Lauren Bateman presents a simplified guitar tutorial for James Taylor's "Carolina in My Mind," aimed at intermediate players. She uses a capo on the 1st fret and outlines core chords (D, G, Em, Bm, F#m7, Cadd9, A, E), a recommended chorus strumming pattern (mostly two-beat chords with a "down, down, up, down, down, down" feel), and optional walkdowns (commonly G→F#→Em). The video demonstrates the intro riff, chorus with timing and walkdowns, verse voicings (including Cadd9 and bright tones), a sparse bridge (single strums/arpeggios), and suggests small embellishments (hammer-ons, Dsus variations, lifting fingers on A to create A sus) to approximate James Taylor's style while keeping the arrangement accessible.
Chapters
Hey, guitar enthusiast Lauren Bateman here. I have amazing James Taylor song Carolina on my Mind. And like most James Taylor songs, they're pretty intricate. They're a little bit more intermediate to advanced on guitar. So we're going to try and simplify this as much as possible so that we can make it available to you to be able to play. You'll see here. I do have a capo on the first fret of my guitar. So all these chords, like lots of James Taylor signs. We have lots of chords. So I see a D chord, a G chord. I see some slash chords. I see E minor, B minor, F sharp, minor 7, CAD 9, E, a bunch of chords. And we'll go through them step by step as we get to each section. But first, let's start off with the intro, which, again, like I said, it's a little bit intricate, but the way I've written it out here is just a full measure, which two of those beats are going to be D.
And then we have our first slash chord, because it's kind of like a little walk down. So. So I have my D chord, and I like to just reach over the top and grab that F sharp in the bass with my thumb. So I got 1, 2, 3, 4. So D, D, get the F sharp, G, and then E minor to A seven.
And I play that down, up, down, up, down.
That gets 1, A, 2 and 3.
1, A, 2 and 3.
Okay, so we got.
A little intro. Again, it doesn't sound like.
All the more intricate things that James is doing, but we'll talk about how you can.
Add in some little intricacy and spices later. We're just going to do the framework first.
So let's go to our chorus and the strumming pattern. I recommend just keeping it simple is kind of a one, two, and A. Okay, and you're gonna do that for each chord. Most of the chords in this song are two beats. Every once in a while, we get a song, get a chord that is a full measure, four beats, but most of them are two beats. So it's gonna be down, down, down, up, down, down, down.
Down, down, up, down, down, down. Okay, and that's 1, 2, and a 3, 4, and a 1, 2, and a 3, 4 on your own.
And that's about the speed we're gonna go with this song.
Okay, so if I take the chorus and I look through here, I have all half measures until we get to the very end. I see a D chord. Okay, and that one's going to be a full measure. There are some walkdowns. Let's just go through the basics, and then I'll show you how to add some lockdowns in, if you'd like to do that. So we've got.
In my mind I'm gonna Carolina.
Can'T.
You see the sunshine? Can't you feel the moonshine? Ain't it just like a friend of Min Hit me from behind and I'm gonna.
Carolina in my mind.
All right, so you can say I messed up a little bit there on the E. And that's okay. I had a brain fart, and I've been playing guitar for 20 years, and I still make mistakes sometimes, so that's okay. I was thinking of a walk down. That's why I messed up. And when you thinking guitar thinking is not a good thing. That's when you make mistakes. So you can hear. I'm just keeping a nice even kilter here with that.
Down, down, down, down, down, down, down.
Now, if you want to add a walk down, the first part of this chorus would be a great spot to do that. So we have a D chord, we have a G chord, and then we go to E minor. And a very common walk down in guitar is to go from G to F sharp to E minor. So I would go.
Hear in my mind.
So I'm adding in a little bit more strumming here.
So what I'm going to do is.
The first one's going to be fine. One, two, and okay. And then it's going to be three and a four. And down, down, up, down, down, up. So I'm working in that walk down. And each of those notes is going to be 1B. Okay? So the G chord is going to be down, down, up. Then the D slash, F sharp, down, down, up, then E minor. And again, you're not hearing these bright tones. So kind of sticking to the top, you know, or the bottom. The low notes, two or three strings of the guitar. Okay? So again I go.
Okay, so that will give you a walk down there. Another easy walk down. Again you can see. Hit me from behind. We go from G to E minor 7. You can do the same kind of walk down. Except this time you're going to do the G for a full measure or the G for the half measure.
So we're going D slash, F sharp to E minor 7 to D. So that's going to be.
All right. So if I take that from the top again with the walk downs, then this is what we've got together. I'll go a little bit Slow so.
In my mind I'm gone to Carolina.
Can't you see the sunshine? Can't you just feel the moonshine? Ain't it just like a friend of mine to hit me from behind when I'm gone A Carolina in my mom.
You can see on that D chord I'm just, you know, I'm starting with almost like a D Sus and I'm doing some hammer ons and you know, I don't know exactly what James does there, but he does something like that.
Where you strum the D chord and you have, you know, usually we. This is a very common thing in guitar. You strum this DSUS chord.
And then you hammer down your second finger on that high E string.
Now I just lifted it up again. So watch on the close up.
As you can see, I just. I can add in the pinky or the second finger to create a little bit movement.
So that's something you might want to play. And of course, my strumming changed up a little bit and that's something. Just, Just play around with it and go freestyle. Keep your. Keep your hand moving and just stay on a D chord and just go.
It's kind of like our free falling.
Okay, so exactly. I mean, free falling. I don't think they start them that much. I do have a video lesson on that if you want to go check that out. But that's what we're doing. We're just adding and removing the second finger or the pinky from that high E string.
Okay, so just sit on that D chord and practice that. Just take a strumming. Just go down, up, down, up down, up, down, up down, up down, up, down, up.
Play around with getting different sounds, but it's fun to practice that and work on that on your own and just see what you come up with that you like as an embellishment to add in. But that's kind of how you do some of that stuff. So let's hop on to the verses. We get some different chords now. There are some opportunities for walk downs here too. And again, I'm really emphasizing the G to E minor walk down, which happens in the second line of this. So let's. Let's take a look at the verse. So we've got the introduction of C add 9. Okay. You could do it with the bright. I think these James Taylor songs really benefit from the bright tone. So if you wanted to play your G this way, the C add nine this way. I really like it. I think it fits the song well.
Karen, she's a silver sun, you better walk away Watch it shining Watch it watch the morning come.
Hearing Now I'm crying pain I've gone to Carolina in my.
So that's the. The majority of the song. There is a little bit of a bridge later that really, really lightens up where, you know, there's really not a ton going on. You know, the.
The Holy Ghost and others standing around me.
You could just single strum those.
I'm still the dark side of the.
Moon.
And it seems that it goes on like this forever.
You must forgive me.
So it's a really somber bridge. There's really not a lot going on, so I would keep it to single strums, little arpeggios if you want to. And other things that, you know, you can play through with these. These verses and other stuff is, you know, you can put hammer ons and other things on. On other chords too. So there.
So you can see even on that A chord. And again, I'm. I'm just playing the verse, the verse chords, but even on that A chord, you can see how I can lift up fingers there. And it sounds great. You have these A susses.
And I'm just lifting on. So I play my A with first, second, and third fingers, which makes it easy to lift and open up that G string. And then you can put the pinky down. Sorry, B string.
Okay. So.
But any of the chords, even the CAD9.
I can play that CAD9 with the top open.
There ain't no doubt in no one's mind.
Same thing with the G chord.
Even the bar. I can do that on the bar chord too.
It's harder on a bar chord to do these things, but any of these chords you can lift.
So that's something, you know, if you take anything out of this song, even if we're not playing it exactly the way James does, it's really to focus on working on adding in those little embellishments, those little surprises that people aren't expecting.
It adds so much more as opposed to.
No, instead you could have.
Hey, Curie adds so much more movement, and it's just really. Same thing with that a chord sitting. Just do the down, up, down, up. 1 and 2 and 3 and 4, and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4.
And just working on what can I do with embellishments. Work on doing those little hammer ons with the G and the C. Even the D chord, when you play it, you can start it as a desus and then hammer down that second finger.
Okay. So lots of cool things you can do on the guitar. And I think this is a great song to do some experimenting with. Now, if you're someone who loves James Taylor, go check out my fire and rain lesson over there. I show you how to play that song in a slightly easier format, but it still sounds super cool. Go check out that video right now.
