How to Play Fearless by Taylor Swift
Hey what’s up everybody, it’s Aaron. This lesson I’m gonna do for you today is actually a new popular country song by Taylor Swift called Fearless. It’s really got a pretty simple intro and there’s two ways to play it. So, I wanna show you both ways. But for the chord the capo’s on the 3rd fret. So if you have two guitars and one of them wants to play the solo on electric guitar, you can play without the capo. But you just got to make sure you don’t sing for it. So the riff’s sounds like this… like that, okay. So to start out that riff, two ways you can play it. The first note you wanna have is, first one I’m gonna play is if you prefer to do all in one string. You can play this on one string or you can play it without moving your hands. If you don’t like sliding, I suggest the second way. If you like sliding, but you like this on the same string, then I prefer the, I said to play this way, alright. So we’ll start out with the first way, with the whole riff is on the same string. You’re down here on your B string, alright, you’re capo’s on the 3rd fret. So the first riff’s you’re gonna play is 2, I’m sorry, 3…so one, 3 frets above the capo. Capo’s on the 3rd fret, so one, two, three. So B string on the 3rd fret above capo, you’re gonna play, 3 – 5 – 3 – 5 – 7, so… 3 – 5 – 3 – 5 – 7. The way I do it, is I play 3 – 5 – 3 – 5, play 5 again, but as soon as I play it that second time, I slide it to 7. So… like that. 3 – 5 – 3 – 5 – – 7, or you can play it, 3 – 5 – 3 – 5, 5 slide to 7, okay. So that’s the first part. And there’s really kind of three parts to this. First part is this… 3 – 5 – 3 – 5 – 7, and back down here, 3 – 5 – 3 – 5 – 7 – 8 – 7, okay. So the second part is 3 – 5 – 3 – 5 – 7 – 8 – 7. So put these two, the first and second part together, you get this… okay. And the third part is 3 – 5 – 3 – 5 – 7 – 10 – 8 – 7, and then 5 slide down to 3. Okay, so I’ll be playing last slide, you pick the note where your finger’s on the 5th fret… and then you slide down to the 3rd fret. Okay, so put the tabs in the info box, if you find this on youtube, if you’re in the FreeandEasyGuitar.com webpage, and they should be below the video, but… alright. So, again on the B string… 3 – 5 – 3 – 5 – 7 – 3 – 5 – 3 – 5 – 7 – 8 – 7 – 3 – 5 – 3 – 5 – 7 – 10 – 8 – 7 – 5 – slide 3, okay. That’s if you like playing the whole thing on one string. If you like playing on, if you like playing where you can use, you’re gonna use the bottom two strings, but you don’t like moving you’re hand a lot, then do this. Okay, you’re gonna play 3 – 5 – 3 – 5, that same part. But instead of playing with your pointer and your ring like you played it the first way, I want you to take your middle finger and put it on the 3rd fret of your B string, okay. So that’s gonna be your 3, now on the B string, you can also play 3 – 5 – 3 – 5, you can play that 5th fret with your ring, if you prefer that, or your pinky. But your pointer’s gonna do, and the reason I want you to have your middle finger here because your pointer finger is gonna be anchored, it means don’t move it the whole intro, on the 2nd fret of your high E string. Okay, so here… so what this riff this way gonna sound like this, okay. So that way, first note you’re gonna play on the 3rd fret of your B string, alright, with your middle finger there. Play 3 and then 5 with your ring or your pinky, your preference. So, 3 – 5 – 3 – 5, on the B string. Then second fret on the high E, this pointer, so first part… then again 3 – 5 – 3 – 5, then you’re gonna play 2nd fret on the B. So…3 – 5 – 3 – 5, on the high E, 2 – 3 – 2, back to the B, 3 – 5 – 3 – 5, high E, 2, then on the high E you're gonna go 5 – 3 – 2, then back to 5 on the B, play 5, slide to 3. So that way it sounds like this… okay. So that’s two intros, both tabs you’ll be able to hear. Getting into the chords, the only chords you’re gonna need is a D, an A, E minor, G, okay. The way I do this is I pretty much do down strums the whole entire time. When I play like this it sounds good, so what I would suggest is, for most of the verse in almost all of the chords on the whole song, it’s four beats. So, if you’re on the D, it would be one, two, three, four, okay, those are quarter notes. Now, the way I like to play it is with eight 8th notes. Instead of four quarter notes, eight 8th notes. So what that means is you just playing instead one, two, three, four… you go, one and two and three and four. So just the same amount of time, you’re just getting more strums in. So that’s the way I play it. You start out with the verse, there’s something about the way the street looks, or is it just me. There’s a gloss in the pavement, walk me to the car. Alright. This is the first verse. No, I think so like that. Basically the chords are on this tab, all you gonna do is you’re gonna play… just start on your D, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, to your A, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, E minor, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, G, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, starts right over, D, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, A, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, E minor, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, G, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, alright. You’re gonna do that where it says yeah oh yeah in the tab, it says D – A – E minor – G. That’s still eight beats, so, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Just say that to yourself. They’re all down strums. The only part in the song where it changes from that is at the end of run your hands through your hair absently minded making me want… [singing] making me want you. [speaking] that part. It's G for four beats, so, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, so… absent mindedly making me want you, whatever. So when you see the G, and you hear it's kinda faster, but it’s one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, the G to the A. There’s also the part of the chorus where it's you take my hand and drag me head first fearless. The head first fearless is the same way, G, two, three, four, A, two, three, four. Just like that. The same, chords are the same. I guessed it wouldn’t hurt real quick for me to look at the bridge and then I’ll kinda do some strumming for you, alright. So for the bridge, Jay stood there with me in the doorway. My hand shaking, I’m not usually this way. Alright. So that’s the C add 9, basically all it is a G, I play it four fingers, you can Google this chords if you don’t know what they are. You have a G, C add 9, you just move your pointer finger down to the D string, and your ring finger, I’m sorry. Middle finger down the A string, instead of going E and A, and now it’s on the A and D. So you’re gonna strum this 8 beats, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, D, and then where it says E minor, E minor 7, you’re gonna play E minor over here, one, two, three, four, then don’t move this, just put your ring and your pinky down here on the 3rd fret of the two high E strings, one, two, three, four, then you go to G, one, two, three, four, A, one, two, three, four, alright. And then, usually when it says fearless, it's A, one, two, three, four, D, one, two, three, four. So, take a look at that, guys. The tabs are over here, it's really simple. It’s all down strumming, and you remember not to change to the next chord until you play the eight beats unless into a certain case as the head first fearless part, where you have the G to the A. And I think on the song that’s the only time you gonna do four beats where it goes G, one, two, three, four, A, one, two, three, four. So if you see any other chords like that, don’t worry about it, so it’s not gonna do that. It’ll go to G, to A, like that. Good luck with this one guys, check out the webpage, FreeandEasyGuitar.com, it’s almost time to release it, so, couple more days. Take care.