How to Play Poker Face

Hey, guys. What’s up? It’s Aaron Gallagher from freeandeasyguitar.com and I’ve got a song for you tonight. It’s called “Poker Face,” it’s not the Lady Gaga version. I think it’s a version that sounds better on acoustic guitar and Chris Dougherty just kind of they cover all that, so he did do the whole song. I’m going to teach you guys the whole song using the same kind of chords that he used in his. So the guitar is on standard tuning, E, A, D, G, B, E, put your capo on the second fret and we’re going to start it. So the first section is the verse. The verse is E minor for 8 down beats. [Demonstration] And switch to C chord for 4, switch to D chord for 4. That verse is I want to hold them like they do in Texas police. [Demonstration] That’s just E minor for 8, C for 4, D for 4. And you play that for each line. So, you put it four times. So, that I guess pretty much covers that. One thing I will recommend, you can play Cadd9 instead of standard C and you can play D or Dsus. The thing that I think sounds the best you just start at your E minor. Just put your pointer finger on your A string, second fret, middle finger is on your D string, second fret. So that’s your E minor chord. Wherever you’re going to move your C chord, leave this middle finger right where it is, leave it right there on the second fret of your D string. And if you’re raising your thumbs right here and your pointer finger goes up, you’re in a standard C chord. So this doesn’t move at all, it’s easy kind of getting your anchor which I talked about one of the lessons. So it’s your C and then your D, you just screwed everything. Now, if you don’t mind moving from an E minor to a Cadd9, you can play that too but I don’t like that high pitch because I don’t think it sounds good. So always stick with E minor and 8 down beats, C for 4, D for 4. I do think on the D is you play Dsus which means your middle finger is off so it sounds better. So that is the verses and some more examples of the verses to be followed for you to see here again. [Demonstration] So that’s the other verse and there’s another one there. [Demonstration] And just like the chicken that you’ve seen all over, that’s the same verse, so you do it E minor, two measures, C and then D. The other part is going to be what we call chorus and the chorus is— [Demonstration] And those are just going to be four chords. You can get it from E minor first, to your C second, to the G chord third, as your D chord fourth. You can blow all down strums or you can play a strumming pattern. Hopefully, this sounds like this down strums. [Demonstration] So that’s what it sounds like. You do it twice. With another strum pattern—that’s all down strum, so just A, down strums, switch to C, G, and D. The other way you can do this like a down, down, up, down, up down, down, up, down, up down, up, down repeat that down, down, up, down, up down, down, up, down, up down, up, down. So, that will sound like a— [Demonstration] So, you can pick whatever you want for that, that’s just E minor to C, to G, to D. And then the “can’t read, can’t read my poker face” is the same thing just E Minor to C, to G, to D. I personally think you should just use all down strums. It makes easier for you to keep on rhythm but— [Demonstration] So, that’s just the same E minor, C, G, D and then “Po-poker face,” that is just E minor for two measures C and D. [Demonstration] That’s the whole song, so check your tab on freeandeasyguitar.com, ultimateguitar.com will be open soon if they prove it. Check the link on your toolbox and have some fun with this song. It’s a great when we play open microphones because everybody is going love it and also it gives the guys a chance to play around the song, it sounds pretty cool. So remember to check out freeandeasyguitar.com and happy weekend.