The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald Guitar Lesson

Hey, guitar enthusiasts. We're gonna do a super cool song by Gordon Lightfoot. The Wreck of the Edmund. The wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. And we are going to use a capo. Okay? So we're gonna be putting a capo on the second fret of the guitar so that you can play and sound exactly like the song. We're gonna start with our chords. So I have five chords in total we're gonna be using for this song. They're all easier open chords. The first one is an E minor chord, very nice and simple. We have a G chord, we have a D chord. We have an ASUS 2. You may not be familiar with that, but it's just your first and second finger on the middle two strings. And the reason I'm going to use the first and second finger as much as possible. On our intro and our outro we have this chord called a G6 suit slash. A kind of weird sounding chord. But what we're going to do is we're going to lift up our first finger and just slide the second finger to our fourth fret. And then we're going to put our other two fingers in place. The first finger is going to come to the third fret on the B string and our third finger is going to come to the D string, fourth string on the fifth fret. And this is fifth fret relative to the capo. Very open sounding chord. And it's just. It's almost like a scrunched up little C chord. But up a few. Up a few frets. So again we have E minor, g, d, a, sus 2 and then this g6 slash a. Don't worry, not important. Just learn to err to get to the name's not important. Just know where to put your fingers. Okay.

So now that we know the chords, we have to talk about the timing for this song because it has a very specific timing. This song is in what we call six, eight times. So we're going to be counting to six, okay. Versus four. Four. We're going to count to four. So we're going to have a little bit more of a sway feel. That's why when you play this song.

You feel like you can kind of sway back and forth, which. Which is a great metaphor because it's a. You know, it's about the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Okay. And you're out on a lake in the sway of the water. So as I said, we're counting to six. So it's going to be 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 3, 4th, 5, 6. 1, 2, 3, four, five, six. And we're going to be changing our strumming. So on 1, 3, and 5, the odd numbers, we're going to do down strums. And on the even numbers, we're going to do up strums. So it's going to sound something like this.

Okay, so it's down, up, down, up. Okay, so we're doing a down on one and then up, down, up on four, five, six.

So just don't worry about the numbers.

Just go down, up, down, up down, up down, up down, up down, up, down, up, down.

It's kind of a round, so once you get started, it doesn't stop.

Down, up, down, up down, up down, up down, up down, up, down.

And I'm playing the A sus 2 chord.

Okay, what you can do once you get into this strumming pattern is you can accent the first beat.

You can give a little extra oomph to that first beat if you want to. So starting with this intro, these chords are going to be two measures each. So we're going to do the strumming pattern twice. And the progression is going to be ASUS 2 sliding up to G6A back to a D chord. ASUS 2. Okay, so that's the first round through. The second time through, we're going to slide back up to that G6A D. And then we're going to stay on the A Susan, two for four measures. Okay, so we're staying on that ASUS two for a very, very long time. So let's just get our strumming down. Okay, so we got one.

Down, up down, up down, up down, up down. Up down, up, down.

Okay, so this is our strum. Here we go. Asus 2G 6A.

A sus, 2, 2.

1, 2, 3, 4.

Okay, so that is our intro. Let's take it one more time. Okay, from the top. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

Okay, so that is our intro, and there is a little lead line that's played over that. I'm going to show you guys that towards the end of the video, if you're interested. But for now, we're just going to stick with the strumming and the verse. So the great thing about this song, once we get to the lyric part, is that we have a fairly consistent chord progression. Now, chord progression is the order in which we play songs. And for those of you who don't know me, my name is Lauren Bateman, and I help make the guitar make sense. And I specialize in teaching Older adults over the age of 50 to play guitar, which is why we're doing a really cool song by Gordon Lightfoot today. So the verse is going to start with our ASUS 2. We're going to do two measures of that, followed by two measures of E minor. Okay, this is where it changes. We're going to do one measure of G, one measure of D, and then four measures of that a SUS2. Okay, so again, two measures, two measures.

One measure, one measure, four measures.

And every once in a while, sometimes he doesn't do that Asus 2 twice. But in this first verse, he definitely does it every time. So let's do a little playthrough if you're interested. Our strumming pattern is not going to change on this. It's going to be the same strumming pattern, and we're just going to flow through these verses. And you know, this song has a lot of verses, so once you learn this, you actually know the entire song except for that lead line. I'm going to show you in a little bit. All right, so here we go. So we got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

The legend lives on from the chip on down of the big lake they call Gidja gummy.

The lake, it is said never gives up her dead when the skies of November turn gloomy.

With a load of iron ore 26,000 tons more than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty.

The good ship and crew was a bone to be chewed when the gates of November came early.

All right, so that's verse one. Now verse two. Two is very much the same, except in verse two, those asus twos on the end, we only play them for two measures instead of the four measures. And then at the very end, we're going to have a little interlude where we can throw the lead line in. So let me just play through verse two for you real quick so you can hear the difference between the first and second verse. 1, 2.

The ship was the pride of the American side Coming back from somewhere it.

Was coming.

As the big freighters go it was bigger than most With a crew good captain, well seasoned Concluding some terms With a couple of steel firms when they left fully loaded for Cleveland and later that night when the ship bells rang could it be enough when they were feeling.

Now that interlude section is where our little lead line would come in. And that's what I'm going to be going over next. So we're going to start with the interlude section, and then I'm going to switch over to a different guitar to show you how to play the full intro, because that has a few extra dots that is hard for me to play on an acoustic because of the bends. All right, so let's start off with what it's going to sound like.

Okay, so what did I do there? Okay, so we have this little, what we call a double stop in guitar, which is a little bar on the fifth fret. So we're talking fifth fret relative to the capo. So I use my tailor today. So you can see the little dots on the front of the guitar. And we're gonna play both of them at the same time. Now, that's a little weird for you. You could just play the high E string. That's the melody line. That's the most important note. But if you listen to the song, you're gonna hear this double stop. Okay? So it's these two fives at the same time on the B and E string. Now, if you can, while keeping that B string ringing, we're gonna play five, seven, five.

Okay? And on my notes here, I have it as a hammer and puff. But I kind of like playing the notes.

I like playing the notes individually. I think the notes are probably individually picked, so that's how I'm gonna play it. I just took a quick listen, so it's gonna be.

Okay. Now, if that's hard for you to do, all I want you to do is play five, that five, seven, five on the high E string. See, you can always make things easier. Okay. We can also make them harder if you want to. So here it is.

Okay. Or.

Okay, now what we're going to do is we're going to take our first finger, and we're going to come up to the eighth fret, and we're going to slide.

Down to the fifth fret. Okay.

So what you got to do when you're doing a slide, you really have to push into the fret. So if you're sliding and your note dies, you're letting go when you go on the slide. So you got to push into the fretboard.

Okay, so we've got.

All right, so that's that. And then it's going to be five, seven. Okay? So that's why I slew it my first finger. So I'd be all set up to do five, seven afterwards. So it's.

Now, here's our first little bend. Now, this is just a half bend. So a half bend means I'm just going up one fret on the note. So I want my bend to sound like this. And I'm going to use three fingers, push into the fretboard.

Okay. So did you hear what I did? I pushed into the fretboard. And. And then I'm pushing up on my B string. So I'm playing the note.

And then bending. So, see, I'm trying to get that note. I'm going to hold it up there. I'm going to pick it again, release it, and play the fifth fret. So it's.

So bends give the guitar a very weepy sound. That's why, like, my guitar gently weeps so many bends in that if you're not really good with bending, that's okay. You can always slide. So you could go. Instead of bending up you go.

Okay. So you could just slide up to the eighth fret and then eight fret, slide back to seven. Okay. I like the bends, so I'm going to keep them in there. And on the acoustic half bends, half note bends really aren't that bad.

Okay, so that's the whole lick there ending on the fifth fret of the B string. So if we take it from the top.

Okay. And that's the piece that's going to come in over the interludes one more time.

Okay. And then you can put a little vibrato on the end. And you do that by just kind of wiggling the string a little bit with your finger. Now, the intro has a few additional notes that you can play to wrap this little lead line up, but I'm going to have to make a quick swap. And I'm back. I have my PRs here, which is more of an electric guitar, so it makes bending strings a little bit easier because the strings aren't as thick on the acoustic. Now I will show you a way to slide in and out of it if you don't want to play the bends. But essentially this end to the intro has a full step bend, which requires us to push the strings so much more. All right, so we're on the B string at this fifth fret, and I have to try to bend this string so it sounds like this note. It's not as easy.

Okay, so you're going to try and bend that string.

To get it to sound like the. No. Okay. So if you've never done bends before, you can always go check out my Lead Guitar 101 course where I teach a lot of this stuff in that if you're not good at bends, you could always just slide up.

To the fifth, to the seventh fret.

Okay. So you can either bend to that note. Okay. Okay. And then we're going to hold it up there.

And release it.

Or you can just slide up.

Okay. So five to seven. Seven of five. Okay. Sounds just as good. Sounds just as good. And then from here we're going to come up to the seventh fret on the G string. Wrong string. Then the ninth fret on the G string and then the seventh fret on the D string. Okay. And again, these are relative to the capo. Okay. So you might be strumming.

From there. In the intro, you're going to go right to the fifth fret on the B string.

And then seven, nine.

Okay.

Then seven on the D string. So from the top, it's going to sound like this.

Now, if you are Gordon Lightfoot fan, I would highly recommend checking out my Sundown lesson right over there, which also features a really cool lick. Go watch that lesson right now.