All right kids, today we’re going to learn rocky raccoon by The Beatles. We’re going to start off by talking about these chords and then we’re going to learn the rhythm.
So—and if you're wanting a chart for this song, check out yourguitarstage.com. You can find out how to get the chart of this song and hundreds of others. And with that, I also have an eBook on there that will teach you about strumming and teach you about chords and that sort of things. So check that out.
Okay, so, this song starts off with an A minor setting. If you see me looking over here, looking at my chart on Am7. Normally, here’s our A minor [demonstration] Am7 looks like this [demonstration]. So, I'm lifting the ring finger, but in the case of this song, I'm also adding this finger up here which is a G note and this is the G note [demonstration]. And so that right there gives us our Am7. Now, I’m going to go in the cycle through the chords here, the intro of this just pedals right on an A minor setting [demonstration].
Okay, I'm not even doing the rhythm right there [demonstration] Okay, so that’s the intro. We’re talking about rhythm in just a second. Okay now, the verse goes like this Am7 and it does that for two bars eight beats. So, [demonstration] the next chord is a D7sus. So, keep that chord you get right there, just move your middle finger down, one string okay, and that’s it, that’s a D7sus. And now the other thing you're going to do is you bring your thumb around just beneath that top string. So now, that’s you're next chord. Okay, you hold that for a bar and you're going to a D7, you just keep everything there, but move your pinky off and put your ring finger right behind it, on the second fret of the high E string and keep your thumb muted up there moving to D7.
Next chord is a G7, kind of looks like a C, but you're going to spread it out. So, these guys go up to the string, first finger goes down the string. So here’s your C chord, here is your G7. Remember in that way too will be helpful when you’re boarding.
Okay, so, there’s your G7 [demonstration] you hold that for two bars, then C, mute this top string with your thumb and then a C slash B. Slash chord means that the first part of the letter of the song, the left of the slash is the actual chord that you play and the letter that’s to the right of the slash is the basement. So, C chord, you just play that with the C slash B in this case, you got to put B in the base which means you got to know your notes.
So, A, A sharp, B, so basically we need to play a C chord, but we’ll need to put that B in the base, so what I mean to that is I replace this finger right here with that guy down, looks like an E minor chord, then I take my first finger and put it right here of the first fret and second string.
So again, C chord, C with a D in the base, makes nice little distant in that chord there. Okay, so here we go. So, I'm going to play this and what I call diamonds which means you just hit the chord on the one and hold it out for four beats. So, the intro went [demonstration].
Okay and then now verse stop and so the verse is going to go like this [demonstration] Am7, Am7, D7 slash, D7, G7, G7, C, C with a B in the base, again, [demonstration].
Okay now, there are your chords. Now, the strumming rhythm is really easy. I actually prefer different strumming rhythm on this one. The chart that you can find at yourguitarstage.com I think has the rhythm one, two and three and four. But, the actual rhythm and because that’s how I play it, I like the sound of that better. But, if you listen really carefully to the recording of the Beetles it’s actually one, two, three and four, one, two, three and four, and that’s what we call swing. It’s swinging the beat. So, instead of one, two, three and four, one, two, three and four which are straight, this is the swing beat. So it’s one, two, three and four, one, two, three and four. So, that ends after the three. So, a little bit of a pause there.
So, we’re practicing these rhythms just to mute it like basically one, two, three and four, one, two, three and four. Then once you get it, do it slowly and start with that intro chord there. [demonstration] and then when it gets up to speed, it sounds something like this [demonstration] Again verse two, someone up here is going to go [demonstration] and repeat. And really that’s the whole song and you just play that over and over and over again. You’ve got the whole song there.
All right, so any other questions that you might have regarding this song or any other songs that I'm teaching. Check out for yourguitarstage.com. Get that eBook, it’s really going to help you out a lot. Basically what I've done is path in about 26 pages of the most necessary information needed for playing these types of songs, condensing these classic songs down to a real concise way that you can play on the acoustic guitar and make it sound like the song that you used to hear. All right, so check that out. Keep coming back for more videos and check in often and as always keep practicing. See you soon.
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