Lauren Bateman teaches a tutorial for playing "Wagon Wheel" on guitar, showing both a simplified and a fuller intermediate strumming pattern and explaining the underlying swing/two-up feel. She lists the song's repeating chord progression (G, D, Em, C then G, D, C, C), demonstrates the simpler "down, down, up" approach for beginners and the full swung pattern (down, down, up — up, down, up) for a closer match to the recording, and explains capo use (capo 2nd fret for the older folk version to raise the key for higher/alto voices).
Questions this video answers
G, D, E minor, C, followed by G, D, C, C (repeats for verses and choruses).
Play half the pattern: on each chord do "down, down, up" (counts: 1, 2 and; leave 3 and 4 silent).
Down, down, up — then up, down, up (counts: "1, 2 and a 4 a" with a swung feel; no down on beat 3).
Capo on the 2nd fret.
Lauren Bateman.
Chapters
Hey, everyone. Welcome to this tutorial video on Wagon Wheel. I had a request for this song, so I'm going to go over a couple different ways to play it. I'm going to play it the way you saw in the intro here, but I'm also going to give you a simplified version. Because the tricky part about this song is not necessarily the chords. The chords themselves are pretty simple. But G, E minor in C and D. The hard part is the swing feel that this song has. So the timing is not on the downbeat. So 1, 2, 3, 4. It kind of swings. You can kind of rock with it. It has a little bit of like, almost like a triplet feel to it. So we're not going to play our rhythm just straight up and down, or it won't sound exactly like the song. So the easy way to do that is to just play half of the strumming pattern instead of the full pattern. But first, let's say. Let's just go over the chord progressions that are in this song. So this song is fairly competitive. So I've looked at my chord chart over here. The verse is G, D, E minor, C, followed by G, D, C, C. And that's it. It just repeats that for the entire song over the verses and over the choruses. So the chorus, actually. Yep. Nope. The chorus is the same, too. G, D, E minor, C, G, D, C, C. So once you get through those eight measures, you just keep repeating that for the entire song. So that's what's great about this song is that it's repetitive and the chords aren't necessarily that hard. So let's jump to the strumming pattern. So we are doing kind of like an eighth note. 1 and 2 and 3 and 4. And so the simple way to do it is just to do the first half of the strumming pattern. So we'll start with the G chord, since that is the first chord of the song. So all I want you to do is 1, 2. And so it's going to be down, down, up. So it'll sound like this 1, 2 and.
1, 2.
And so that would be down, down, up, down, down, up.
And then you would do Nothing over the 3 and 4 beat. So it would be 1, 2 and 3, 4.
1, 2 and 3, 4. 1, 2 and 3, 4. Down, down, up, 3, 4.
And you would do that from each chord. So if I played with the song, it would be G. Down, down, up.
3, 4, D, 3, 4.
E minor and then C.
So that's how you can play with the song without getting into too much of the swing pattern. Now, if you're going to play the way I played it in the intro and the way I'm going to play along with the song, the pattern is going to be 1, 2 and and 4. And so there's no down strum on the 3. So it'll be down, down, up, that first half of the pattern. And then we're going to do up, down, up. So there's two ups in a row, which sometimes for people can be tricky, which is why I call this a little bit more of an intermediate song. If you're going to play the whole whole strumming pattern. So again from the beginning it's 1.
2 and and 4 and 1, 2 and, and 4 and 1, 2 and and, and 4 and 1, two and, and 4 and 1, Two and, and four and down, down, up, up, down, up, down, down, up, up, down, up, down, down, up, up, down, up, down, down, up, up, down, up.
So that's going to be the strummin, like what you would use for kind of green day time of your life, where you go down, up, up, down.
Up, down, up, up.
Where it's very, it's very on the beat. It's kind of down, down, up.
So the pause between the two ups is extended a little bit. So it's almost like we're playing the up of a 16th note triplet. So don't worry about that too much or not. A 16 note triplet. It's like we're playing the upstrom of a triplet here. So the 1 and a 2 and a 3 and a 4 and a 1 and a 2 and a 3 & a 4 and a. So we're kind of playing that up a little bit further back than where we would normally play it. So you don't want to go.
Down, down, up, up, down, up, down, down, up, up, down, up. It's down, down, up, up, down, up, down, down, up, up, down, up. One, two and a four and one, two and a four and One, two and a four and 1, two and a four.
And. So it just has a little bit more of a hup to it. And that is really the only challenge to this song is the strumming pattern. So let's go through from the beginning. It's going to start with a G chord. So the verse and the choruses are G for one measure.
Then followed by D.
Then we have E minor.
And C.
Then we go back to G.
Followed by D.
And then two Cs.
And then the whole thing Repeats again. So if I start from the first.
Verse. Headed down south to the land of the pine I'm coming my way in North Carolina Staring at the road Pray to God I see headlights.
Well, I made it down the coast 17 hours picking me a bouquet dog or flower I'm hoping for a la so I can see my baby tonight.
Now.
Do the horse the easy way don't.
Rock me, mama, like a wagon wheel Rock me, mama, anyway you feel hey.
Mama rock.
Rock me, mama, like the wind and the rain Rock me, mama, like a southbound train.
Mama.
Rock.
Just as a side note so that, you know. So that version I was just doing is the Darius Rucker version, which doesn't use a capo at all. But if you like the old. I think it's Old Snow. Medicine Crow. I think that's what the name of the band is. They have a folkier version, which is a little bit higher. So all you do is you take a capo and you clip it at the second prep, and you play the same exact chords. It just makes things a little easier to sing. If you're a female like myself, it'll change the key so that it's higher. It might make it a little bit easier because some of the notes in that chorus are pretty low. So you would just play the same exact chords just with the capo on the second fret so it sound like.
This. So rock me, mama, like a wagon wheel Rock me and mama, any way you feel hey.
Mama rock me.
This is way easier for me to sing.
Now. Rock me, mama, like the wind and.
The.
So for my female alto voice, throwing a capo on the second fret gets it almost perfectly in line with where my voice needs to be. So if you are a second singer and you like singing and playing the guitar, you can play around with moving the capo. It's an easy way to change the key of a song without having to change the chord. So the chords are the same. But even if you move this up to the fourth fret.
I can't even think of.
That. So rock me myself Wanna rock me any way you feel In.
Mama.
Rock.
Really weird. I can't even get that in my ear.
There it is. Okay, so there you go. I can really like. That's probably way too high for me. You could also sing it in an octave down for me there. But I just want to show you, by moving this, we can really adjust the pitch of the song depending on where you want to sing it. So there you go. That is Wagon Wheel. I hope you guys enjoyed this little tutorial and a little bit about capos, and I'll see you in the next video.
