Summer of 69 Guitar Lesson - 2 Chord Verse!

Hey, guitar enthusiast Lauren Bateman here and I have a super fun song by Bryan Adams called the summer of 69. Now, fortunately, the majority of the song is just two chords. So let's start off with that intro and that verse.

So the two chords we're going to be using on the intro and the verse are a D chord and an A major chord. Nice and simple. So D major, A major doesn't get any easier than that. And for transition, you know, if you're playing your a chord with 1, 2 and 3, all you have to do is just shift your first finger down, your second finger down, and then place that D chord. And then to get back into the A, just shift the first, second and third fingers up. And that is your transition between the A chord and the D chord. So let's talk about the strum we're going to be using for this intro and this verse section. So let's start off with the strumming pattern for this intro. It is going to be an eighth note strumming pattern. So we'll be counting 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4. And. Now this song is fast. And sometimes doing all downs like that.

Sometimes doing that, if you haven't done that before, can be really tiring, really exhausting. So if you feel like you, your hand's starting to fall asleep and your pick's ready to fall out of your hand, just go to four strums per chord. Okay? Let your hand relax and then jump right back in to the eighth notes. Okay, so we'll take it down just a little bit slower. So we got 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4, 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 &.

Okay, so that's all our intro is, is just a D chord. Now I'm going to show you how to spice it up a little bit so that you can sound more like the song. Okay. Just like that electric guitar, which requires us accenting the rhythm. So I have notes here and you can follow along with the notes on my website, laurenbatement.com and I have an accent on the 1B and the and after two. So it's going to sound like this 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4.

So I'm just giving a little extra oomph to the one in the and.

Okay, so that's one way to do it. Now the way to make it really, really sound like the song is to add in palm muting. Okay. And if you're not familiar with palm muting and give you a quick tutorial here. But if you need a full tutorial, I'll put a link up here to my palm muting lesson for you to go and check that out. All right, so what we're doing is we're taking the fleshy part of the palm of our strumming hand and we're going to put it just in front of the bridge here on the guitar and we're going to get this beefy, chunky sound. Now if you're hearing this, you're not far enough back. So just slide your hand back till it warms up and then you've got that chunk. And now we're going to put those accents on that D chord. So it's going to be.

Now it sounds more like the song, right? So what am I doing here? So I'm taking that eighth note rhythm and I'm playing palm muting. So it's 1 and 2 and 3 and 4, and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4. M Now, on the first count, that first measure, I am accenting the one by lifting my hand away from the strings and then I'm putting them right back on and then I'm lifting them away on the. And so this might take a little bit of practice to get this coordination down. So it's going to be 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4&.

Okay, let's just try the accent. I'm just going to loop that accent. So here it goes. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1 and 2 and.

1 and 2 and.

Okay, let's pick up the speed.

Okay, a little faster.

I told you it was fast. And some of you, you know, if you're not used to doing this, you might feel your shoulder starting to tense, your bicep starting to tense. And it just means you just need to go a little bit slower. Remember to breathe, remember to relax. So this strumming pattern is going to carry into the verse. Okay? So you could simply. Again, if you just want to stick with the 8th note.

Strumming. I got my first real 6 string bought it at the 5 in dime played until my fingers bled Was the summer of 69 told guys from school had a fan and we tried real hard Jimmy quit, Jody got married. You know, we never get.

Far. That's Joey. Why'd he say Jody? Apparently my eyes, my contacts are all. So I'm letting the chord.

So I'm just. I'M only giving a big strum on that downbeat of the one, and then I'm keeping the rest of the chord very, very small in the strumming. So if you're like, lauren, my strumming doesn't sound like yours. What are you doing differently? That's what I'm doing differently to get that sound. All right, so let's do this really cool interlude, and then we're gonna put the whole thing together. Okay. So this takes place over a D. D chord and an A chord, But I'm going to teach you some extra chords so that you can actually make this sound really cool. It's going to sound like this. One, two. Here it is.

Okay. Super cool. And this. This is very, very common in a lot of songs. I think of, like, Stairway to Heaven.

Okay. I think a free.

Kind of suspended chord thing. Also, Dust in the Wind uses suspended chords in its intro to create that cool sound. So I'm going to break this down step by step. It's a little bit intricate, but stick with me. All right, so we're using 3D chords. So if you know your D chord, just put it down on the guitar. And if you lift up your bottom finger, your second finger, it's called the D sus 2 chord. Very open, beautiful sounding chord. If you put your second finger down, we have our D chord. And if you put your pinky down in front of it on the third fret, we have DSUS 4. So we have DSUS 2D. DSUS 4. Back to D. So those are our D chords. A. We also have three chords. All right, we have our A major chord. So you put that down, and I make mine first, second, and third finger. And the reason I do it that way, I'm gonna let that first string strum ring. So instead of me just cutting and doing part of the chord, now I'm going to let it ring out. It's going to.

Be. Oh. When I look back now that summer seem to last.

Forever. So that is our timing. And if I throw the eighth note pattern over, it's going to be like.

This. Oh. When I look back now that summer seem to last forever and if I have a choice I'd always want to be There were the best days.

Of my life and then that last A we do hold. So the rhythm I'm using here is I'm going 1, 2, and 3 and 4. And then the reason I'm not going 1 and is I'm let. I'm giving that chord time to ring. So it's 1, 2, and 3 and 4. And 1, 2, and 3 and4. And 1, 2, and three and four. And 1, 2, and3 and4. And. Because I think when you listen to the record, the electric guitar is just doing this. And you could totally do that too. You could just strum and sing over it. But I think it sounds cool if you. You play a little bit extra on this chorus, especially if you're playing by yourself. If you're playing with the band, it's one thing, but if you're playing by yourself, it's something different. All right, so let's go through this chorus part. Let me show you this, the really cool interlude breakdown, which is totally awesome. Favorite part of the song. All right, so we got chorus first. One, two, one, two. Here we.

Go. Oh, when I look back now the summer to last forever and if I had the choice yeah Always wanna be there those were the best days of my.

Life. Now one more note. As I was playing that, I want to make sure you'll see that on my other notes. I'm keeping the strumming very small, so I'm letting the ch.

So I'm just. I'm only giving a big strum on that downbeat of the one, and then I'm keeping the rest of the chord very, very small in the strumming. So if you're like, lauren, my strumming doesn't sound like yours. What are you doing differently? That's what I'm doing differently to get that sound. All right, so let's do this really cool interlude, and then we're gonna put the whole thing together. Okay, so this takes place over a D chord and an A chord, but I'm going to teach you some extra chords so that you can actually make this sound really cool. It's going to sound like this. One, two. Here it is.

Okay. Super cool. And this. This is very, very common in a lot of songs. I think of, like, Stairway to Heaven.

I think of Free.

This kind of suspended chord thing. Also, Dust in the Wind uses suspended chords in its intro to create that cool sound. So I'm going to break this down step by step. It's a little bit intricate, but stick with me. All right, so we're using 3D chords. So if you know your D chord, just put it down on the guitar. And if you lift up your bottom finger, your second finger, it's called the D suss chord. Very open, beautiful sounding chord. If you put your second finger down, we have our D chord. And if you put your pinky down in front of it on the third fret, we have DSUS 4. So we have DSUS 2. D.

DSUS 4, back to D. So those are our D chords. A. We also have three chords. All right, we have our A major chord. So if you put that down, and I make mine first, second, and third finger. And the reason I do it that way is for what we're going to do here. So I have an A chord. So make Asus 2. I'm going to lift up my third finger. Okay. Third finger comes down. I have A major. Pinky comes right in front of that third finger. And I have ASUS 4. So it's just like the D chord. So the DSUS 4. 2. We have the finger lifted, the D chord, the finger comes down the dsus 4, the pinky comes down. A is the same. Okay, so Asus 2, fingers in the air. A major finger comes down. Asus 4, pinky comes down. Okay, that could be a little awkward for you if you've never done that before, because pinkies tend to be weak fingers, so do the best you can. You might want to pause the video and just practice going through the motions of that. But now let's put it into the rhythm of the song. So when I get intricate rhythms like this, I will put the rhythm on the screen so that you can see it if you like to know the count. But for something like this, I like to sing it. So it's kind of.

Okay.

This way I know I can see sing my timing, and I don't have to worry, you know, that it's the one and the. And. And the four and then another. And sometimes it can be tricky to count these timings, so feeling them is very important. So what I'm going to do, I'm just want. I'm just going to play this rhythm and see if you can hear. See if you can hum. Okay. Even if you're not the greatest singer, just try humming.

And then the same rhythm on the A.

All right, so let's try singing this together, okay. Or humming. Even if you're not the greatest singer, just try and listen. Don't play anything on the guitar. Just listen to the guitar and see if you can feel the rhythm. Okay, so we got one, two, Here we.

Go.

Bum.

Bum. All right, so I think of that. So let's try this together. Okay? So very slow. So it's going to be finger up, finger down, pinky down, pinky up, finger up, finger down. Same on ASUS 2. Finger up, finger down, pinky down, pinky up, finger up, finger down. Okay, so that's the whole section. So let's take it very, very slow. 1, 2, 3, 4.

Okay, and if I pick that speed up, it's going to be 1, 2, 3, 4.

Super, super cool part of the song. One of my favorite parts of the song. You might need to practice that, but I just wanted you to have it before we do our playthrough. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to take this from the intro. We're going to do a verse, we're going to do a chorus. I'll do an interlude. And then if you need to slow this down fast song, don't forget to use the settings. Cog you can slow me right down this way you can play along with me. Or if you just want to listen a first couple times, listen. You can always rewind it and play through it again. Alright, here we go. One, two, one, two. Here we.

Go.

I got my first real six string bought it at the five and dime wait until my fingers bled was the summer of 69 me and some guys from school had a band and we tried real hard Jimmy quit, Joey got married, you know we never get far oh when I look back now that summer seem to last forever and if I had the choice yeah I'd always want to be there the way over the best days of my.

Life.

This song is so much fun. And if you want to learn more about the palm muting technique that really makes this song come alive, go watch this video right over there where I'm going to show you step by step how to master the technique of palm muting.