Old Man Beginner Guitar Lesson

Hello, guitar enthusiasts. Welcome back. In this lesson, we're going to be doing an easy version of Neil Young's Old Man. So let's get into the guitar lesson.

Now, if you guys are familiar with Neil Young and this song, you know that there's a lot of intricate finger picking, but I get a lot of students who are like, lauren, can you make an easy version of this song so I can play it? So that's what I'm doing here. Now the original song is in what we call drop D. So how do I know the song is in drop D? Well, I hear this. I hear this dark note coming in sometimes, and that's called drop detuning. I'll put a link up here if you're interested in learning more about drop detuning. We just changed the tuning of the guitar. I'm not going to have you do that because I want to keep this simple for you guys. So I just wanted to let you know that if you hear that, that's why. But we won't be doing that in this lesson. We're keeping it simple here. All right, so I've gotten my guitar back in standard tuning, which is what your guitar should be tuned to as well.

So.

So let's start by going over the chords in this song. And then we're gonna go over the different sections and different parts and what we're going to do. Now, this song does have an F chord in it. If you can't do an F chord, you can always do the three fingered F major seven. I actually think that sounds a little bit more like the song two. So you could do either the three fingered version or the four fingered version. I like the four fingered version for this song. But F or F major 7 is going to work really well. And if you know a full bar chord, you can definitely do that too. But I think when you listen to the song, you'll hear some of this, this open string. So probably go with an F or an F major 7. Most of the rest of the song is C, G and D. We do have an a minor 7 and an E minor 7 that pops in in the chorus. But we'll talk about those when we get there. So let's get into our intro and what we're going to do here. Now obviously the intro is the intricate finger picking and I'll do a finger picking lesson on this down. But all we're going to do is we're going to keep things very simple here. So we're going to take that F major 7 and all we're going to do is a very simple strumming pattern over it. We're just going to do bass, bass down. Ok? And this is why I like this four finger version because I can get a darker bass, bass, bass down. So I would be playing the fourth string or, sorry, the fifth string if you were using the four finger version. Or you're going to play the fourth string for the three finger version. But it's basically going to be bass, bass down. Bass, bass down.

One, two and three, four.

And one, two and three, four. And Neil's doing all his other, his kind of cool finger picking stuff that we're not going to do. We're just going to play over him. So there's an interesting timing in this intro I want you guys to make note of. So we're just playing an F chord and a D, but we're going to play an F chord for a full measure. That means we're going to count to four.

1, 2, 3, 4.

Then we have a half measure of F. 1, 2, only two beats. And then we're going to a full.

Measure of D. 1, 2, 3, 4.

And then we repeat that whole thing. So it's F for full measure.

1, 2, 3, 4.

And then F for a half measure.

1, 2.

And then a full measure of D.

1, 2, 3, four.

So if I put this all together, this is what our intro is going to sound. It's going to sound like this.

1 and 2, 3 and 4. 1 and 2 to D. 1 and 2, 3 and four to F. 1 and 2, 3 and Four. 1 and 2, switch D. 1 and 2, 3and 4.

So that's our intro again. We got four.

1 and 2, 3 and FOUR. 1 and 2 D. 1 and 2, three and four to F. One and two, three and four. One and two, one and two, three and four.

All right, and this is going to happen later in the song too. So really pay attention to your counting for this song. Now if you guys want to follow along with my chord chart, I do have them all on my website, laurenbatement.com put a link in the description below. You guys can go click on that, pop up the website and follow along with me there. So we're going to talk a bit about like this chorus section, which is going to be mostly F and D still, but this time we've got a full measure of F. Then we go to a half measure of F, a half measure of D. Okay, an F and D splitting a measure. And then we also again have a half measure Here of D. So it's going to. And then it repeats. So it's going to sound like this. It's going to be F. I'm just going to count for you guys.

We got one, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. 1, 2.

Back to the beginning.

1, 2, 3, 4. One, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2.

So that'll be.

Oh, man, look at my life.

1.

Then 1 and 2. 1 and 2, 3 and 4. 1 and 2, 3 and four, then f, 1 and 2.

Okay, so I just noticed. Sorry, I said it repeats. The second one is an F instead of a D on the M. But that's how we're going to play that old man section. Okay. And once we do that, once we do the second half of the F, 1 and 2, we go into a bunch of split measures. It's kind of like an interlude that gets us from this section into the verse. So that's going to be C, G, D, F, C, F. And that transition from C to F is very nice. This is a good sign to practice that. So let's try it here. So it's going to be C, 1.

And 2 to G, 3, M, 4 to D, 1 and 2 to F, 3 and 4 to C, 1 and 2 to F.

And then we get into O.

Man, look at my life.

We've got D and F splitting. These are all split measures. D and F splitting a measure. C and G splitting a measure. G and F splitting a measure. C and F splitting a measure. And you would hope he would just repeat that, but he doesn't. It's D&F, CG, DC, FG. So if I played through this entire verse, we're just going to be using that same strumming pattern. We're not changing anything up. Remember, keeping it simple here. If I started from the beginning, it.

Would be 1 and 2, the 3 and 4. 1 and 2, 3 and 4. Stay on G. 1 and 2, 3 and four to C, 1 and 2, 3 and 4 to D. 1 and 2, 3 and4. 1 and 2 and 3 and 4. 1 and 2nd, 3 and 4. 1 and 2 and 3 and four.

All right, so that is how we're going to play through our verse, which then takes us into our next section, which is the chorus, which we have a few little timing things here that I'm going to talk about. I'm going to talk about a couple different ways you can approach this chorus depending on your skill level. Hey, guys, I hope you're enjoying this lesson so far. Don't forget to subscribe to my Channel. Turn those notifications on so that YouTube notifies you when I release more lessons. Just like this one. So this chorus uses a bunch of different chords. I mean, we've got a D chord. We have an A minor chord. An E minor chord or, sorry, a minor 7. An E minor 7 and a G chord. Now A minor. If you. If you don't note a minor to a minor seven, you just lift up your third finger. Very, very simple. So there's a minor 7. And then E minor 7 would be an E minor chord with your pinky down on the bottom here. All right, that would be the third string, third fret. Okay.

So if I were going to play this, it would be. The count is going to be interesting. Let's go over the count first. So we have D for full measure.

So that's going to be 1, 2, 3, 4.

Then we have the A minor 7 for 1, 2. And then this is the strange timing thing because the E minor chord, we change on the. And so I'm going to recommend you do this section all as downs for the timing. So The A minor 7 is going.

To be 1, 2 and.

All right, and for our E minor 7.

So 1, 2 and 1, 2.

And.

So it's going to be 1, 2, 3, and 4. 1, 2. And.

Hear that? You're going to hear it. Go listen to the song. You're totally going to hear this. If you can't do that syncopation, is it going to kill the song if you put that and on the three? No, but I'm going to do the syncopation first, and then I'll show you the easy version for you guys. All right, So a minor, 1, 2, and. And then we're not going to strum for 3. We're going to strum on 4.

So it's going to be 1, 2 and 3 and 4.

4. And then the. And on the very end is a G. I know. Tricky timing. So if I go from the beginning, it's going to be D. 1, 2, 3, 4.

1, 2 and 3 and 4.

And.

Okay, again.

1, 2, 3, four. 1, 2 and 3 and four.

And.

All right. It's a lot. There's a lot of chords. If I play it up more, up to speed. 1, 2, 3, 4.

1, 2, 3, four.

1, 2 and 3 and four.

And 1, 2, 3, four.

1, 2 and 3 and four.

And.

All right, so that's the timing that we're gonna play on that section. Ignore the G if this is too much for you. The easier way is just to go.

One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four.

It doesn't matter if you do that syncopation.

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

It won't sound exactly like the song, but it will work. This is how I would go about playing this song if I were going to play it through more, kind of to my skill level. Just so you guys can hear what it would sound like.

Just to give you guys an idea of what it would probably sound like. But you can hear that huffing.

A lot like you. Sorry, not me. I don't know why I keep saying me.

I'm a lot like you.

That U is the E minor. So just so you guys can hear it. But for the simple way, we're just.

Gonna go 1, 2, and 3, 4. And 1, 2. And.

And that E minor is gonna be on an upstrom.

One, two, and three, four. And one, two and three, four, and.

All right, so that's what I want you guys to do one more time.

One, two, and three, four. And one, two, and three, four, and.

All right. And just ignore the G if you don't want to do the G and you just want to do four. And totally fine. All right, Whatever works for your skill level. So if I were going to play through that whole chorus, it would sound like this.

1, 2, 3, 4.

All right, so that just gives you an example of what you can do for the chorus. But after that, we're going right back into another little interlude. 1 and 2 to F to C to G to D to F to C and F. And then we're right back into the verse.

And once we get through that verse, we have another chorus that ends just a little bit deeper differently this time. So I want to make a note on that because the rest of the song is fine. So we're gonna do the last chorus, and, you know.

And then we're gonna.

End with a D. 1, 2, and 3, 4, and F. 2 and 3, 4.

And. And then D for half measure.

1, 2, and.

One, two and three, four. And one, two and three, four.

And one, two, and.

And that's it. And then we get back into Old.

Man, Take a Look at My Life.

We're just doing that intro section again.

1 and 2, 3 and 4. 1 and 2, 3 and four. 1 and 2, 1 and 2, 3 and four. 1 and 2, 3 and 4. 1 and 2. Then 1 and 2, 3 and 4. 1, 2, 3.

On the D again, if I just play that last chorus. Ah, we got.

One and two, three and four. One and two, one and two. Three and four. One and two, three and four. 1 and 2, 1 and 2, 3 and 4. 1, 2, 3.

So this is definitely a song you're gonna have to sit with and practice. All right? It's not an easy song by any means, and this isn't even the finger picking version, so I will get to that. Promise you guys, it's just gonna take me a little time to get there. So hope you guys enjoyed this lesson. Make sure to give me a thumbs up. I really appreciate it. YouTube's gonna pop over a couple more lessons over here. Go check those out. Hopefully there'll be something else you guys like, and I hope to see you in another lesson video very soon.