Lauren Bateman breaks down Tom Petty's "Learning To Fly" using a four-chord loop: F, C, Am, G. The key is the strumming pattern: eighth notes with the chord change happening on the up-strum after beat two. She shows both open chords and power chord versions, plus a single-note picking line on the first two frets.
Hey, guitar enthusiasts, I have a great song here by Tom Petty. I'm going to show you how to strum through this song, but it does have a particular timing to it I want you to be aware of. So we're going to go over that step by step. And I'm also going to show you a cool little picking line that you can play over the chords.
So depending on which way you want to play this, you can either do this as open chords or you can do this as power chords. If you're a little bit more beginner level, the power chords might be easier because if you use the open chords, we have a G chord, an A chord minor chord, a C chord, and we do have an F bar chord. Now you could make this easier by playing either a four finger or a three finger F major seven. But the other alternative if you don't want to do that is just play everything as power chords. So be an F power chord, a G power chord, an A power chord, and a C power chord. The cool thing about that, when you play the power chords, three of them are all on this top string, so it makes it nice and easy to move around. Now I'm going to show you two different strumming patterns depending on whether you want to do the power chords or the open chords. So let's start with the open chord. Now, the strumming pattern is an eighth note rhythm. Okay. But there is a specific timing to it. But first let's just talk about the rhythm. So eighth notes is going to be 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4and. And we're going to be strumming this as down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up. So let me show you on a C chord. So we got 1, 2, 3, 4, 1 and 2 and 3 and 4.
And 1 and 2, 3 and 4.
So you kind of get the feel of what we're going to be doing here. Now there's four chords you're going to be using over and over. That's a great thing about this song is that it's pretty much the same chord progression for almost the entire song. All right. And that's going to be F and C splitting a measure, and then A minor in G splitting a measure. And this is where that specific timing comes in. So these chords are going to be splitting a measure and we're going to be changing the to the second chord on the up strum. So that's the interesting timing. It's going to be the up strum after two. So if we take the first chord, which would be F, that would be one and two. Okay, down, up, down. That's going to be our F chord. And then the next up is going to be our C chord. So it's going to be 1 and 2 and again 1 and 2 and.
1 and 2 and 1 and 2and.
All right, same thing on the A minor and the G. A minor comes first.
And the G gets that and 1, 2 and. And then you would finish off the second chord with three and four. And so the rest of the strum goes to that second chord. So if I took this from the beginning, Just get that timing. All right, so let's practice just the timing a couple times. So just do. We'll do A minor and G. We'll use the easier chords to start. So it's going to be one and.
Two and down, up, down, up.
One more time.
Now let's put the whole strumming pattern behind it.
So if I take the whole entire chord progression. Now we're going to start with the F chord. So it'll be.
Now, if you're playing the power chords, you're still going to be doing an eighth note pattern. I would just recommend sticking to all down strums. And the timing is going to be the same. So we start with the F. And it would be 1 and 2 and 3 and 4.
And 1 and 2 and 3 and 4, and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4. And 1 and 2 and 3 and four and.
So a little more up to time.
So I'm going to do is I'm going to play through an entire verse and chorus for you guys to see. There is one more timing thing I want to show you that happens on the bridge before we get into that little individual note section that I want to show you that you can play over the verses. So let's start off with a quick intro. We'll do that chord progression one time through F to C, C, A minor to G. And then we'll jump into the verse and the chorus. Ready? I'll count you in. One, two. Ready? And.
Here we go. Started out.
Down a dirty road.
Started out.
All alone.
When the sun went.
Down.
As I crossed the hill.
Oh.
As the town lit up.
The world.
Got still.
We'Re learning a flight.
But.
I ain't got wings.
Coming down.
The hottest thing.
So that's what you're going to be playing for the majority of the song. Now, there are a couple choruses, particularly this chorus section that goes into the solo and this Little bridge breakdown, you're going to be holding on to that F chord for just two extra measures to transition into those sections. So the drum breakdown, it's the same chord, same progression, except you're just going to be doing the first half of the strumming pattern. So you're not going to be finishing off. When you get to that second chord, you're just going to be going F to C, C.
And then A minor to G.
That's it.
So now I have a really cool little picking pattern that you guys can learn, even if you're a beginner, to throw right over the chord progression. Say you were playing with a friend. Let's get into it. So this whole picking pattern is going to happen over the first two frets of our guitar, okay? And we're mostly going to be using fingers two and one. So on the tab, when you see one, use your first finger, and when you see two, use your second finger. So we're going to start off on the G string with our second fret. And we're going to play two open. Okay? It's two open. Then we're going to play one on the B string and then back to open G. Okay? And then we're going to play B again at the first fret and then open G twice. And the timing of this is going to be 1 and 2 and. And 4. And so it's going to be 1 and 2 and. And 4. And one more time. 1 and 2 and. And 4 dot and 1 and 2 and.
And 4 and.
And that's what's going to take place over the F and the C. Now the next measure, we're going to change things up a little bit. We're going to use our first fin string again. And it's going to go B string, open G string, B string, open B string. Okay, first fret on the B string, open B string. First fret on the B string. So that one's going to sound like this.
Again.
So I'll play it slowly. First, let's put it together. Alright, we're going to put the two of them together. So we've got.
Then you repeat.
One more time.
Alright, So I have a little MIDI track that's just going to be playing the acoustic guitar part so that you guys can hear what this is going to sound over the part. All right, so we're going to let it run through a couple times.
So that is F to C, G to A minor.
Ready? F to C, G to A minor. Here it goes.
So you see that this line is pretty peppy, but you can always use the settings cog down below to slow me down and practice with me. Or if you pull up the Tom Petty tune, you can always slow that down as well. Now, if you guys are looking for another fun Tom Petty guitar lesson, then go check out Free Falling right over there. I did an easy version of this using variations of just one single chord. Go check that out. I'll see you in the lesson.
