Lauren Bateman teaches Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Simple Man" with three chords: A minor, C, and G. She walks through the bass-line intro, shows how to pivot between A minor and C, and demonstrates two strumming patterns before playing through the verses and chorus.
So I've got a super fun song here by Leonard Skynyr. It's only a three chord song. Okay, the three chords are going to be using. We have an A minor chord, we have a C chord and we have a G chord. Now the great thing about the A minor and the C chord is you have a little pivot point. So when you're going from A minor to C, all you have to do is lift your third finger up into place. Okay, so here's a minor, third finger comes up one string and over fret. Now you might see you have to kind of adjust your fingers a little bit in the fret board just to slide up. Because with this C chord, remember you always want to try and get the third finger to the front of the fret. If you're playing your C chord and this third finger ends up to the back of the fret, it's sometimes going to sound muted. So for those of you suffering from a muted C chord, you can always check your fret, make sure it's in the front. You can also use my easy two fingered C chord if you want to because then it's easy to just add the finger for the A minor and then remove it to go back to that easy C chord. So up to you guys, we're doing this at the beginner level. So I'm not going to be doing the fancy intro with all the picking. I do have a video lesson on that. I'll put it up here if you want to go check that out. But that's really not for beginners. I will show you a little intro you can play that is at the beginner level. So let's start with that right now.
So the intro has all this really, really intric picking that we're not going to get into at the beginner level. That's more like late beginner, early intermediate because it is very, very fast. Okay. But I'm going to show you a quick little bass line that you can play over the intro and then we'll talk about the strumming pattern we're going to use. So this all takes place within these first three frets. Let me play it for you first and then we'll go over it step by step.
So that's pretty easy at the beginner level. And I know you guys like these cool little licks and stuff that you can play that are pretty simple. So what am I doing? We're starting on the open A string and we're just hitting the open string and then coming right to the second fret on the A string with my first finger. So I'm going to be using my first and second fingers here. So we got open two, and then we're walking up. We call this a walk up. Second fret's going to hit the third fret on the A string. So we've got open 2, 3, and it's BA, ba, ba. Okay, so sing the melody. I'm not gonna. The rhythm's a little bit intricate here. If you can sing it, you can play it.
Ba, ba, ba.
And then we've got ba, ba, ba. We've got a walk down. So we're gonna go three, two on the A string. And then third fret on the G string. So we're walking up, the notes are going up. And then we're walking down. The notes are going down.
Okay, one more time.
And then we have another walk up.
Three on the top string, two on the A string, and then the open A string. So it's just three little lines. So we have the walk up, the walk down, and then the walk back up. Okay, again.
Okay, so just three little quick little lines that you can play over the intro. You'll hear it because it really, really sticks out. This is really the bass line. It's not the guitar part, but it's a really cool part. And you'll hear it come in and out throughout the song. So especially if you're at the beginner level, it's just something fun to play. But now let's talk about the strumming pattern we're going to use for the rest of the song. So another thing that's great about this song that I love for Beginners is the chord progression. The order of the chords is the same for the entire song. So the chord progression for this song is same. C, G, A minor, A minor. Okay, so we're going to do one strumming pattern of C, one strumming pattern of G. And then we're going to do that strumming pattern twice on A minor. And before I show you the strumming patterns, just if you don't know me, my name is Lauren Bateman, and I help make the guitar makes sense. I specialize in helping absolute beginners, especially older adults in their 50s, 60s, and 70s. And we play amazing songs like this one by Lynyrd Skynyrd. So let's talk about the two options I'm going to give you. I'm going to give you one option that's a little bit easier and then one that's still beginner, but kind of like the next step. And it's the one I personally like to use for this song because it gives a little more space. So just so we can figure this out, let's start with the G chord. Okay. Everyone likes a good G chord. And we're gonna do 1, 2, 3, 4. And played 1, 2, 3, 4. And. Okay.
Okay. And that's our timing. Now, this song is fast. That's the one downside. It is a faster song. So if I played over that chord progression, it's going to sound like this.
Down 1, 2, 3, 4. And 1, 2, 3, 4. And 1, 2, 3, four. And 1, 2, 3, four.
And. So you can hear that it's a fast song. What I like to do is I actually like to drop one of the down strums. And I know for beginners this can sometimes be tricky because there's like this weird space, but it flows really well. Let me show you. It's going to sound like this.
See, it's already sounding much more like the song. And I like this because it's a fast song. And doing the other strumming pattern, it sounds a little rushed.
Just sounds like it's almost just a little bit too much. So what am I doing? I'm dropping the strum on the second beat. So I'm going 1, 2, 3, 4.
And 1, 2, 3, 4. And 1, 2, 3, four. And 1, 2, 3', 4, and 3.
Now, I don't know if you guys are watching my strumming hand. I'm still keeping time. So even though I'm not strumming that two beat, I'm still technically, I'm strumming it with my hand. I'm just not hitting the strings. Let's go in for a close up and I'll show you. Ready? One, two, Here we go.
Do you see how my strumming hand is always doing this no matter what, whether I'm strumming the guitar or not? And that is the secret to kind of missing or skipping strums while you're playing. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to go through the first two verses and the chorus to play through for you guys so that you can play along with me. And if I'm going too slow, you can always use the settings cog right over there to slow me down. One, three, two, one.
Well, mama told me.
When I was young.
Sit down beside me.
My only sun.
And listen closely to what I say.
And if you do this, it'll help you summer sunny day yeah.
Take your time don't live too fast.
Troubles will come and they will pass.
Go find a woman.
And you'll find love.
And don't forget sun there's someone up above.
And be a silver.
Kind of man.
Oh, it's something.
You love and understand.
And be a simple.
A.
Won't you do this for me, son? If you can.
Such a great song. And if you guys are looking for another easy Lynyrd Skynyrd song, I actually have a very simplified version of Sweet Home Alabama right over there. Go check it out.
