Want a Chance to Meet Lauren? + Help with Chord Changes

Hello, everybody. Just want to make sure my. My phone is off while we. We go live here. How is everybody doing this lovely Wednesday afternoon or evening, depending on where you're calling in from or chatting in from? Make sure my phone's off so we don't have any interruptions. Lauren, I only have one single question. Does it get easier? Only just started, but finding it daunting. Listen, Steve, if it were easy, everyone would do it, okay? Anything in life worth doing.

Takes time. But, yes, it does get easier. But I will tell you, the hardest part of this guitar journey is going to be that first three to six months for everyone. And the first three, I think, are even the hardest because it's a whole new skill we're learning, right? There's mechanics, there's a. You know, it's like typing for the first time. If you've never typed before, you're like, you do this. All right? It was like my dad, the first time he tried to text on a phone, it was like, totally foreign. But now it's like a natural thing. So it's one of those things that when you start off, it's very foreign to you, but it does get easier. So, Steve, if you're having difficulty with the guitar right now, it's okay. Everyone does. Even I did. I know you guys see me and I look like, you know, you make it look so easy, Lauren. Well, I've been playing guitar for over 20 years now, so. So, yeah, I would hope it looks easy. But there's even things that still challenge me. You know, that's the great thing about this guitar and this journey. There's always something to learn, and there's always something new, and there's different ways to challenge yourself constantly. But. But yeah, if you're anyone that is having trouble with the guitar, you're feeling frustrated. That's totally normal. That's totally normal. That's life. But it will get easier. It definitely does get easier. Especially. Especially if you're in my seven level guitar course. Okay, if you're in my guitar course. That's what we do. We break it down step by step. This way you're not getting overwhelmed. You know, most people, you know, YouTube's great. I love YouTube because I get to connect with you guys. But there's a lot of information on here, and sometimes you're learning too much. I find that's usually the biggest mistake for a lot of beginners. They're just learning too much information all at once. I know so many students, when they used to come to me in person, they would say, oh, I'd be like, what do you know? And they would know like 20 different chords. They'd be like, I have an A chord and I have a D chord. I have an E chord. And you know, they know all their open chords, but none of them sounded good. So it's like, okay, well, why don't we just focus on four chords and learn some songs with those four chords and we'll get those really good and then we'll add to it. Okay. And that's always been my, my methodology. Step by step, break it down into its most basic components and you can add to it. We can always make things harder. Okay. No doubt. Everyone's like, oh, this is too easy. And it's like, I can make it really hard if you want me to. But let's, let's start with easy and we can always, always get going on the way. So, hello, I'm from Brazil. We have Brazil in the house. See Northern Virginia, Belgium is also Victoria, British Columbia. That is on one of my two sea places. I saw Scotland in there earlier. So. So welcome everyone. Welcome, welcome. And you know, today I was going to talk a bit about my event that's coming up this summer. I don't think a lot of you know, I know if you're on the mailing list, you might have gotten an email, but we're going to be talking about this event I have going on this summer as well. I'm going to show you some ways to make getting chord changes easier and working on the speed and clarity of your chords because that's something, you know, students are in my guitar course. That's what they asked me all the time. And that's what's going to be a really great thing about the event going on this summer. So I have an event. It's August 5th, 6th and 7th. It's going to be here in New England. It's actually going to be in my hometown where I grew up, where Jingle Bells was written, believe it or not, in Medford, Massachusetts. That's where I grew up. That's where one of my music schools is, is in Medford, Massachusetts. And we're going to be doing an event where I can help you. We can, you know, I can see you, I can see your fingers on the guitar and point and tell you exactly what to do. So people are going to have opportunities to come up and ask me questions and get some one on one time with me. If you want some, you know, instruction and you had some questions, we're Going to be doing that at the event. We're going to be playing music together. I have some, a great guest speaker coming in who's going to be talking all about how to write cool guitar solos, pentatonic scale stuff. We'll be going over, strumming and, you know, I going to let you guys tell me what you want, but we're going to be working on a lot of songs and just working on playing music together and having fun no matter what level you're at. All right. Even if you just started and all you can do is play single notes, we're going to have something for you. Okay. We're going to have something for you. I'm going to be there all weekend because people keep asking me, well, is Lauren going to be there? Like she's going to pop in. It's like, no, I'm going to be there the entire weekend. We're going to do a meet and greet on Friday, have a professional photographer that I hired that's going to come in and take photos, photos for us throughout the, throughout the weekend. And then we have a full day of learning on Saturday, learning on Sunday, and then we're going to be doing some performances. So if you're interested in getting a ticket or learning more about the specifics, I, I have a website link now. It's Lauren batemanguitar.com backslash event. Lauren batemanguitar.com Backslash event. I think it's pinned to the top of the chat so you guys can, can go and check that out. Southern California and Newcastle. Wow. Should keep my guitar in the case or on the wall. Which is better? It depends. Let me tell you about this, Taylor. So I bought this tailor. It has a really nice case and I got some humidifiers and I put them in the case. And I could never get the humidity of the guitar like above 30%. And I have steam heat here in New England. You know, things get very dry here in New England, so it's hard to keep these, these, these guitars moist. So I actually keep it out of the case in my house because I actually get higher humidity levels in my house than I was in the case. So it really depends. My crafter, which is, it's over there. My crafter has only been in the case when I've gigged. Let me just put it that way. It's always out of the case because for me, if it's out of the case, I will touch it, I will play it, I will practice it. If it's in a case, it's out of sight. It's out of mind. And you can see I have the Gretsch hung up on the wall here on my right side. You can't see it, but I do have my Ibanez. I. I have 1, 2, 3. I have, like, six or seven guitars that are hung up on my walls here. Okay. So I'm a fan of keeping them out of the case, but it's a personal preference, and it really depends on how well you want to take care of the instrument. So this one was. It was an expensive guitar, so I'm trying to take care of it as best as possible. So let's talk about chords and chord changes. Everyone tells me, Lauren, how do I get these chord changes faster? I'm learning a song, and I cannot get these chord changes to go this G to C. Chords change is killing me. So when I work with students, we usually pick four chords, and we will find songs that use those chords, and we'll play a bunch of them. This way, you get to play them in different orders. But the key to learning chords is really focusing in on the change. Okay? The coordination between two chords. Not 60 chords, not 12 chords. Two chords. Okay? So let's take something like our G to see chord change, because I know that's one that gives a lot of people trouble. Okay? So the key is when we're working on speed, chord change, speed, we have to sacrifice clarity. This is. It's very hard, especially for perfectionists. This is something that's very hard for you guys to get over. It's just that the chords aren't going to sound good. Okay? They're not. They're not going to sound good when you're working for speed. So if I go very slow, I can make sure all of these notes are ringing through and that they sound beautiful. Okay?

But if I go fast, it might sound like this.

And that's okay. That's okay. As long. There's a caveat to this. As long as your fingers are getting to the right spot. Okay? That's the trick with speed. And I always recommend using a metronome, because a metronome will push you to go faster. So I'm going to pull up my metronome app here. I just got a new phone, so to download everything again. So let's turn up my volume here. Okay? Can you hear that metronome? 1, 2, 3, 4. Okay, that's 75, but let's start. Let's say 50. This is where your chord changes. Okay? 50. 1, 2, 3, four. You would go, one, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. And you might say, okay, that's my comfortable speed. That's my comfortable speed where I can play the chords and I have no issues. It sounds great. I call that song speed because you can only play a song to your fastest chord change. So 50 is your comfortable speed. And then we might go up to 6 or 55. Okay. We might go up to 55. And it starts sounding like this a little bit.

Okay. It's not perfect, but I can still do it. I'm feeling a little stressed. Then we go up to 60. Okay. And it starts sounding like this.

It's a little more muted.

You're like, okay, I'm starting to really feel the push. But I'm going to try and do 65. And then we go up to 65 and we go.

And it completely falls apart. That's the fall apart point. So you're going to roll it back to 60. So 60 is your speed. Practice. Okay? 50 is what we call your song practice. That's where you can play the chords and everything sounds great. And then 60 is your speed. All right, That's. The chords don't sound great, but you're getting them in the right spot. And that's what happens with a lot of people. They get so fixated on the fact that the chords need to sound good that they forget to push their speed because when they start going faster, it starts falling apart a little bit. Okay. It's like, let's take a race car example. Race car drivers can't learn how to take a turn at 130 miles per hour unless they take the turn at 130 miles per hour. You have to do it. So when you're learning your chords, you have to push yourself to go into those uncomfortable zones to get the speed working faster. Good thing. Not on zoom. Just out of shower.

Thanks, Beth. Yes. I'm GLAD we're here. YouTube. You're from Boston, Anna. Well, Boston, I hope you're gonna come to my event this summer. We have an event August 5th, 6th and 7th in Medford, just north of Boston. You can again, if you guys are interested in that. It's laurenbatemanguitar.com backslash event. And these are things I'll work on with you guys in pro, in, in person, how to do these chord changes. And the other thing is, you know, people ask me in YouTube comments all the time, lauren, my. My hand is hurting or this is happening. It's, you know, I know what the common issues are. Like 80 to 90%, like, this is the issue. But there's certain cases where I need to see what's happening to really, really give you a diagnosis. You know, it could be your wrist is doing this. Okay. I call this, like the waiter wrist. The waiter wrist. And you've got this on the back of your guitar or like your thumb is twisted on the side. So there's so many mechanical things that I could probably correct in your playing just by watching you play guitar for one minute. I can watch you play guitar maybe one or two minutes, and I could be like, okay, these. I see exactly what's going on. These are the five things you need to work on to correct that problem. And that's the benefit of in person instruction sometimes over online because you don't, you don't get that immediate feedback. And that's why I wanted to do the event because so many people are like, lauren, Lauren, we want to meet you at Florida, Dade County, Florida. I'm going to be in Florida tomorrow. I'm actually flying down to Florida. You know, I want to meet you. And I said, hey, let's throw together an event. It's going to be super small. It's only 50 people. That's the maximum number of people we can fit in the room comfortably. Okay. With tables and guitars. All right? So it's only going to be 50 people. So it's going to be super, super small. And there'll be opportunities for you guys to perform. We're going to learn songs together. Okay. We're going to, we're going to work on technique stuff. It's going to be absolutely, absolutely amazing. And I can't wait to see some of you. I think some of you, if you're one of my students that's in the. My guitar lessons and you're coming, let us know in the chat that I'm going to see you this summer From Tiffin, Ohio. Hello. How are you doing? Commented on a video last that I actually played and sang in public for the first time. Dave, that's awesome. That's phenomenal. See that? Those are the goals. Those are the things that make me happy when you guys write to me and I do read the comments. So as much as I can, sometimes I'm behind, depending on how busy it is. I love hearing your stories. I love hearing from you guys and you saying, like, I tried playing guitar six years ago and I gave up. But you're actually making it make sense. It's so awesome. I love hearing those things. So again, that was my little spiel. On speed. Some of you may not have seen this video. It's a video of mine. It almost has a million views. I think someone messaged me this morning and they said it has over 750,000 views. It's a finger exercise. If you search YouTube, Lauren Bateman Finger exercise. It'll probably come up. I call it the up and down exercise. This works on the mechanic of chord changes. Okay. Because what do you do when you change a chord? Your fingers are moving up and down, right? Especially on this G to C chord. This third finger's got to go from the fifth string to the bottom string. If you make your G chord that way. Some people make it different, but there's a lot of movement in your fingers. You've got to get these fingers moving. So this is like my golden secret. I mean, it's not a secret now because 750,000 people have watched it. It's also in the course, and we have level two. There's a level two to it that's in the course as well. And each finger has its own fret. Okay? Five, six, seven, eight. Okay. Each finger has its own fret. And you want to try and relax your wrists as much as possible. And we're going to be up and down. Yeah. Ring finger does not like to listen. This is the exercise for if you're having trouble with that ring finger. This is the exercise I call this. It's like finger push ups. And what we're doing is we're taking one finger and removing it from up and down, top to bottom string. Okay. And usually the first finger is not an issue for people. And usually the second finger isn't either. It's usually pretty easy. The issue fingers are the third finger in the pinky. And I usually have people do the pinky first. And for some people, they can't quite reach all the way to the top string. So I say that's okay. If you can get the fifth string as your hand relaxes and stretches out, you will. And then most people, they get to the third finger and they put it up and then they try to put it down and they can't. They can't get it below that because there's so much tension. So I tell people, relax, use your other hand to help you move that finger. Okay? But this is what it's doing. It's mimicking. And then level two. I'll show you a quick preview of level two is moving two fingers at the same time. Okay. You have to move multiple fingers at the same time. But this by doing this, we are basically mimicking the concept of changing chords. Okay. So that is a very specific exercise. See, I don't even need my fretting hand or my strumming hand for that. It's all fretting hand. And I'm literally just working on finger independence. Finger independence. You want to work on speed, you got to get those fingers moving. Okay. Spider exercises, very good at working on finger dexterity. Okay. And that's something we focus a lot on in the course. I think a lot of instructors ignore this. Yeah, they'll give you a spider exercise and they'll say, go practice this spider exercise for five or 10 minutes and that will help you. But it's really the mechanics of the hand. This is my science background coming in. Some of you may know I'm a science. I was actually. I worked in cancer research. I don't even have a degree in music. I didn't go to school for music. I just love music so much. And that's why I think I'm so good at breaking things down. Because I had to teach myself how to play guitar. And I learned mechanically what things worked and what didn't. So that's what I teach you guys. How to have fun on the guitar. And this mechanic, this isn't playing a chord, but it's the mechanic of playing a chord. This is what your fingers are doing. So the more you can practice this movement, the better. Now, disclaimer. Surgeon general's disclaimer. If you do this for too long, you can develop carpal tunnel. So don't do it. I tell people, do 20 push ups on each finger and then you're done for the day. It's all. That's all I need. A little bit goes a long way on this exercise. And the biggest thing is to remember to breathe. So many people go.

And when you hold your breath, you're creating tension. So make sure to breathe even when you're doing your chord changes. Change cords, breathe out. It's like yoga.

Lauren, you're no worldwide. I am now. Brad. That's really cool. I think that's such a cool thing that people from all over the place, I mean, look at Philippines. Lourdes is from the Philippines and she is on this YouTube chat. We had someone from Belgium. I've got people from India, Detroit, Michigan. I mean, this is amazing. In Pakistan, look at that. We have some. This is amazing. This is so awesome. I love this. Can you see my excitement? And that's why I do this, because I love dropping my pics everywhere. I love. And that's why I have always had a spare meeting you guys, and that's why I wanted to do this live event this summer, is because I said, you know what? I've seen some of you guys here in the chat. I see some of you guys on the comments, and I recognize the names because a lot of you comment again and again and again, and I start getting familiar with who you are. And I said, you know what? I got to give some of these people an opportunity to meet me in Boston this summer and work together and see how I really teach the guitar in person. Because, little known, I'm kind of like a little bit of a drill sergeant in person, but I'm effective, all right? I will be like, this is what you need to work on to fix that. All right? And that's my science background, because it's like, okay, here's a problem. How do we fix that problem? We need to fix A, B and C. Good. If you do A, B and C, I guarantee you in two to three weeks, that problem is going to resolve itself, and then we'll move on to fixing the next problem. And that's the cool stuff. So, Fonny Lauren. I keep holding my breath and didn't realize it. Yes. See, Little tips. You never know. And, you know, I've gone over chord change speed and making chords sound good a million times, but sometimes it takes hearing it the fifth or sixth time to really understand what I'm saying. And the first time, you know, I might have mentioned the breath, but you didn't even hear that or you didn't think about that because you were so focused on something else. And that's why it's so great to relearn things over and over again. It's like watching a movie. The first time you watch it, you just. You just see the big picture. Then the second time you watch it, you see little details because you have foresight now. Like, you know what's going to happen. Then the third or fourth or fifth time, you pick up the little details. It's just the same. Anything you're learning the first time, it's the surface level. We're working on the mechanics. And then the next time, we can go a level deeper. The next time through a level deeper, the next time through another level deeper. All right? And that's the great thing about guitar now. Chord change, cleanliness. Okay? So for speed, we have to go fast. We have to sacrifice cleanliness. Okay? Chord change, cleanliness. We have to sacrifice speed now. You have to go Slow. And you have to pick each note.

And you have to listen. Where am I muting strings? So I was playing a C chord, and this is a commonly muted string. The bottom string, the other common one is the fourth string. So oftentimes you'll hear people play a C chord, and it will sound kind of like that. And that's because they're muting a couple strings. Usually the bottom string is because you either have waiter hand, or you're like death gripping the fretboard, meaning the flesh of your first finger is touching the string. So I always tell people, there's a pen that I teach people. You get a pen, you put it underneath the guitar. You form your chords around that, and most of the time, this fixes a lot of the issues. Okay? Then you go to your G chord. Okay? You go to your D chord, and you hold on to that pen. If I can find my D chord, there it is. Okay. And you make those chord changes around that pen, all right? It just opens up the space under your hand. Don't take death grip. The guitar, okay. Doesn't need a death grip. The other thing. The other thing is sometimes you're playing too far back in the frets, meaning too far back towards the headstock versus the body. The closer you are to the front of the fret, the less pressure you need. And that's what I see with a lot of people, especially on a C chord. This third finger ends up in the back of the fret. And if I use the same amount of pressure.

Just move it to the front, it all of a sudden rings out. Okay. I'm not even pressing it that hard, but you can see.

It'S much easier towards the front of the fret. So remember that, okay? Remember that. And if you're saying, lauren, you know what? I'm doing all these things, and I'm trying, and no matter what I do, I cannot make these chords sound good. Try changing out the strings on your guitar for lighter strings. Or if you have an electric guitar, try playing on the electric guitar, because the electric guitar strings are thinner. Okay? They're so much thinner, and they're a little bit easier to play. Okay. The acoustic guitar is definitely harder to play. The strings are thicker. More pressure is needed, but you'll get your calluses much faster. On an acoustic, you also don't need an amp. And the acoustic is much more forgiving with string noise versus an electric, Especially if you're playing an electric through an amp, you can have a bad note ring on for a very long Time, depending how good of an amp and pickups that you got on on your guitar. So those are a couple little tips on chord change, speed and cleanliness. Yeah, you can always blame the strings. Good day, Jack Waters. How are you doing? Another shout out. Yep. Pakistan, I saw you. That's amazing. It must be like, what time is it in Pakistan? It must be like, so super late in the evening. Right? Love the tutorial. What? You are so welcome. Nice to be with you live. David, nice to see you. My thinner E string touched the fretboard and buzzing. What do I do? Okay, so that could be a truss rod adjustment. There could be a couple things. Sometimes, sometimes on newer guitars, especially if they're cheaper guitars, the fretboard, the edges of the frets sometimes aren't filed enough and the E string actually gets caught on the. On the fret and doesn't release. So that's one issue. If it's not that, it's probably that. The bow. So all of our guitars have a natural bow in the fretboard. When that bow becomes concave like this, the strings start touching the fretboard. So you may need to just do a slight truss rod adjustment to adjust those strings. If you don't know how to do that and there is a guitar place near you, a place that sells guitars, they can probably fix it for you very quickly and they might want to put. If they're old strings, what you can do is you can get your guitar set up, especially if it's electric. There's a lot more. This one doesn't have it. But my. My Ibanez bridge, there's a lot more intonation stuff. Things that might need to be fixed. If you've never had your guitar set up before, but 9 out of 10 times it's a truss rod adjustment. 9 out of 10 times. Other times it's the frets. If your pit frets are pitted, you sometimes will press the string and it won't ring. And that can happen on older guitars. My crafter has been refreaded twice, meaning I've taken the frets off the guitar. I think one time it was filed and the second time I had to replace the frets because you can only file them down so many times. So those are some common issues. If you're having that. Yeah. Need a shout out. We already shouted you out, man. I gotcha. California. We need more strength to play on an acoustic guitar. You definitely do. You definitely do. Any tips on playing a B flat? So Richard De Silva is asking. B flat. Richard de Silva is one of my guitar lesson members. And Richard de Silva will be meeting me in Boston this summer. I saw that, Rich. We're going to have some fun. So, B flat, There's a few different ways you can go around playing a B flat, depending on your skill level. Okay. So the easiest way to play a B flat is a power chord. Okay. Easiest way you find a B note, B flat. Okay. And it's harder here, Richard, because you're closer to the fretboard or you're closer to the nut here. Okay. If we play the B flat up here at the sixth fret, it's going to be easier. So you might want to start there. The easiest way is to play it as an F bar chord shape. Okay. At the sixth fret. So I would start there. Okay. Because if you play this B flat here, it's a double bar. And even you can hear mine. I mute the bottom string sometimes. Okay.

So those are your two options. You can play the double bar.

Okay. Or you can play it up here as an F bar chord. Really would depend on the song, you know. So if you're playing a song that's using a bar chord up on the sixth fret already, it might be easy.

Just to slide between. If I were, say, going, you know, if you're playing like an F and you're going to a B flat or an F to a B.

It really just depends. It's one of those things you'll want to develop doing it both ways. But the easiest way is going to be in the middle of the guitar. Practice it in the middle of the guitar. And then what I would do. If you want to play it out the first fret eventually, just take this double bar shape, that A major bar chord shape. Start it up here. Come to see. I can look at that nice and easy. Even I can do it.

Come up here to the ninth fret because it's. It's much easier to press these strings and then just work it down.

So that. That's what I would do. Start in the middle of the fretboard. Okay. And then work your way down. All right. If it's always buzzing. Oh, yeah. If it's buzzing no matter where you fret, then you probably need a. You probably need a truss rod adjustment for sure. That would be my biggest guess. Guest signed up saying you are a drill sergeant in person. Sold me. Yes, Mick, I am a drill sergeant in person. Woohoo. Mix coming. Awesome. That's great. That's so excited. How about people with short fingers? Yeah, you know I actually went to event last week and I had a lots of guys who are like, oh, I don't. I have small hands. And I was like, hold up your hand. And everyone's hand was a little bit bigger than mine. Just so you know. I'm five, four and a half ish. Okay. So I'm not super tall. Short parents. I'm not super tall, but I've had students who are only like 5ft tall. 5 1. And sometimes getting a 3 quarter size guitar can be more comfortable for your hands if you truly are someone with small hands. And I've met probably does. I would say 90% of the people who told me they had small hands did not have small hands. They just weren't flexible enough. All right, that's where the spider exercise comes in. And I show you guys. We start here. And then in the course, I tell you, hey, work your way back to the first round. Stretch it out. Okay. And in my power and barcode course, if you guys are in that, I show you a third spider exercise that is specifically designed to really stretch the crap out of your hand. Because you need to. For barkboards, you got to have a lot of flexibility. There's a strength component to it. But you do need that flexibility too. So. Lauren Shorty Bateman. Yeah. I mean, I'm not that tall. Some of you guys. I. I think a couple people. Jack Waters has met person he knows I'm. I'm short. Richard's met me in person. 1. See, he knows I'm. I'm a short person, but. And he's met my mom, who's even shorter than me. So I think my Mom's only like 5:2. But those are things to pay attention to. The mechanic. Why am I having trouble with this? Why I have. It's because I have short hand or small hands. Short fingers. Okay. Is there anything I can do to make the stretch of my hands bigger? Yes, there is. It's the spider exercise. Okay. And this might be enough of a stretch for you in the beginning. Okay? So just go nice and slow and work on that. And again, don't forget to breathe. If you notice I'm talking, I am breathing. Okay, and then slowly work as the frets here are much wider, the frets down here, guys. Okay? So if this is too much of a stretch, just move it up until it's not. I mean, you want to feel a stretch, but you don't want to kill yourself either. Okay? That's the important thing. You've got to find the right. The right Spot for you. UK is in the house. Love it. Tips are playing bar chords. Lauren. Yeah. So Richard, I just did for another Richard, the biggest tip I can give you for playing bar chords, one, don't jump into them too early. I have so many students who came to me locally from, you know, guitar, guitar teachers that had gone to Berkeley. All right, I'm in Boston. There's lots of Berkeley teachers. And they throw students on bar chords right away. And I'm like, oh, my God, that is like torture. That's mean.

On my recommendation, know your open chords inside and out. Know them very well. Your strumming patterns. Play lots of songs without bar chords. There's easy fixes. I do have a video on Easy fixes. So if you do search Lauren Bateman, Easy bar chord fixes, I'm sure it will come up. But my recommendation is to first learn how to play power chords. Learn power chords first because that's going to get your hand comfortable with the shape. Okay? Forget the bar. You just need to get comfortable with the shape. All right? Learn power chords first and then you can use bar chords. And just like I was saying to Richard, Richard earlier, the other Richard, practice up here first. All right? Because it's much easier to play in the middle of the guitar because there's more tension by this nut. That's why the F chord is so hard, because there's so much tension here. Okay. So you can work your way up to that. You might have to do what I call push ups. Bar chord push ups, where you play the bar chord and you release it and you squeeze. Usually the biggest issue is the bar bottom of the finger. Okay. Most people get the top four strings and then they get to the bottom two.

It's just you're not squeezing enough with the fleshy part. And eventually, just like with your open chords, how you develop calluses on the tips of your fingers. When you play bar chords enough, you will actually get a callus on the side of your hand on the side of this fretting finger, which makes it easier to play. Okay, so see, someone asked me, does it get easier over time? It does. When you build your calluses. So you will develop a callus from playing bar chords. And that will make it easier to do. Just like with finger picking the first time. If you finger pick enough, you're going to get a blister on your thumb. Okay. You are going to get a blister on your thumb. And you might even get blisters on your first and second fingers. You will get calluses I have a. Still a slight callus on my thumb. I don't finger pit as much, only when I'm doing tutorials, but I still have calluses on my fingers. Okay. And that's a benefit. On guitar, you want to develop those calluses as fast as possible because it makes you. Your fingers stronger and able to play the chords much easier. Absolutely. Holding your breath puts a lot of pressure on your spine. Oh, I didn't know that. It jangles your whole nervous system. Yes. So breathing, relax. Someone asked me a question, like, if I'm going to perform in front of people, how do I get rid of anxiety? I told them, take a deep breath in and relax. Breathe out. Just by breathing out, it does relax your whole system. What is slide guitar? That is a whole different style of guitar. Slide guitar is. We have what's called a slide. And it's usually a piece of plastic or nylon or metal that you usually put it on your ring finger. It's big and electric guitar. You usually want to do it through an amp and it allows you to glide up and down. Or some people. Middle finger. It might be middle finger. It allows you to glide up and down the guitar and. And do really, really cool things. I'm not proficient in slide guitar myself, but it has a really cool sound and a really, really cool effect. I strum with my thumb. Never got a callous or anything. Perhaps it doesn't happen with strumming. You know, I think it depends on how often you do it. Jack Waters is in the chat, and we were doing a little Jolene. We were doing a Jolene challenge, and we got calluses just from doing it so much. You have to do it enough strumming. I think there's probably a little less pressure than finger picking, but I think eventually you would at some point develop a light callus even. Yeah. You're a great teacher. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. Yes. Fantastic. Greetings from Denver. Do you have to tune different with Sly Guitar?

You know, Beth, that's a great question, and I honestly don't know the answer, but.

It makes sense that you might use an alternate tuning. I. I feel like you could, because the thing is, the slide takes up one of your fingers. It's either. It's either the second or third finger. It's one of them. So, you know, you. You can't bend that finger because you have the slide. So I would think there would have to be some variations on chords. So I wouldn't be surprised if you used a different tuning for that. I still think you could probably do some things in standard tuning as well, but I. I honestly don't. I don't know the answer to that question, but I wouldn't be surprised is my answer. So. So there you go. You seem like a very cool, down to earth beautiful woman. Thank you so much. Oh, you guys are like, you're so wonderful. Thanks so much for being awesome. Nice choice on the new guitar. Yeah. So this is the new crafter. Someone asked me earlier what model it was and I didn't answer right away. This is a Crafter 324 CE Builders Edition. Very, very nice guitar. Lovely. Sounds beautiful. It's a little bit more balanced and warmer than the crafter. Everyone used to tell me how warm my crafter is. This actually has a warmer tone, more balanced. The brights don't stick out as much there. These are elixir, phosphor, bronze strings. These are 12s. I asked the tech what came standard. Once these like age up, I will probably switch them out for 11s because I. I like slightly thinner strings on my guitar. Makes playing bar chords easier. That's why another bar chord tip, lighter strings.

So this, you know, it's been a nice guitar. I really like it. I still love my crafter. If you've seen I'm gonna use it on, on various videos. She does pop back in. I love that guitar. I will never get rid of it. The T, the tailor's nice. I still love my crafter, though. I still do so Whales uk. Wow. Can you tell me how to change strings? Oh, yes. I have a whole video. I have a whole video. And yes, being dyslexic isn't. Is tricky, but I have a whole video. Search Lauren Bateman how to change acoustic guitar strings or Lauren Bateman how to change electric guitar strings. I have videos on each and I'll show you how to do it step by step. I want to use my pick more, but it sounds loud and harsh. Is there a certain technique? Depends. Yes, it depends. Your pick could be too thick. Okay. I like using thicker picks like 1 millimeter and above for electric guitar. Or I use more medium, more flexible picks. So if you're just getting started, you might want to move down. This is a Dunlop Tortex. This is a 0.60 millimeter. Very, very flexible. And it's a little bit more forgiving for strumming. Whereas picking, you know, this is one of my favorites for that I use on my electric guitar. This is actually a Jazz 3 pick. I'll hold it in My hair. So you can see the point. You can see it has a pointed edge. It's a Jazz 3, but it's not the tiny Jazz 3. This is the Tortex medium sized Jazz 3. I like this for leave.

Okay. Because with lead guitar you, you really choke up on the pick and, and it. You don't want a lot of flexibility in the pick.

But when you're strumming, especially if you're a beginner and you're really.

Use the thick pick, it can sound harsh. Now is there a technique to it? Yes. I'm gonna go to the. The more rounded same, same size, same thickness. What you do when you strum down, you actually angle the pick down and when you strum up, you angle the pick up. It's like, it's almost like I, I told someone. It's almost like the queen wave. You're doing the queen wave with your wrist like this and that's what you're doing on a strumming. See my wrist kind of got the queen wave going. Oh yes. Hello. Hello.

I'm sorry. If you're from the uk, I probably totally offended you. That's my queen wave. But that's what you're doing. You're going down with the pick. A downward angle down the strings and an upward angle up the strings. The other thing is, do not choke the pick. Relax. Do not choke the pick. Cuz if you're stiff.

You'Re going to get that. You want the pick to glide over. That's how the guitar sings. It's going to glide. I'm. I'm barely holding on to this pick. If, if I were going to strum a lot.

One, I would use a slightly thinner pick but I, I would hold on to it a little bit more.

Even use two fingers to hold.

Was a great Queen way. Well, thank you so much. I'm. I'm working on it for when I eventually get to take a trip to England. The uk. The UK is on my to do list. We were hoping to go to the UK this year. We're actually going to the Grand Canyon next week for my birthday. Yay. It's my birthday trip and we wanted to go to Scotland. We really, really wanted to go to Scotland. But we didn't know what was going to happen with COVID So we decided to stay local this year. So maybe maybe Scotland next year. But I turned 40 next year. So it's my 39th birthday on Friday. I turned 40 next year and I. My, my dream. Let me share my dream with you guys. My dream has always been to go to New Zealand, so I would love to go to New Zealand for my 40th birthday. So the UK might have to wait until I'm 41, but Indiana's in the house. We have Jax from Indiana. Awesome. Thank you so much for the, the birthday wishes. Aries woman. Yes, yes. Can you tell, can you tell that I'm very confident. Confident on camera and very personable. But yeah, so that is. My dream is to go to, to New Zealand. So it's probably going to be New Zealand next and, and then the uk. So we will see where I end up in a couple years. So, yes, come to the beautiful southwest of England. Well, the great thing about the UK.

Is, is you're, you're very small compared to, I mean, some states. For example, I saw someone from Denver. Like, if you're in Colorado and you drive five hours, like if you're in the south of Colorado and you drive five hours north, you're still in Colorado. Like, you could still be in Colorado. Like you could be driving six, seven hours and you're still in Colorado. So. So that's crazy. So it's kind of like New England here where you. If you drive an hour here. If I drove an hour north, I would be in a different state. So I'm looking forward to those, those smaller areas to, to cover a lot. D shaped bar chords. Yes. You know, there's D shaped bar chords. There's C shaped bar chords. It's basically a D chord, except you're. Instead of playing the third string and the first string with your first and second fingers, you're barring.

Okay. But actually I probably. I'm just thinking more of how I would play that.

Because I don't use those shapes very often. Because you'd have to. You'd actually have to stretch out to get the open. So I would probably play it more as an open. But if you're looking for a bar chord, that would be the fifth fret. So you play D bar chord here. You could also play one up here on the 10th fret. That's an F shape or an A shape here on the fifth fret. Fifth string. Joel, thank you so much. Oh, thank you for the birthday gift. That's awesome. Happy birthday. Do you have any advice for playing 12 strings in slide? I. I was talking with Beth earlier. Slide it. I'm not proficient at slide guitar, but 12 string. I, I do have a 12 string on the wall over there. And you know, it's not much different, Joel, than playing a Six string, it's just, you have, you have double strings.

Picking can be tricky. I find picking on a 12 string tricky. Strumming. It shouldn't be anything different on the strumming hand, the fretting hand. It's probably just going to feel a little bit awkward in the beginning because the spacing, because there's 12 strings, the spacing might be a little bit wider. But in terms of the technique for playing the chord, it's not really any different or I don't think it's any different. The hard part is when you get into picking, that takes some practice. And what I would recommend on doing that is just going very slow, working on some like five or six string arpeggios.

But 12 strings are beautiful. They can have a wonderful and beautiful sound on them. Yeah, my dream is Canada. Yeah, I want to go to. I have so many places I want to go. Vancouver is one that I want to go to. British Columbia. Yeah. Burlington, Vermont. Scott, hello. I go to Vermont quite frequently, actually. Up in Barton, the Northeast Kingdom. That's where my in laws live. My in laws live in Vermont. So I actually travel up north quite frequently. At least, at least. Probably two or three times a year. I usually spend some holidays up in, in Vermont. So it's the cage system important, you know, that's a great question. I think every system is important. I had a guitar teacher who's like completely against the cage system. But I, as a teacher, I believe every methodology has value. You know, it was like when I was learning voice, every voice teacher I worked with, they were like, my way is the only way. This is the best way to learn voice. And if you do anything else, it's wrong. And it's like, well, no. So when I taught voice, I actually pulled from a lot of different methodologies. So I understand the importance of the CAGE system. I personally was never trained in the cage system. The system I learned in terms of learning scales and stuff was the three notes, three notes per scale method. And the value of that is that, you know, you can, you can do scale runs a lot easier, you know, and you get to move. But the cage system is nice, you know, because the, the scales and stuff follow along with the chord shapes. So. So that's lovely, but I'm not very versed in the cage system or how it works. But I firmly believe as a teacher that every system has value. Every system has value because what you may not understand in one method, you might understand in another. So I would say when you're learning things, stick with one method, learn that and then learn another method. Because then you can compare and contrast and say, oh, I like this. I don't like this. It's like a G chord. You know, when I teach in the seven level guitar system, I teach people their G chord this way with the third finger on the bottom. But many of you know that's not the only way you can play a G chord, right? I have many students who would prefer to use their pinky finger. And that's not wrong. That's fine. It's the G chord. It's fine. Actually makes a nice transition to the D chord. Okay. For me, I find it very awkward to use my pinky. And maybe it's because I sprained them and I have like, you know, I have the weird dislocated pinky now on this hand. But my pinky is, you know, it's a weaker finger. So I much prefer. It's actually much more comfortable for my hand to. To use the third finger. But is this wrong? No, it's not wrong. And. And that's why I think there's value in learning things as many different ways as possible. So, you know, you're learning for me and you like the way I teach, and that's great. But another teacher might say something that clicks for you, you know, and. And I get that a lot of my videos, they're like, oh, I watched this teacher. And just the way you explained it, like the light bulb went off and you have to find the right person for you. You have to find what works for you. Okay, what works for me may not work for you. Why? Because I'm, you know, 5 foot 4. I have small hands. I have a smaller frame body. What if you're someone who's 6 4? What if you're someone. I have a lot of students. Like, I have sausage fingers. What do I do? I can't play an A chord. Me, I have. I have. You know, they're not the skinniest fingers, but they're decent. I can make an A chord no problem. Someone with sausage fingers is gonna have a very hard time playing an A chord like this. They might have to play it as a bar chord. They might have to play it with the second, third, and fourth fingers. They might have to play it this way. Okay, there's. That's the great thing about music and guitar and why? Why? I personally hate when teachers are like, this is the only way. Everyone else is wrong. Like, no, no, everyone else's is not wrong. But there's a methodology and I understand you like your methodology. I like my methodology. There's many teachers out there who believe students should be learning music theory straight when they come through the door. That's not my methodology. I don't believe that music theory should be taught until you understand music in general and appreciate the instrument. Because when you start becoming curious, usually people will learn chords, and then they'll be like, oh, why? Why is that called an A7, not an A chord? Then it's like, okay, well, that's a great question. Now you're ready. When you start asking those why questions, that's when you're ready. I want you to prompt the conversation. I don't want to shove the conversation down your throat because you're not ready for it yet. You're going to prompt me when it's time to have that conversation. Okay. It's just like raising kids. Okay. There's some things you need, you know, there's some things you need to know, and there's a right way to go about it, and there's a better way to go about it, you know? So I usually let students prompt me to let me know on the music theory. Yeah. No matter how long you play, just try to play something every day. Exactly. And have fun. And yes. Yes. Someone's mentioning the stuff like blue chords where you use the pinky and the third finger.

So, you know, that can be so helpful for some people. So. So someone says, thank you for your video on chord progressions. You're welcome. So nice. You're so much. Yes. Stubbornness and adaptation and guitar playing is necessary skill. Yeah. If you're working with a stubborn teacher that concerns me, someone who's not has no flexibility in what they're teaching. There's certain things that, yes, you might have a way of doing it and being like, okay, I want you to do it this way. But understand, for example, I teach the E minor chord with the first and second fingers, and a lot of people teach it with the second and third. And that's not wrong. But the reason why I do it this way is because of the pivot points. And I tell people that I'm like, listen, do it my way in the seven level system. Like, do it my way first. Okay. Get through the pivot point. Get through these chords. And then once you get past level three, I don't care which way you do it. Do whatever works best for you. But there is a reason why, and I want you to know what that reason is. It's the pivot point. But after that, I Don't care. I don't care what you do, as long as it's comfortable. So thank you guys so much. I, I wasn't expecting to be on here for 50 minutes. I was just gonna come on and, and just tell you guys about my event this summer that's coming up August 5th, 6th and 7th. If you guys want to have an opportunity to play music live with me in person, then I would love to see you. It's gonna be in Medford, Massachusetts, which is just north of Boston, maybe about a 15 minute ride from the airport, not too far. So if you live in the New England area, it's a very easy drive for you. We're gonna have a lot of fun. I mean, I'm putting together, you know, song lists for you guys so that we can work on playing music together because that's something a lot of students don't get to experience playing music with others. And I keep telling students like, even if you, you know, just learned your first chords, there will be something for you. I can always make things easier. Can always make things harder too. So we will have different levels of ways you can play things and it's really just coming out and it's, you know, yes, you get to meet me, but I'm, I'm not really even the most important part about this whole event, right? Yes, it's my event. But the most important part is that you come to this event and on Sunday when you leave, you're going to arrive Friday and when you leave on Sunday, you're going to feel amazing about yourself as a guitar player and you're going to feel so much more confident in your ability to one, be able to learn this instrument, but two, play music with others playing in time. Thank you, Day. Thank you so much. Oh, you're awesome. Thank you for the birthday gift. I really appreciate that. The Super Chat. I know you guys always remind me about the Super Chat. So thank you so much for my birthday gift. I appreciate it. But I would love to see some of you if you're around in August 5th, 6th and 7th. There's only 50 spots and I think we've already sold half of them. At least half of them. I think we've already sold a bunch of spots to people who are excited about coming meeting me. If you're in my course, I would love to see you there. It's going to be at a very nice hotel in Medford, Massachusetts, very close to lots of other dining and food options. But I mean, if you're coming, you know, I'M gonna provide lunch for you guys. Depending on, on budget, we'll see if we can maybe get some coffee and breakfast tea stuff for you. But we're definitely providing lunch. I'd rather under promise and, and over deliver for you guys and give you extra than like promise you a bunch of things. I, I can't guarantee, but we're definitely guaranteeing lunch and there might be some extra bonuses if we can. Friday night we are gonna have some light snacks, you know, for you guys. There will be an open bar and we're gonna, like I said, have the professional photographer, they're gonna be taking pictures of you and me. Me teaching. I will be teaching. We do have some master classes planned for this event around, you know, strumming Lauren. How do I listen to a song and figure out what the strumming pattern is? Or, you know, I'm just beginning and I want to play a strumming pattern to a song. How do I find a strumming pattern that works for songs? So we're going to work on that stuff. I have a really great friend of mine. His name is Paul Tudoroff. He was actually my electric guitar teacher during COVID I decided to take guitar lessons again over Covid since I had extra time and, and Paul was my electric guitar teacher. He's amazing. He actually did all of the guitar solos for my second album. He did most of the guitar work on my second album, the electric guitar. And he's going to come talk to us about, you know, scales, pentatonic scales, how to go about writing your own solo. I mean, that's what he does. He's so good and, and he's a really good friend of mine. I'm so excited that he said he was, he was able to make it. He's from Binghamton, New York and he'll be, he'll be coming on Con over to spend some time with us. And I'm just so excited. I just can't wait to meet you guys and, and have so much fun with you. So if you're interested in learning more about that, It's Lauren Bateman. Guitar.com backslash event Lauren batemanguitar.com backslash event I would love to see you guys this summer. We do have a one payment system and a three payment plan. So if you need a payment plan, just let us know. We can help you out. We want to get you guys there. We want to meet as many people as possible. We, my team and me. I definitely want to see you guys there, give you a big hug. If you're a hugger, I'll give you a big hug. We'll get our picture taken together and we're gonna have a lot of fun playing guitar all weekend. So you're welcome. Have a wonderful, wonderful weekend, everyone. I'm going out of town for my birthday on Friday, but we will have videos scheduled, I think. I don't know which one's coming out this weekend, but we'll have songs and stuff scheduled for you guys. So even though I won't be around, the videos will still be out, the content will still be coming out. We're gonna have a lot of fun. And I'll probably post post some pictures on my Instagram and in the YouTube community chat. So hopefully I'll see you guys over there. Have a great day and I'll see you guys in a lesson video real soon. Bye, everyone. Have a good one.