A beginner-friendly acoustic guitar lesson by Lauren Bateman teaching how to play "Stand By Me" using four simple chords (G, Em, C, D) with a capo on the 2nd fret. The lesson explains chord choices (relative to capo), shows three progressively harder strumming approaches (single strum/count to four; four downstrums per chord; patterns with up-strums including a syncopated pattern), and gives the repeating chord progression used throughout: G (held for two counts), Em (two counts), C, D, G, G. Lauren also promises a play-along video link and reminds viewers to subscribe.
Chapters
Hey, guitar enthusiasts, welcome back. In this lesson, we're going to be doing a song called Stand By Me. We're going to be doing it in the key of G, which makes it easier and it means we're going to need a capo.
So some of you may have seen my other lesson where I do this song with the chords A, D, F sharp, minor and E. And I wanted to make an easier version for those of you using my four simple chords, G, E, E minor, C and D. So in order to do that, we're going to need a capo at the second fret of the guitar. And all you're going to do is play your chords relative to the capo. So this capo is going to act like the nut of your guitar. So let's keep this very simple in the beginning. So if you know my two fingered chords, you can use those chords. I'm going to be using the full versions of the G chord, the C chord, the E minor chord and the D chord. All right? And the chord progression for this is, is very repetitive. It's going to be double G, double E minor, C, D, G, G. Okay. And that's the chord progression for the entire song. Even in the choruses, it's all going to be the same. All right, so let's talk about how we're going to strum this. So the most simplest way to do this, if you're just getting started and you're an absolute beginner, is to do one strum and count to four.
Okay, that's the easiest way to do it. The next step up, if your chord changes are feeling a little bit faster, a little bit quicker, I would just do four down strums per chord. So it would be 1, 2, 3, 4. All downs, ready M?
1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3.
To E minor.
To C.
To D. And then you would have your double G.
Very simple. And what I'll do is I, I'll make a little play along video for this song. When that's ready, I'll put a link up here for you guys to go check that out. Now if you want to spice this rhythm up a little bit more, the next couple of strumming patterns I'm going to show you are going to have some up strums. So whenever I show you these strumming patterns, just pick the one that works best for you and play along at your level. Not my level, your level. Hey guys, real quick. Hope you're enjoying this lesson so far. Far. Don't forget to subscribe to my channel and turn the notifications on. This way. YouTube will let you know when I release more videos just like this one. So the first drumming pattern I'll show you will just be a one, two, three and four. One, two, three and four. And then the next one, the final one I'll show you is the hardest strumming pattern, but I think one of the nicest ones to use for this song. So the pattern I just said, one, two, three, three and four.
We got one, two, three and four. One, two, three and four.
So you can see just by adding in one little up strum between the third beat and the fourth beat makes it sound a lot nicer. You can really do a lot with these simple strumming patterns on these songs to make it sound great. The final strumming pattern I'm going to show you is what we call syncopated pattern. Means we're not going to have a strum on a down strum. So if you're an absolute beginner, this might be tricky for you, but take a listen. I always tell people when you're doing strumming patterns, listen to them first and then go back and try and play them. So this is going to be 1, 2, and. And 4, and 1, 2, and, and 4, and strum des. Down, down, up, up, down, up, down, down, up, up, down, up. Let's give it a try. Ready? 1, 2, 3, 4.
So you can hear. That's a really great strumming pattern. So again, the easiest one. Strum all the way up to this pattern. Use whichever one works best for you guys, all right? And. And you can use this for the entirety of the song because the chord progression never changes. It's always double G, double E minor, C, D, G, G, even on those choruses. So give this a try and I hope you guys enjoy this. Really quick lesson on Stand by me. Real quick. YouTube's gonna pop up a couple more lessons over here. Go check those out, and I hope to see you guys in another Lesson video very soon.
