My Little Girl Tim McGraw Guitar Lesson

Hey, guitar enthusiast Lauren Bateman here. In this lesson video, we're going to be going over Tim McGraw's my little girl.

So this is a song that I'm slightly familiar with. It was actually a request from someone who wanted to be able to play this on guitar for their daughter's wedding. So I'm obliging by trying to do this for them. So I think it's a cool song, too. Uses some pretty basic chords. So let's get into our intro. So this is a piano song, so we're going to have to make some adjustments for that. We can't play it exactly like a piano, and the timbre of the guitar sounds a little bit different. So some of these things might sound a little bit off to you if you listen to the recording. Because when we play an F chord, we don't really hear this low note on the piano. But we're going to do some things to try and adjust for that. And what I would recommend, maybe for these intros and verses is maybe to do some sort of, like, hybrid picking, where we have a pick, because we're going to want to strum later in the song. So we're going to have a pick. But these intro, the piano is kind of going back and forth between the low and the high. So we want to do that with our hand.

So we'll do something like that where we're picking the bass note and we're going to pluck up with our second and third fingers on the other notes of the chord. So let's talk about this intro. So the intro is it's A minor for two beats, F for one beat, G for one beat. And it does this four times. So we would have picking the bass note. So the bass note for the A minor is going to be the fifth string.

The bass note for the F chord would be our top string here. And the bass note for the G would also be the top string. So. So it'll sound like this 1 and.

2 and 3 and 4.

And that's the intro that we're going to play. And it goes four times in a row.

So we've got 1, 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and.

And all I'm doing with these two fingers is I kind of have them on.

The third and second strings. So my middle finger is on the third string. My third finger is on the second string. You can get the pinky involved on the bottom string if you want to. I dislocated my fingers, so I don't have as much strength in my pinky right now. But I'm working on it. But if you can get all three, that's awesome. If not, just focus on, on these two fingers, which is what I'm going to be doing for this song. So again, a minor 1, 1 and.

2 and then F and G and.

Repeat 1 and 2 and F, G.

Now if you would rather just do this without the pick and you want to strum with your fingers later, that's fine. We can do. The thumb would take care of the bass note.

So that's going to be our intro.

1 and 2, 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3.

And 4 and so that's how we're gonna play the intro of the song. Let's get into the first verse. So again, I would keep with the finger picking or you know this picking pattern. Instead of strumming for the first verse, we'll get into strumming later. So we have a C chord. So hopefully, you know, C chord.

And it's a full measure.

So it's 1 and 2 and 3 and 4.

And now the next chord is C, B. So on a piano, super easy, the left hand plays the bass note B. The right hand plays the chord C. We can't do that on a guitar. So what we're going to do is we're going to play a C, B on the guitar. We're going to take this C chord, alright? We have a C major chord. We're going to move our second finger up one string so it goes from the fourth string to the fifth string, second fret. And the third finger is going to come right below. It almost looks like an E major chord except the first finger. So essentially an E major chord except the first finger is on the second string instead of the third string. So this is going to be our C B so that we can get that bass note. So it's going to sound like this.

1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4.

And so you hear that?

All right, so that's how we get our C, B. The next chord is going to be D minor. So our thumb or our pick is going to play the fourth string. The fourth string. I'm going to stick with my fingers because I like my fingers better. Fourth string. And then these two fingers are still playing the same notes. So it's going to be D minor.

Then F.

And then we repeat the whole thing over again. So it's going to be C.

C slash.

Then D minor. That's probably the one that's going to sound the weirdest to you and then F.

And that's how we're going to approach that first verse. So let's talk about our first chorus here. So this is where it would be helpful if you did the hybrid picking, because you'd have a nice pick to hold on to for these strummings. Because at this point, once we get to this first chorus, we're going to be strumming for the. For the rest of the song. So if you can get used to doing that hybrid picking, awesome. If not, if you're going to use your fingers, just the down strum, use your thumb. The up strums, use your first finger. So here what I would do for the strumming. And I'm going to use a pick just so that you can hear things better. I'm going to do a 16th note pattern. And for the first start of the chorus, these first two measures are split chords. So we have C and D minor, E minor and F. Okay. C and D minor, E minor and F. Okay. So C is going to get two beats. Fs, D minor is going to get two beats, and the strumming is going.

To be down, down, down, up.

And then D minor will be down, down, down, up, Then E minor, down.

Down, down, up, and then F.

So we got.

You, beautiful baby, from the outside in, just so you can hear.

How that part goes. And then at this point, we're back to full measure. So we have C. So you just do that strumming pattern twice.

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

Then we have A minor.

And we have F.

And then we have C.

And this is where it gets a little weird. Okay, so we're going back to a split measure. There's going to be a G with this G sharp diminished 7. Huh.

So I'm not going to lie to you. I honestly don't play these crazy diminished chords very often. So I personally would have to practice getting in and out of this chord. So for the purposes of simplicity, I'm going to show you what I would do if I were going to play this song live, not knowing fluidly how to play that chord. I could look it up, show you how to play it. It is a bar chord. But if you don't know bar chords, let's make it easier. So I would go G. And we need a G sharp note. Okay, so we're going to need. It's like a weird thing, but it's just the way his voice goes. His voice. We're Matching the voice and the chord. So we got. I'm sorry if I don't know the melody too well, but to me, you.

Know, you'll always be.

G.

My little girl.

So I'm just gonna hit that G sharp note. Ideally, if you just want to ignore the G sharp diminished altogether, I would just play the D chord and let the voice carry that. That awkward note. And it should be fine because you're basically going to sing the awkward note over a G chord. So we've got.

To me, you know, you'll always be 3, 4, 1, 2, my little girl.

So if you want to do it that way, I think that's perfectly fine. And I don't think anyone's gonna, like, yell at you for doing it. So to repeat, I'm just gonna do g.

And a 3, 4.

I'm just gonna hit. It sounds really weird because it's like not in the key. So you guys are like. And that's. That's the thing with these diminished chords. They're kind of like. They're kind of like offsetting. But it goes well with his voice because it's how he's singing that word. So we got.

But to me, you'll know you'll always be.

3, 4, 1, 2, 3, my little girl.

And then we're back to A minor and then F splitting with G.

So that's how I approach the ending of that chorus. If you really want to go learn the D, whatever it is, D sharp diminished seven. I'll put the. The thing up here. You can look at it, take your time with it, But I'm not going to spend too much time on that chord. When we get to the second verse, we're actually strumming again. So the strumming pattern I would do for this verse. So instead of going back to the picking like we were doing earlier, it's the same chords. We're just going to do a slightly different strumming pattern.

It's going to be 1, 2, 3, and 4, and 1, 2, 3 and 4, and 1, 2 or 3 and 4, and F2, 3, and 4, and down, down, down, up, down, up, down, down, down, up, down, up, down, down, down, up, down, up, down, down, down, up, down, up.

So that's how I would approach that second. So the next part is we play another chorus like we normally would, and then we get into this bridge. And for the bridge, you might want to change up the strumming a little bit to make it a little bit more dramatic. And because bridges are supposed to be the dramatic Point of the song, we're going to start on an F and we can just do some light eighth note strumming. 1 and 2 and 3 and 4.

And G.

Or, sorry, F, then G. Then we have E minor.

Then we have A minor.

And then we have F and then we have another change. So after you play that fast. So we've got E minor, 1 and.

2 and 3, 4.

So it's E minor for two beats.

1 and 2 and.

And then do A down on D minor for three and then A down back to E minor for four. So I'm not going to sing because I don't know this part really well and I'm just butchering it. So we're going to play the F, which is a full measure, 1 and.

2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3, 4.

Then F is two beats, 1 and.

2 and 3 and four and which.

Is G. And then we're back to.

A full measure of a 1 and 2 and 3 and 4.

And then we have a D F sharp chord.

1 and 2 and 3 and 4 dot And 1 and 2 and 3 and 4.

And so before we go on to how to finish this song, let me do the bridge one time through all the way. So we have f. 1 and 2.

And 3 and 4. To g. 2, 3, 2. E minor, 2, 3, 4. To a minor, 2, 3, 4. To f, 2, 3, 4. E minor, 1, 2, 3, 4. F 2, g 2, a minor, 2, 3, four.

D, f sharp, f G.

And that's it. Now that you've made it through the bridge, we come to our final chorus. And you can either stick with the same strum or you could spice things up even more. If I were going to be playing this live, I would probably spice up my strumming, become a little bit more eccentric with what I'm doing. I'd probably keep the beginning the same.

1, 2 and a 3, 4 and an e minor, F.

So I'm just. I'm changing the strumming because this is the final chorus and it's the most. Probably the most dramatic point other than the bridge. So we don't want to come out of this really dramatic bridge and then like die on the final chorus. So what I'm doing is I'm doing.

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

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

So that's the strumming I'm using to kind of like really open this thing. Up. So if I take the chorus, you.

Know you got you beautiful baby from the outside in.

Chase your dreams but.

Always know I don't know the melody so I'm not gonna.

Then we got our C.

Then we.

Got G.

And then there's that weird G sharp diminished chord, which again, I'm not going to play. Probably much easier to play on a piano, but a lot harder to play on a guitar. So I'm just going to grab that G sharp note. The other thing you could do is just ignore it and keep playing G.

My little girl.

2, 3, 4. So that might be the easiest way. Just, you know, if you want to throw the G sharp in there, go. Go for it. But it does sound weird because it's. It's a little bit of an awkward note in this key. But overall, that's the song. That's how we can approach it. Hope you guys enjoyed this lesson video. Don't forget to like and comment on the video and subscribe to my channel so you can when I release new lessons, YouTube's gonna pop up a couple more videos over here. Make sure to go check those out. Would love to see you guys in another lesson.