Lauren Bateman provides a step-by-step beginner-friendly guitar lesson for "Southern Cross" (Crosby, Stills & Nash). The instructor focuses on three core chords (A, D, G — recommending a two-finger G), demonstrates an eighth-note intro strumming pattern that assigns strums across A→G→D, explains a percussive muted "karate chop" technique, and shows suspended-D variations (Dsus4 → D → Dsus2 → D) to add color. She also covers verse timing quirks (including a 2/4 measure before pre-chorus), two pre-chorus strumming options (simple down-down-up or a 16th-note pattern), and notes places to mute for rhythmic effect. The chunk includes lyric-aligned playthroughs and practical tips for chord transitions.
Chapters
Who knows love can endure.
And you know it with him.
Hey guitar enthusiasts, we're doing an amazing three chord song here by Crosby, Stills and Nash called Southern Cross. Has some really cool strumming parts to it. And also this really interesting SUS thing I'm going to show you in the lesson right now.
So I had some students in my online guitar course request this. So Tom, this is going out to you. This is a great three chord song. The chords we're mainly going to be using are the A chord, A major, the D chord and we're going to be using the G chord and I would recommend using the two fingered G chord. Why? Because it makes a nice little pivot transition and I like the brighter tones for this song but. But it makes a really easy transition going from the G chord into the D chord for some of our strumming patterns. So let's talk about the main strumming that we're going to use for the majority of this song. And we're starting off with the A chord and we're just going to be doing two down strums. It's going to be an eighth note pattern. It's going to be 1 and 2 and 1 and 2 and. Okay, so that's going to be our intro. It's going to be 1 and 2, 2 and 1 and 2 and. And the first two strums are going to the A chord. Okay. The next two strums are going to the G chord and the next four strums are going to the D chord.
Okay. And then on the next time through what's going to happen is we're going to do that again. It's going to be a, A sound, it's going to be GG and then three of the strums are going to the D chord and then we're switching over to the A.
So it's going to be 1, 2, 3, 4.
So if I play the intro it's going to be A, a G, G.
1, 2, 3, 4. Again a G, G, 1, 2', 3, 4.
Now I know what you guys are saying. Laurem, what's that little that you're doing? I'm doing a little karate chop. It's a little percussive element that you can throw into your strumming if you're interested. You don't have to. My hand just naturally wants to. But since it came in, let's talk about it. So I'm muting my strums. After I do those down strums on the A, it's going to be.
And I'm just. All I'm doing is I'm taking this part of my hand. Okay, taking this part of my hand on the strumming hand. And I'm just tapping the strings. Now if you really want to get percussive, you can whack the guitar. I'm almost hitting it with my pinky knuckle and. And. But you won't hurt the guitar. Don't worry. You can hit the guitar. But we're just going. Okay, so I'm just hitting the guitar. The body of the guitar on the two beats. So it's 1 and 2 and 3 and 4. And 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and. And 3 and 4.
And 1 and two and three and four.
So once we get into the verses, we're essentially doing the same thing. But I want to show you a cool little suspended spice you can throw in here. You can throw it into that intro too. And it's going to be around the D chord. Now this is a very common thing that comes into songs over and over again. So it's a very important thing to know. We're going to be going from A. A DSUS 4 chord to A D chord to A DSUS 2 back to the D. Okay. What's other songs that use this?
Little free falling by tom petty or stairway to heaven.
There's tons of other songs that do this. So it's a very, very common thing that happens that you can do on this D chord. So what we're going to do, the A and the G are going to remain the same.
Nothing's changing there. But when we go to the D chord, and that's why I said if you do the G this way, it makes the transition so much easier. These two fingers are already down. All you have to do is move the first finger down to the second fret on that third string and it's going to be 1 and 2 and so it's 4 sus. 4 D sus 2 back to D. So it's 1 and 2 and.
All down strums.
So you can see my fingers moving on that suspension. Suspended chord. It's really cool. So if we add that in on these. These verses. I'm not very good with the first verse. I'm going to go with the second verse. For some reason, I have a hard time singing certain parts. So we got.
When you see the Southern Cross for the first time, you understand now why you came this way.
So when we come to the next one with the A chord. We're doing SUS4DSUS to A. And again, if you just want to stay on the D chord and keep it simple, you can do that. But I wanted to let you guys know this little spice if I go to the next line in the verse.
Cause the truth you might be running from Is so small but as big as the promise the promise of a coming name.
Now, on this second verse, there's a couple little different things that happen. So essentially, that's how you would go through your entire verse. You would just alternate a G and then D. And then it's a G, D, A. And you just alternate that back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, till you get to the very, very last line of the verse where we're going to introduce a G chord again. So if we go to the end of the first verse, but on a.
Midnight watch I realize you trice you ran away.
We're going to do a little different timing here. So we've got twice the D chord, and then it's a little bit of a 16th note. But fortunately, it goes along with the lyrics, so just listen first.
So it's going to be twice you ran away.
Okay, it's going to be down, up, down, up, down one more time.
Now, if you notice, we're going to go for a close up over here. If you notice, my chords are changing on the upstrom because these are fast changes. All right, so it's going to be D. And on the up strum, I'm already getting ready to go to that G. So it's going to be down, up, down, up, down. Okay, so I think when I went from G to A, I didn't even have the chord down. So don't worry about having the chords down. It's twice you ran away. It's all in line with the lyrics.
Down, up, down, up, down, Twice she ran away.
Okay, and the other one is music.
Is her name on the second verse. Okay, down, up, down, up, down.
So that's how we end our verses. And before we jump into the pre chorus and the course, there's just one more note I want to make about the verses here in the second verse. Every once in a while, we're gonna mute on the A chord. So if I play through this second verse, let me just play through so you guys can hear it. We've got.
When you see the southern cross for the first time.
Understand you know why you came this way. Cause the truth you might be running from Is so small but as big as the Promise the promise of a.
Coming day.
And then they strum and mute. They do this randomly and then they go right back into so I'm sailing.
For tomorrow My dreams are dying and I love is an anchor tied with.
A silver chain and again silver chain. They strum the A and they mute it just like a rand. They don't do this in the first verse. They just do it randomly in the second verse. And then the rest of it's the same shipping.
All your flags are flying and she is all that I have left Music is her name Then we jump into.
The prechorus and something strange happens here. There's a random measure of 2, 4. They do this. Thanks, guys. So it means the A is only held for two beats. When we go from the verses into the prechorus, it's think about. That's all it is. You strum the a think about and by the time you say think about, two beats have gone by. Okay. So it's really very lyrical. And then once we do that, we just get right into the pre chorus strumming and I think there's two options. You can either just do a down, down, up per chord because most of these, all these chords are gonna be split measures. It's gonna be 1, 2 and 3, 4. And 1, 2 and 3, 4. And that's four option.
Think about how many times I have fallen Spirits are using me Louder. Voice is calling when heaven brought you cannot be forgotten.
Okay, so that's one.
Way to do it. The other way is if you want to, you can throw in a 16th note pattern which would be 1, 2 and up, 3, 4 and up or down, down, down, up, down, down, down.
Up, down, down, down, up, down, down, down, up.
If I go into the next, the chorus section, we'll use this strumming pattern again. When we go from the pre chorus into the chorus, there's another measure of 2, 4.
Random measure of a. I have been.
Around.
The world looking looking for that woman Girl.
Who knows love can and.
You know it will.
So you heard on the chorus, something little cool happened there. When he gets to knows love can.
Endure okay, no's love can endure.
Again mute muting things, leaving space in the music and you know it when we go right back to the intro.
So I'm gonna do a little playthrough for you guys. I'm gonna go from that, that second verse, a pre chorus and a chorus just so that you can hear everything through top to bottom. So and you guys can work through playing with it with me.
When you see the Southern Cross for the first time you understand now why you came this way? Cause the truth you might be running from Is so small but as big as the promise the promise of a coming day.
So I'm sailing for tomorrow My dreams are dying.
And my love is an anchor tied with a silver chain My ship and all her flags were flying.
She is all that I have left Music is her name Think about, think about how many times I Falling spirits are using me Larger voices are calling what heaven brought you me cannot be forgotten.
I have been around.
The world.
Looking for that woman Girl.
Who knows love can endure.
And you know it will.
And you know it will.
Hope you guys enjoyed this video. Make sure to leave me a comment below to let me know. And if you are Crosby, Nash, Stills and Young fans, well, there's a really great beginner song over here. For what it's worth, I can show you how to play that song step by step today. I'll see you in that lesson.
