Simple & Easy To Understand Hallelujah Guitar Lesson Fingerstyle

Hey, guitar enthusiast Lauren Bateman here in this video, we're going to go over the Jeff Buckley version of Hallelujah. How to do some finger picking for this song. So I'm excited to do this one with you guys. Let's get into it.

Now. The song itself isn't too hard. You'll see here that for this particular version we're going to be using a capo on the sixth fret. You could easily play this song without a capo, but we're going to do it to sound more the way Jeff Buckley does it. So you'll need a capo on the sixth fret of the guitar. And most of the chords we're going to be using here, they're all open chords. So the chords themselves aren't hard. But if this is your first time with finger picking, you might want to go try out one of my finger picking exercises before giving this one a go. So let's get into how we're going to finger pick each of these chords. So the actual chords in the song, we're going to be using a couple versions of a G chord. We'll be using the stuck like glue chord. So the double pinky and third finger on the bottom. We'll also be doing an E minor 7 for the intro, but we'll also be doing a regular E minor chord at some points as well. We'll also be doing a C major chord. What else do we have in here? E minor, C, D. And also a B7 chord is going to pop in every once in a while. So you might want to familiarize your with the B7 chords. But those are the chords. We're going to be using C, G, D, E minor, E minor 7 and B7 for this song. So depending on what chord we're playing, we will change the picking pattern. And there's also kind of like a little walk down that. I'll go over towards the end of this for the intro between the E minor and the G chord. But first, what we're going to do is we're going to start with six string chords and how we're going to go about picking. So I have a pick in my hand. You also can finger pick. I would probably finger pick. So I'm going to put my pick down here because I would probably finger pick this song just because it's a really nice sounding song. So we're going to start with a six string chord. We got the G chord and the E minor. Okay. And for these six string chords, we're going to Be. So the thumb is going to be playing the bass notes. So either the top string, the fifth string or the fourth string depending on which chord you're playing. And the other three fingers, the first finger, the second finger and the third finger are going to be playing. The first finger is going to own the third string. The second finger is going to own the second string and the third finger is going to own the bottom E string. So those fingers won't move. They'll always be playing those bottom three strings. And the pattern we're going to use this song is in what we call six eight time. It's like a waltz. So our count is going to be one, two, three, four, five, six. One, two, three, four, Five, six. One, two, Three, four, five, six. So our picking pattern is going to be thumb one two, three two one. Thumb one two three two one. Thumb one second three two one. Thumb one, two, three two one. And there will be a couple variations like I said that I'll go over after this section. So for six string chords, so we're talking the E minors, the G chords, the pattern is going to be the sixth string. So you're going to play the bass note of each chord. So for G chord it's going to be the sixth string is what the thumb is going to be playing. Followed by fingers 1, 2, 3 2, 1. So it'll sound like this. Thumb 1, 2, 3 2, one. Thumb 1, 2, three 2, one.

And I will go in for close ups as well. So you guys can see. So here's what E minor is going to sound like. Thumb 1, 2, 32 1. Thumb 1, 2, three 2, 1. So we're following that 68 pattern. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 1, 2, 3, four, five, six. Alright, so those are your six string chords. Chords like B7 and C, those are five string chords. So the thumb is going to be playing the fifth string. So think six string chords. Thumb plays the sixth string. Five string chords, thumb plays the fifth string. Four string chords like D, the thumb plays the fourth string. So for C it's going to be fifth string. And then the fingers 1 2, 3 2, 1. So.

And here's B7 will sound like this.

Pretty sounding chord. And then like I said, for the D chord the thumb is going to be playing the fourth string.

Okay, so let me just go in for a real quick close up so that you guys can see my picking hand here. And then we'll go into how this is going to sound in the verse and what those variations are. All right, here I am On a close up. So here's your G chord. It's going to be six, one, two, three, two, one. Six, one, two, three, Two, one. All right, so thumb one, two, three, two million one. Same for E minor. Now C chord in B seven. We're going to thumb is going to own the fifth string. So it's going to be five. And then fingers one, two, three, two,. One.

And then four string chords like D. D gets the fourth string, four, and then fingers one, two, three thousand two, one.

Real quick, before we get into those variations, if you're enjoying this video so far, make sure to give me a thumbs up below. I really appreciate it. So there's a couple little parts where the picking pattern goes a little bit different. And one of those parts is the intro for where we have this kind of walk down. It's a really cool thing, but if you listen to the song, you'll hear it and you'll want to do it. Now, I should note that we're not going to be doing all the crazy little hammer ons and stuff that Jeff does. This is a slightly easier finger style version, but it will sound good enough for you to play with the song. So the intro, this is where we're going to use the G and E minor chord where the pinky and the third finger are on the bottom two strings. So we have a G and then E minor 7. So these two fingers stay glued on the bottom two strings. So what we're going to do is we're going to take that picking pattern and we're going to cut it short by 1/8 note on the end. So basically that six count is going to be a walk down note. And that walk down note is going to be the second fret on the top, top string, which technically would be an F sharp. So what it's going to sound like is this.

So you' that and you're like, okay, yeah, totally hear that in the song. So what we're doing is we're going thumb, 1, 2, 3, 2. And we're not playing the last note with the first finger. Instead we're going to play our thumb again on the top string second fret. So it's thumb 1, 2, 3, 2, thumb, thumb. So you're going to use the thumb twice in a row because the next chord is E minor. So it's going to be the open top string. So that it's going to be thumb 1, 2, 3, 2, thumb, thumb back to the G.

And that's what we got. Thumb 1, 2, 3, 2, thumb, thumb, 1 2, 3, 2, thumb thumb 1, 2, 3, two, thumb thumb 2, 3, 2. So that's how we're going to handle the intro for this song. Actually, the intro and the beginning part of the verses, you'll hear it because there is that G in that E minor 7 chord. Once we get into the second line of the, the verse here, we're going to be moving to a C major chord. And the first measure is just a regular pattern of C. And then we have two half patterns. All right, so we're going to do a half measure of C, C and a half measure of D. And essentially for that we're going to do thumb 1, 2, thumb 12 when we switch our chords. So the C chord is going to be thumb 1, 2 and the D chord is going to be thumb 1, 2. So it'll sound like this. We have a full measure of C.

Half measure, half measure, regular G. So we're not doing the double G G here with the pinky. We're doing the three fingered G chord. So D and then we're back to D then G and then we have half C and half D again, half C, half C, D, E minor and then C and so forth and so on. So let me go through the verse real quick here so that you guys can just kind of hear how it's going to sound. So we've got G.

Walk down to G, walk down. Now we got C.

Half C, half D, G to D and G half C to D. The minor fall in the major lift the baffle king, come poles in, Hallelujah.

And then we get into our chorus. So that was the entire verse as you could hear. It's, it's, it's a nice slow song. So it's a great way to work on your finger picking here. And now we're going to go into the chorus and see what chords we're going to use for that. Another quick tip, guys, if you're liking this lesson, don't forget to hit the subscribe button. This way you'll see when I release more videos. So let's get back to the lesson. So the chorus isn't that bad. We've got a lot of open chords and a lot of the chords are repeating. So when we start on Hallelujah, we have two C chords followed by two E minors.

And then back to double C. And then we have the ending part which is Hallelu.

And then we're back to the intro. So now we're going back to that G with the.

Walk down.

All right, so Let me play through that chorus real quick. So we got hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

There it is. And then you would just go right back into the. Into the verse. And I forgot to keep my pinky and my third finger down, but you would keep them down for that part. After that, we just go right back into verse, chorus, verse, chorus, verse, chorus. This song is actually a very long song. There's a lot of verses and choruses, but those are the essentials. So now that we've kind of gone through the basics of, like, the easier way to play it, I want to give you a couple little more somewhat intermediate little things that you can throw in, like some hammer ons to make this sound a little bit more like the way Jeff does it. So the pattern we've been working on is thumb 1, 2, 3, 2, 1. Well, something you could do. You could do a pluck where you play the thumb and the third finger at the same time, or the thumb and the second finger at the same time, you know.

So that was plucking 1, 2, 3, 2, 1 adds a lot more. You hear a lot of those high notes in the song. That's a great way to add some more in. Another thing to do would be, for example, on this. But you don't really care for music, do you? You could take this C chord and you play it once through, and on the half C chord, you do a hammer on.

So basically, we're playing the C chord, thumb 1, 2, 3, 2, 1. And then I'm lifting up my first finger. On my C chord, I'm plucking the second string, hammering down. And then I'm plucking with my first finger. So it's C chord, thumb 1, 2, 3, 2, 1. Hammer 1. And then you could do the same thing on the d chord, hammer 2. So on the D chord, I'm lifting up the bottom finger.

So we've got C, regular C chord.

So that's one way. That's another way to add a little bit of spice into it. The other thing you could do, so we have the G afterwards, we could pluck. And we've got pluck 2, 1, 3, 2, 1. So instead of going thumb 1, 2, 3, 2, 1, pluck 2, pluck 2, 1, 3 or 2, 1. Just another way to do it to show you guys on close up what I'm doing here. So here's that C. So watch my first finger. I have the regular C chord, lifting up the first finger, hammering the D chord. I'm not playing a full D chord. I'm playing more like a DSAUS2 chord here. And then I'm hammering this finger is free, this second finger. And then I'm hammering the bottom E string. So we've got.

Okay.

And then the G chord. I'm plucking the top string and the bottom string together. 3, 2, 1. 3, 2, 1. When I'm playing stuff like this, I'll oftentimes just goof around and see what comes out.

But you don't. So even that I want to go, you don't really care for me.

All you do is just lift things. You know, you can make it sound really cool by. By just goofing off. All I'm doing is lifting fingers, hammering. Sometimes I'm hitting the hammer, sometimes I'm not. But that's the cool thing about guitar is just experiment it and find things that are fun with you. And if you don't want to experiment, try a couple of those things that I suggested here and it'll make the song a little bit more interesting and a little bit more fun for you. Hope you guys enjoyed this lesson video. Don't forget to subscribe and make sure to watch another one of my videos because YouTube's going to suggest a couple over here. Go check those out and I'll see you guys in another lesson video.