Lauren Bateman teaches Joan Osborne's "One of Us" using four chords: Em, C, G, D with a capo on the 2nd fret. She shows two strumming patterns and notes that the pre-chorus swaps C for Cmaj7, then plays through the verse, pre-chorus, and chorus at full speed.
God is great and yeah, yeah, God is good yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah what if God was one of us?
Just a slob like one of us.
Just a stranger on the bus Trying to make his way home.
Hey guys, it's Lauren here. Welcome back to another tutorial of mine. This is a song by Joan Osborne, One of us. A lot of people realize, recognize it as what if God was one of us? Because that is kind of the chorus line. So this is a really cool song because it uses my four favorite chords, E minor, C, G and D, over and over and over again. The cool thing about this song is the chord progression really doesn't change that much. The chord progression for this song is E minor, C, G and then D over and over and over again. Now you can play this as a beginner, I just preface that each of these chords is half a measure. That means we're only going to be playing each chord for two beats, which means your chord changes have to be a little bit quicker on this to do any more kind of intricate strumming. So what we're going to do, if I were just a beginner and you're just learning, I would either do one strum per chord or two down strums per chord. What I'm going to show in this video is what I was doing in the intro, which is a little bit of a 16th note pattern. And you're gonna play that once per chord, at least in the verses and the choruses. The only part that kind of shifts a little bit is the. The pre chorus we have a C major 7 that comes in and we'll talk about that when we get to that part. So first let's go over this strumming pattern. Since we know the chord progression, let's start on the E minor chord. So we're gonna start on E minor and it's gonna be 1, 2 and up. So it's down, down, down, up, 1, 2 and up, 1, 2 and up, 1, 2 and a. And then the next chord would be. Would be. Our C chord is going to be 3, 4 and A 3, 4 and A. So it starts on E minor 1, 2 and up.
And then C major, 3, 4 and up. So it's gonna be down, down, down, up, down, down, down, up, down, down, down, up, down, down, down, a 1, 2 and a 3, 4 and a 1, 2 and a 3th, 4 and a 7.
So that's going to be the rhythm we use for this song. Now if you're not quite up to speed with 16th notes yet, that's fine. You can just do 1, 2, and.
You could do down, down, up, down, down, up, down, down, up, down, down, up, 1, 2 and 3, 4. And 1, 2 and 3, 4.
And that's going to work down just as well too, for this song. That's why I love this song. It's such a great song. I also like it because for students that want to learn how to sing, a lot of the chords line up directly with the lyric, which makes it really nice to try singing and playing at the same time. So that is the pattern we're going to use for the entire song. Depending on your skill level, you can pick which pattern you want to use. So let's go to our pre chorus here. I'm just going to scroll down on my computer here. So. So I'm on my website, laurenbateman.com if you want the chord chart. Just go to my chord chart section on the website. You'll see I have everything laid out. The chords line up exactly over the lyric that it changes over. They're really, really nice chord charts that I put on my website. Go check them out, print it out and then you can have it to play along with here. So the pre chorus, we got a full measure of C major. Now, C major is just a C chord with the first finger lifted up. And also I'm looking in my camera now and I totally forgot. Hopefully you guys saw it. But I forgot to mention this song. We're having a capo on the second fret. So capo on the second fret. Sorry, I failed to mention that in the beginning. But hopefully some of you guys saw that right in the beginning there. So we're gonna go to that pre chorus here again. So C major 7. It's a C chord with your first finger with. Lift it up. C chord, first finger, lift it up. C chord, C major 7. C chord, C major 7. Pretty cool, huh? So we got a full measure of C major 7.
Yeah, yeah. Then we have G2D and C major 7. G2D and C major 7. And then to D for a full measure. Then we're back to the chord progression.
And that's it. That's one of the only changes in the song. So that prechor. So we have a full measure of C major 7 followed by A G chord, a D chord, Another full measure of C major 7. G, D.
C major 7 for full measured followed by a D chord. Now this song, eventually we get to the guitar solo. So the very. Let me see how many choruses in this is so first chorus, second chorus. Yes, it looks like the second chorus here. So on the second chorus it's a little bit longer, so we get a little bit of an extension. Extended second chorus. But on the end where it says except for the Pope, maybe in Rome, after the D chord, we don't go back to E minor. We actually go to C major 7 in the D chord.
So it's nobody calling on the phone.
Seven, full of hope. Maybe in C major 7, then D.
Back to C major 7.
To D. And then we get the solo. We go to E minor.
To C, G and D, E minor to C to G and D. I can't really sing the guitar solo and tell you the chords at the same time, but once you get past that C major 7, D section, it goes right back to the regular chord progression. And those are all the changes for the song. So most of the song is E minor, C, G, D. With the exception of the pre choruses and the exception of the second chorus, we have a little bit of a deviation. We go to C major 7 briefly. And then on the very, very last chorus of the song, we hold some chords.
So he just trying to make his way home.
3, 4, C. 2, 3, 4, E minor.
Nobody calling on the C except for.
The Pope, maybe in G.
So we.
Got just trying to make his way home.
3, 4, 2, 3, 4.
Nobody calling on the phone.
Oops, I forgot to sing. Except for the Pope, maybe in Rome. And we're ending on a G chord for the song. So Excellent. That is the entirety of this song. I don't go over any of the solo or any of the lead guitar parts, but that's pretty cool too, if you guys want to look that up online. But again, this is Joan Osborne's what if God was One of us. I'm going to take it from the top. I'm going to play through a verse, a pre chorus, and a chorus for you guys so that you can hear all together and you can try and play along with me. I'm going to go at full speed. So I'm going to give you one intro chord progression. Then we're going to go into the song. So we got 1, 2, 3, 4.
If God had a name.
What would it be? And would you call it to his face?
If you faced with hell in all his glory what would you ask if you had just one question.
Yeah, yeah, God is great and yeah, yeah, God is good and yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah what if God was one of us?
Just a slump like one of us.
Just a stranger on the bus trying to make his way home.
And there you guys have it. That is Joan Osborne's one of us. I hope you guys enjoyed this lesson, and I'll see you guys in the next video.
