Lauren Bateman teaches the intro lick and strumming patterns for Mr. Tambourine Man. The intro uses frets 2 and 4 on the middle strings, and she shows both simplified and syncopated strumming options for verses and chorus, plus a play-along with lyrics.
If you know your G, A and D chords, then you are in for a treat with Mr. Tambourine man here. We're going to go over different strumming patterns for this song, as well as that cool little intro lick that you heard. Let's get into the lesson.
So first things first, let's just start off with that little intro. Okay, we're going to throw the tab up here in the corner and we're going to be using the open string, the open D string and G string. All this tab takes place on the middle two strings and we're going to be using frets two and four. So my recommendation would be when you see fret two, use your first finger. When you see fret four, use your third finger. Okay, this way, each finger has kind of its own fret. So we have the open D. Then we have the second fret on the G string back to open G.
So that's the first three notes.
Okay. Then we have 42 open on the G string. Okay, 42 open followed by 42 open on the G on the D string. So what's that sound like? So far we've got.
Okay again, just the same thing.
Alright, so now all we have to do is add the tag on the end, which is all going to be on the D string to open, open to. Okay, so that's the tag at the end. So it's going to be.
Hear that one more time.
And what this is is it's going to be a round. So we're just going to jump right back in to the beginning. So the intro is just this lick played twice in a row. So here's the timing of it all together.
So you hear when you come around on that first round, we're land use that higher note as the landing point of when you have to stop.
So that note gets held just a little bit longer once you come through the first time. Okay, so that's going to be what we're going to do for the intro and the outro of this bird song. Let's get into the strumming patterns we're going to use now for the verses and choruses. Now if you don't want to play the tab, you can always strum chords over this intro. We would be strumming a D chord.
1, 2, 3, 4.
1, 2 and 3 and 4.
1, 2, 3, four.
1 and 2 and 3 and 4. So that a is going to change on the and. All right, it's a syncopated rhythm. One more time.
One, two, three and four.
And one and two.
So that's what you can do for the intro and the outro section of this song. What we're going to do next is we're going to jump into the chorus and the verses and the different strumming patterns we're going to use here. Now, if you're not very good with syncopated rhythms, I'm going to give you a more simplified version, and then I'm going to show you the version that I would use over the song. So the first strumming pattern is going to be. We'll play a G chord here. It's going to be 1, 2, and 3 and 4. And 1, 2, and 3 and four.
Okay, that's what that's going to sound like. Down, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, down, up, down, up, down, up.
Okay, that's one strumming pattern. If you're a little bit more late beginner to early intermediate, you can use the syncopated strumming pattern that I'm going to use, which is going to be the down, down, up, up, down, up, down, down, up, up, down, up.
Now, there's a couple little spices I'm going to show you here on this chorus that you can do that are little embellishments. But let's talk about the chord progression first for our chorus. So the chord progression is going to be a G chord, an A chord, a D chord, a G chord. Okay? Then it's going to go D, G, A. And you can either do the special trick I'm going to show you, or you can just play another straight A chord. And then we're going to go G, A D, G again. And then we have D, G, A. And then I got a fun little D trick I'm going to show you. Or you can just play 2D chords. All right, so let's go through this. So on the ending of each of these chorus runs, so each progression is basically eight measures. The last one is five measures. But at the end, you can either play this A chord.
Twice or you could do something like this.
So when you listen to the original song, there's a lot of suspended chords that are coming in. And you have to pay attention because there are multiple guitars on this. So don't let those high notes throw you off too much. So what am I doing here? I'm doing a regular strumming pattern. Down, down, up, up, down, up. Okay, I'm doing like an A suspended chord here. I'm lifting up. This is a sus four. I'm putting My finger on this third fret. B string. Okay, now, for some of you, you've never done that before, and that could be tricky. So you might want to practice just lifting the pinky on and off. Okay? So if you can't do that, just play the A chord twice. But it's going to be down, down, up, up, down, up, up, down, up.
Okay, down, down, up, up, down, up, up, down, up.
Listen to it.
So you hear that one little note change. It's just a little extra spice you can throw in if you're feeling like you want a little bit of a challenge for this song. Alternatively, on the end of the chorus, we have this A followed by a D. And you could just play two straight up D chords.
Or you could go between some suspended chords. Now, what I would recommend is just changing on the up strum, we're gonna go From D to DSUS 4 and then D to DSUS 2. Okay. And if you don't know what those chords are, we'll put the diagrams up here so you guys know. So the strumming pattern for that would be down, down, up, up, down, up, down, down.
So the first one is d to d sus 4. Down, down. Switching on the up, up, up, down, up and then d to d sus 2.
Down, down, up, up, down, UP.
Okay, so it'd be.
Now, before I go and play a play along with you guys, I just want to briefly talk about the verse, but there's nothing really new or fancy here. That's what's great about this song. So the chord progression on this verse is G, A D, G. And we're going to do DG dg. Then we have DG DG again. And then at the end we have Wandering. We have that A. So again, you can either play the A twice or the a sus 4 to a option. And then we're going to go back to Gadg, dg, dg and then A A and then the A again or the asus option. Now, I've got my green Dunlop pick here because I like using slightly thicker picks when picking intros. So let's take it from the top. If you need to slow it down, use the settings cog down there. You can slow things down to play along with me. 1, 2, 3, 4.
Hey, Mr. Tambourine play a song for me I'm not sleepy and there ain't no place I'm going to.
Hey, Mr. Tambourine play a song for me in the jingle jangle morning I'll come the following.
Take me for a trip upon your magic swirling ship? My senses have been stripped? My hands can't feel too gripped? My toes too numb to step? Wait only for my boot heels to be wandering?
Ready to go anywhere? I'm ready for today?
Conceal my own parade? Cast your dancing spell my word? I promise to go under it.
In this tambourine? Lay a song to me I'm not sleep and there ain't no place I'm going to?
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man? Play a song for me in the Jingle jingle morning I'll come following?
If you guys enjoyed playing this song and thought the intro was super fun, then I highly recommend you go check out this CCRS down on the corner over there. See you guys in another lesson. Video.
