of.
Okay, see here I strum and it cuts out so what we're doing here is we're counting 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1. Okay. And what I'm doing when I strum down on that second D, just doing the one down strum. I'm muting with my fretting hand. So I'm taking my fingers off the chords and I'm grabbing the fretboard. Watch. 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1. Okay. You can see my hand moves from the D chord, and I just lightly press my fingers on the strings to cut out the sound. So real fast it'll be.
And you can hear. I don't know if you guys can hear it on the D chord. I'm not really paying attention to what strings I'm getting because I'm going to be muting them anyway. Anyway, I actually heard I might have hit that top E string or even the A string, which you're not supposed to on a D chord, but I did it anyway, and it sounds fine, so. See, you don't have to be perfect. You just have to have fun. Now, if you guys love Elvis as much as I do, then you're definitely going to want to learn the picking pattern for Can't Help Falling In Love, which I go through step by step in this lesson right over there.
