How to Play Hanging By a Moment by LifeHouse
Hey what’s up everybody, it’s Aaron. The next song I want to teach you, I get a lot of request for it on the webpage, if you haven’t check what the webpage yet, FreeandEasyGuitar.com, got a lot of cool stuff on there for you guys, makes a lot more functional and easy to get everything up, instead of having to open up your tab and your links and everything the same, screens also. If you feel that the lessons have helped you. Then there’s some charities getting done on there, so it’s for a good cause. So check that out. Alright, this song is called Hanging by a Moment by Lifehouse, and the kinda little intro sounds something like this. Okay, that’s the intro and the only chord is that I’ve kind of put together for the sound of this, is this, okay, it’s a B minor 7 to an A sus 2 to a D sus. Don’t worry about that, we’re gonna explain it right now, alright. First thing you need to do for this lesson is tune your guitar correctly. We’re actually in, D, like drop D flat tuning, okay. It’s not as complicated as it sounds, all it means is you need to put, first step is to put your guitar in half step down tuning, alright. If you know how to tune the standard tuning, here’s a quick way. Put you capo on the 1st fret of your guitar, okay. Then while the capo is still on there, then tune it to standard tuning, okay, so turn to the tuner in E – A – D – G – B – E, okay. Once you have it tuned to standard tuning with the capo on, take the capo off, that lowers it a half step , and then you’re in half step down tuning. From there the only thing you need to do is, is tune down this string which is now in low E, or your low E is now an E flat, alright. So, next, what you need to do is, is you need to either, if you know how to use a tuner, tune this down to a D flat, or an easy way to do it, if you’re in a… alright, so, say we’re in your low E string is in E flat. All you do is you play this and you play this string here, your third string down, because it’s normally D string, but now it’s, it’s a D flat, because you tune down half step. Okay, so you play it that string, play them together, until they match up, okay. And then you gonna have the D flat, okay. Once you have that guitar on that tuning then here’s how you gonna start the intro. Okay, you hear in the beginning of their song, it sounds like this. Okay, all that is, this… you’re playing on low E string, you’re playing the 7th fret and you slide you pointer finger all the way down, and then right when you get the halfway down the 1st fret, you’re just gonna take your finger off, okay. So I’m playing 7th fret, pointer finger, okay, sliding down all the way off. The next note you’re gonna play. The next kinda first half of that intro sounds like this, okay. So when you hear me play just as low this, this note here, that’s really meaning this, okay. Coz basically you’re playing the 7th fret, sliding down when you finish the D note. So if you don’t like that slide, you don’t have to play that. You can just play the D string of it, alright. Then the next thing you’re gonna do, is you’re gonna play this string, top string, and you’re gonna play your A string and your D string, once you play it once, your second time. Your second time you play that D string, your pointer finger is gonna be on the 2nd fret, alright. So… then you’re gonna play it open, so, I’m getting, continually to call this string the E string just because that’s what it is in standard tuning. But remember the tuning you’re in is different, alright. So you play the E string, the A string, the D string, D string with your pointer finger 2nd fret, then D string again, open, so… five notes. Okay, then the next thing you’re gonna play, sounds like this. And that’s easy to play too, okay. So just it kinda, have it all running together. After you play the first five notes, play the low E string, then you’re gonna play the A string open, then you’re gonna play the D string open then back to the A string open, and then on the D string, you’re gonna put you’re pointer finger or middle finger or ring, however you wanna play it, okay. I just use my pointer finger and play 5th fret in the D string, your next note is the four string, 4th fret on the D string, and an open, so… so all together. So you can get through playing whole intro, this is one finger, if you needed to… okay. That’s the intro. As far as the chords that you’re gonna use. I tried to simplify down as much as I could, this may not be the exact same chords they use, but I kinda sang along with it. I think it sounds alright. So, the chords I wanna teach you, the three chords, when you see a B minor 7, I want you to put your ring finger on the 3rd fret of your B string. Your middle finger, I want you to put it on your G string, 2nd fret. And then your pointer finger, I want it to be over here on the A string 2nd fret, okay, so B minor 7, okay. Now, the next chord I want you to do is the A sus 2, and all you do for that is take your, you leave your middle and the ring, you leave them in the same place, okay. and you just take your pointer finger and move it down to your D string, 2nd fret, okay, so B minor 7, A sus 2, and then your third chord is just a D sus, just take your pointer finger off. Okay, so… these fingers don’t move the whole time, alright. That should be easy enough, I think. Okay, now, as far as the strum pattern goes, and this is for the verse or for the chorus, when they play the song, the verse is actually this whole thing now. That’s what they play throughout the whole verse, so when you get to the chorus, you basically play this. You play, start with the B minor 7, I play it for you once, and then, or once or twice, ‘til I can remember it in my head, and then I’ll try and explain to you. Okay, yeah, do that one. Do, we’re in the B minor 7, okay, you’re gonna go, down – up – down – up, let’s see… yeah, down – up – down – up – down, and the A sus 2, and then take the pointer finger off D. So, down – up – down – up – down – up. Now, one thing I want you to remember to, been telling you in some of the videos, it doesn’t matter, the strum pattern is, there’s no correct strum pattern. A lot of the artist that you’ll see and watch, they play different strum patterns, basically ‘bout every time they play it, some of them, you know, get in the habit, but some of them, for a certain song won't play it the same way every time. So make sure you’re, you’re strum along with the rhythm, and not necessarily a strum pattern. Okay, so, you could do down – up – down – up, switch to A sus, down – up, or, down – up – down – up, switch to A sus, down, go to the D, down, so… that’s two up strums. That’s two down, doesn’t really matter, okay. And you don’t, see if I can pull the lyrics up, you don’t even have to change those chords until you’re at the very end of the lyrics, so, let me see… I don’t have the lyrics for the verse, sorry. But, for the chorus, it’s something like this, okay. (singing) I’m falling even more in love with you. Letting go of all I hold on to. Standing there until you make me move, hanging by a moment here with you. And it goes back to the main riff. So, if you’re in youtube, tab and stuff are over here, if you’re on youtube, please go to the webpage, it’s got a lot of stuff for you to, it’s easier to navigate to, and if you’re on the website, hope you’re enjoying the lessons, take care you guys.