Lauren Bateman teaches how to play Traveling Wilburys' "End of the Line" on acoustic guitar. The lesson covers a simple three-chord arrangement (G, D, A), an 8th-note strumming pattern (spoken as counts and as 'down, down, down, up' with an accented bass-note on the first down), how to handle split measures, the repetitive chorus/verse progression, an optional four-finger G, and a step-by-step breakdown of the distinctive intro which uses sliding D shapes up the neck (frets 7–8, 9–10, 10–11 and a high D at 14–15).
Questions this video answers
G, D, and A.
An 8th-note pattern counted 1,2,3&4 and played as 'down, down, down, up' with an emphasized bass note on the first down.
D shapes at frets 7–8, then 9–10 (with 10,10,11 triad), repeat 7–8 and 9–10, and a high D around 14–15.
Chapters
Hey, guitar enthusiasts. I have a fantastic song here by the Traveling Wilburies. I'm going to show you how to play along to the cool intro. I'm going to show you how to strum and sing along to the song. What a great group of musicians here. Let's get started.
All right, so I'm going to save the tricky intro section for the end. It's not super difficult, but it does require you moving around the fretboard a bit more. So let's start off with the chords. We're going to strum in the verses and choruses. So the great thing about this song is that it is a simple three chord song. We're going to be using the G chord, the D chord, and the A chord, okay. Throughout the entire song. So let's start off with our strumming pattern that we're going to be using. So for this song, I like to use an 8th note strumming pattern. And it's going to be 1, 2, 3 and 4. M, which would be something like this. 1, 2, 3 and four.
And down, down, down, up.
But that's not usually how I play with the song. This song is just such a pup to it. Such a good, good vibe to it. I like to use the bass note of the chord on that first strum. So instead of strumming the entire chord on the first down, I'm just gonna hit the bass drum and let it ring.
You'll notice that my strumming is a bit brighter because after I hit that bass note, I'm trying to avoid it on the rest of my strums. So it sounds like this 1, 2, 3 and 4.
And bass down, down, up, down, up.
So on the G chord is going to be your sixth string, your top string of the guitar. The A is going to be the fifth string or the A string. And then on your D chord, it's going to be your fourth string.
Okay, now if that's tricky for you because it requires you kind of knowing the strings on your guitar, if you haven't mastered that skill yet, I have a great exercise up here that I'll link you over to that you can go watch after this video. Now, in a couple parts, there are going to be some split measures. So let's talk about how we're going to handle the strumming. For those, we're just going to split the measures in half. So each chord is going to be two beats. So our normal chords are usually four beats. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, four. Well, in split measures, they're two beats. 1, 2, 3,. 4. 3, 4. All right, so we're going to be splitting a D chord and an A chord. And what we're going to do for that is we're going to go down.
Down, up and then down, down, up.
Very simple.
Down, down, up. Down, down, up.
One more time.
Down, down, up. Down, down, up.
All right, so if I take the chorus, which is another great thing about this song, it's a very, very repetitive song, which is awesome. So it starts on the chorus which is going to be two D's DNA splitting a measure, then a G. Then it repeats that except on the end it's D. Then we go back to G, then we go back to D. If you want to follow along on my notes, you can go to laurenbateman.com. i have everything over on my website there too. So if I take it from the top of this chorus, starting from the. Well, it's all right well it's all.
Right Riding around in the breeze it's all right if you got life you please well it's all right Doing the best as you can it's all right as long as you lend a hand.
Very, very cool. Sounds great. Right? I love that little bass, that little bass spice in there. It just really brings a lot of pep and energy to this song. Now the verses we're going to continue again with a very repetitive chord progression. We have a double G, double D, double G, double D, double G, double D. And then two A's on the end. Now quick question because I know some of you are going to ask Lauren if I know the four fingered G chord, which is what I call my stuck like glue chords, can I use this instead of the regular G chord? Because I find it easier to pivot into the D. Yes, you can just understand it's going to give a little bit of a brighter tone to the song which. Which for this song I really don't mind as much. So if you want to do that because it makes it easier for you to get into the D chord from D. Absolutely. It'll just sound like this.
Well, it's all.
Riding around the bridge.
And now I can't even do it breathing.
It's all right, you're just gonna have.
A slightly brighter G chord. But see, I'm so used to going to the regular G chord that I couldn't even get into the. The four finger G chord. See, I've been playing guitar for years and I still make mistakes sometimes. So if you're making mistakes, don't worry, it's totally normal. You're. You're not alone in that. All right, so what I want to do, I want to take it through a. A full chorus here into a verse, okay? And then I'm going to show you the cool little intro.
Okay? We're gonna learn how to play that part. It's super fun. It's really just sliding a D chord along the fretboard, but it's really cool. And if you can master it, people will think you're the coolest guitar player in the world, honestly. All right, so let's just do a very quick playthrough. I'm going to do the. The chorus and the verse just so that you can have the two different parts of the song. And then we're going to jump into that super fun intro. So let's take it from the top of the chorus on three. One, two, one, two.
Well, it's all right. Riding around in the breeze well, it's all right if you live the life you please well, it's all right. Doing the best you can well, it's all right as long as you lend the hang.
You can sit around and wait for.
The phone to ring. Using the four finger decord.
Waiting for someone to tell you everything.
Sit around and wonder what tomorrow will bring. Maybe a diamond ring forest ready when it's all right. Even if they say you're wrong well, it's all right. Sometimes you gotta be strong well, it's all right as long as you got somewhere to lay well, it's so right.
Every day is judgment day such a super fun song. How could you not be happy playing this song? I really, really love it. So we're going to move into that intro section. Bear with me on this, okay? Because we're going to break it down step by step. But if you know a D chord, which I hope you do, because we've already played it a lot in this song, this part shouldn't be too, too difficult, okay. It's just a timing thing and being able to slide your chords along the fretboard. So what we're going to do is we're going to start with our D chord, not here, where we would usually play it on the second and third strings. We're going to slide it up to the seventh and eight strings, okay? This is called a G D chord. Because what we're going to do is we're going to play the bass note, the D string, and then we're going.
To go down, up, up, up.
Okay?
It's down, up, up, up, all on.
That D chord up here on the seventh and eighth fret. So it's play the bass note D.
And then down, up, up, up.
One more time.
Bass down, up, up, up.
So that's our first measure. Alright. The second measure is down, up, down. And then we're going to slide to a regular D chord.
Down, down.
Okay, so again, Back to the 7 and 8.
Down, up, down, down, down.
One more time.
Down, up, down, down, down.
So if we put those together, it's.
Going to be bass down, up, up, up, down, up, down, down, down.
Mmm, pretty cool, huh? Let's try that again. So we got ready from the bass note. Ready?
Ah, see that's the tricky part is it's quick. Now when you're sliding, if you're like, oh my goodness, I'm having trouble sliding, I'm always looking at where I'm going next. So if I'm up here on 7 and 8, I'm already looking at the second fret. So that when I slide my hand down, I know exactly where I'm going. The hand tends to follow the eye. So when you're doing stuff like this, where you're having to jump around the fretboard, let your eye find the spot first and then your hand will go there versus if you're watching the seventh fret and then you're trying to get back down. I know where the D chord is. So the D chord's not as hard, but sometimes you'll overshoot it or you'll undershoot it. If you're not watching one more time and then we'll go into the second half. So the first half is bass down.
Up, up, up, down, up, down, down, down.
Okay, now it's going to start exactly the same.
Bass down, up, up, up, down, up, down.
But instead of going to the D down here, we're going to go slide our D up to the 9th and 10th frets. We're going to play down and then we're going to do a little slightly different triad shape. Okay. I'm barring the bottom two strings with my first finger. And then I'm playing the third string on the 11th fret. So I'm 10, 10, 11.
And I'm playing that on the second down instead. So this is a, this is a different D chord. You could add on, you could add on the 12th fret at the D chord if you want to, to have another D bass note in there. But this is just fine. Enough. Okay. So again, instead of coming back here and going to the D down here, we're going to 9 and 10, and then 10 and 11. So if I put those together, it's gonna sound like this.
So that's the first half. Then what we do for measures five and six, we're gonna repeat the same exact thing, coming down to the D chord.
Okay. And then it starts the same on the seventh and eighth measures we got.
Down, up, up, up.
And then it's going to be down, down, down, down, and then 14, 15. So it's basically d at the 7, d at the 9, d at the 7, d at The9, and then d at 14 and 15. That's if you don't have a cutaway like my acoustic, that's going to be tricky to play. I think George plays this on an electric, but you can play it on an acoustic, too. So again, that final measure is down.
Up, up, up, down, up, down, down, down.
Down, up, up, up, down, down, down, down.
All right, now I'm going to try and play it a little faster speed and see if I can pull it off. Ready? So we got 1, 2, 3. Here we go.
Close enough.
It's even something I would have to practice to do that up to full speed and really get it. But that gives you an idea of what we're doing. And then right after that, you would jump right into, well, It's All Right. And if you're looking for another fun song that involves Tom Petty that uses a lot of D chord, then I highly recommend you go check out My Free Fallen Lesson right over there, where I'm going to show you how to play that song with just three simple versions of a D chord.
