How to Play "The Best Day" by Taylor Swift on a Guitar

Hey Kiddy cats, your guitar stage. Today we’re going to learn how to play “The Best Day” by Taylor Swift. This is a pretty easy song that I preferred to capo at the first fret because it will keep you from having to play a bunch of bar chords. Typically these types of country songs or pop songs, you don’t want to play a bunch of bar chords, you don’t have to. Allows you to kind of use your fingers to do other things. So I’m going to jump into it here. I’m watching, looking at my chart here on the screen, I’m going to jump into the song and then for those of you that can get it the first time around, great. For those of you that can’t, stick around and we’ll go over the bits and pieces to it, okay. So the strumming rhythm for this is you’ve watched any of my other videos, there’s a real common strumming rhythm that goes 1, 2 and, and 4 and okay, and this is a-- [Demonstration] That sort of thing, okay, so if I may, if we have time to do it in this video, I kind of go over that slowly with you. But let me go into it from the top here. I won’t play the entire song through, but as always, I’ll play each part through at least once. So from the top it’s going to go something like this. [Demonstration] I’m playing the C [Demonstration], A minor, [Demonstration], F, [Demonstration]. It’s that G and F that I’ll play about later. [Demonstration] Then the G, [Demonstration], the verse is going to [Demonstration]. Do same thing. A minor [Demonstration], F [Demonstration] G [Demonstration], C [Demonstration], A minor [Demonstration]. I replace that [Demonstration] through a total of four times for the verse, C [Demonstration] A minor [Demonstration], F [Demonstration], G [Demonstration], And then one more time, right at the verse still [Demonstration]. Okay now, here’s our chorus coming on. So F [Demonstration], four measure [Demonstration], G first [Demonstration], C [Demonstration], E minor 7 with a D in the base. Okay so it’s for two beats [Demonstration], two beats [Demonstration], A minor, [Demonstration], F [Demonstration], four measure [Demonstration], G measure [Demonstration]. Let’s walk down again— [Demonstration] A minor [Demonstration], F [Demonstration], done on the G. [Demonstration] The turn around is a C, A minor, F, G, just like the intro in the verse, okay. The only other part that’s really different to the song is the bridge and it goes something like this-- [Demonstration] Okay, so let’s talk about the chords, we’ll talk about the construction, we’ll talk about the rhythm, we’ll talk about all that good stuff, okay. So here we go, so the chords you’re going to need for this, well first off; capo is at the first fret, every now and then I guess, I’m sorry but I get some moron, who says, ‘you don’t need to use a capo.’ You don’t have to use a capo, you don’t have to wear clothes when you go out during the day but it’s a good thing to do, you know. Capos allow you to one, play in the correct key, allow you to not have to play but your bar chords so by all means please do not message me and say, ‘you don’t need a capo’ or play it with bar chords, otherwise, I will let your message be put up on video and you’re going to have all the little, yourguitarstage students out there, my friends that are going to break you, so please don’t do that anymore, it's driving me nuts. God love you, God love you kids. Okay sorry, that’s my little ramp for today. So anyhow, the chords, we’re going to need for this are, okay, back up. Capo first fret, okay, go get one, please don’t ask me how to not play this with a capo. I will put your head in a capo; lovingly though. Okay, so capo the first fret, alright. Chords are C, A minor, F, and I’m going to show you how to do this F, this cheating, what I call a cheater F. So an F and then a G [Demonstration], then I have a cheater G too. Why? Because when you play these songs all the time, it’s nice to do this wraps up like that or like that, it sounds great, easy to play. Okay so C, everyone knows how to play a C. Let’s me stop real quick, if you don’t know how to play a C, you don’t know how to play these basic bar chords, if you don’t know what a capo does, you don’t know how to do these basic strumming rhythms like [Demonstration], that sort of thing. Go to yourguitarsage.com, get that eBook, also you could take a look at this chart and I’ll show you how to do that on the website. Just read and it will show you how to do that but if you don’t know those basic things, got to get it to par, because I can’t make these videos efficient and explain everything, every single time because you see I’ve got hundreds of videos up here. So if you need help on some of these please go get the eBook at yourguitarsage.com and it will help out a lot, help you out, okay. So here we go, so the chords we need for this; C, A minor, F, and G. Now let me go into this F real quick, you could play the old bar chord, no problem but if you don’t like bar chords, you can take a sweep, a C chord, it feels like a C, take your pinky and tap it right underneath your third finger, your ring finger. Take your second finger, drop it down the string and now if you’re going to play this chord, you need to not play these two E strings. You neither need to mute them or you know, you could bar this high one here like this. I just still can’t play that low note because I’d know that won’t work in there so what I do is I bring my thumb around, you don’t have to grab it like this. Just bring your thumb around enough to just barely touch it on the top. Now it’s muted. [Demonstration] Now I got an F, okay. Magic, alright, and then our G, that is a little cheater G, I let my second finger lay over the fifth string a little bit, just enough to mute it, so I don’t have to have my first finger on here. Why? I don’t know, I like the sound better. It’s pretty good answer huh? Alright so that’s intro. So this C, four measure [Demonstration], A minor, four measure [Demonstration], F, for measure, [Demonstration], G, measure [Demonstration], by the way this song’s in four, so each one of those measures is four beats. [Demonstration] Right, so four beats for measure. Okay so that’s the intros or the intro in the turn around, the verse, yup all the verses, okay. So let’s talk about the chorus here. The chorus is going to play this chord progression three times and the chord progression is F. [Demonstration] Let's see [Demonstration] G [Demonstration], then we have a split measure of C [Demonstration]. That’s an E minor 7, so this is an E minor, this is an E minor 7, but this is an E minor 7 with a B in the bass meaning the E is not in the bass, so we bring our thumb around and mute that E string and now we’re playing the B. I know we’re capo, we’re actually playing C, but pretend for a minute that we’re in a key of G and this would be your B, okay. So E minor [Demonstration], E minor 7 [Demonstration], thumb mutes this string out, to an E minor 7 with a B on the bass because our E is no longer on the base, so and that’s split measure so two beats [Demonstration]. Okay, so that first line is F, four measure [Demonstration], G, measure [Demonstration], then the C, E minor 7/B [Demonstration], split measure and then a measure of A minor there. Now if, I’m running by these chords too quick, remember we’re going to pack this is to that eleven minutes. Go to yourguitarstage.com and find out how you can get a hold of this abstract, if you will, chart that I’ve written out that just basically shows you the chords and where to play it and that sort of thing. Okay, so you’re going to play that basic chord progression for the chorus, three times thru [Demonstration], that’s one time, here’s two [Demonstration], now here’s three [Demonstration], here’s where we sum it, sum it up, it’s F [Demonstration] and then G [Demonstration], and on that G just hit it and hold it, it’s called the diamond, if you hold it, okay. So, construction of the song is going to go intro, verse, chorus, turn around, verse, chorus, another little type turn around which is two measures of C [Demonstration]. Those two measures of C are right before that bridge and then the bridge is going to go like this, F [Demonstration], F [Demonstration], A minor [Demonstration], A minor [Demonstration], F [Demonstration], F [Demonstration], A minor [Demonstration], G [Demonstration], then F [Demonstration], F [Demonstration], C [Demonstration], E minor 7 with a B [Demonstration], F [Demonstration], F [Demonstration], G [Demonstration], G [Demonstration], then back to the verse again and we’re running out of time. Kids, go to yourguitarstage.com right now, don’t walk, run, go get the eBook right now, go feed your cat right now. Go eat some greens, obey your parents, look out for cars when you cross the street. Brush your teeth.