Essentials Part 2

G, C & D Major Chords

These major chord shapes are a step up in difficulty; they require more fingers and a wider stretch, but they sound great! The G and C are particularly hard work, so don't be disheartened if it takes a while to get them just right. The three chords can be found in the fretboard diagrams.

Changing Chords

Let's apply these chords to the strumming pattern we covered in the previous course. Using the chord chart shown below, repeat the pattern for three to four minutes until you feel you are ready to pick up the pace!

The "Universal Strumming Pattern"

We call this the universal strumming pattern because it seems to work with almost any song, regardless of the genre or style! It's also a perfect learning tool when getting used to reading strumming patterns. It goes like this:

Changing Chords Whilst Strumming

Once you feel comfortable playing the G major chord with this pattern, have a go at playing the chord chart below. This is a very hard exercise at first, so take things slowly and don't rush. Once you feel like you can play the chart with confidence, move on to the next lesson.

"Without You"

It is now time to learn our first song! This is a new challenge as for the first time we are playing alongside other instruments - the song features vocals, drums, bass and even secondary guitar parts. Therefore, we need to learn how to focus on just your particular guitar part, and to condition ourselves to avoid getting distracted. Have a listen to the song all the way through and then move on to the next lesson where we'll begin our walkthrough.

The Verse

In this lesson we'll cover the intro and first verse of the song. The chord chart looks like this:

As for the strumming pattern, it's nice and simple in the verses. All we need to do is a single strum per bar on the first beat! Here is the pattern:

The Chorus

We will now take a look at the chorus part, and then piece the entire song together. As you may have anticipated, the chorus uses the universal strumming pattern! As a quick refresher, here is the pattern:

Now, here is the entire chord chart for the song, including every different section. Remember that the intro and verses have a different strumming pattern to the chorus.