How to Play Twenty-One by Corey Smith - Part 1

Hey, what up guys, it’s Aaron. This song I’m going to teach you guys right now is called Twenty One by Corey Smith. It’s a great acoustic song. Let’s say it’s kind of intermediate to advance. So if you’re beginner, you are more than welcome to go for it, but I’m going to leave this one until later. But I’m going to go ahead and play the intro to the song real quick and you can kind of see how my hand moves and hear it, see if you like it, then learn it. [Demonstration] That’s the first line through with the mistake or two. The second line goes like this. [Demonstration] That’s pretty close. You can get to kind of just to it. All right, now I’m going to teach you how to play the intro. I’m preparing two or three lessons for this, so check out the other ones if you already know the intro and looking for the verse, chorus or bridge with the—so the intro. All right, I’m going basically walk you guys through this using the bass notes and what I mean by that is in this song, any note in this first line of the intro, that’s only the D string, the A string or the E. The D is your four, A is your five, and your E, your low E is your sixth. So these top three strings are the bass notes. So basically, the way that bass notes goes, an open [Demonstration] D, then four on A, we got two on the A, three on E, two on E, open on E, and then A, and open A, okay. So without this high notes appear, which I guess will be called the melody. The bass line is just this. [Demonstration] Okay one more time, [Demonstration] open D, four, one A, two on A, open A, three low E, two low E, open low E, open A, okay. So before we get that, I’m going to practice that, you know. [Demonstration] That’s the bass line okay. So whatever—to a four on the A string, the two on the A string, I'm referring to the bass line. So look at the tab find that note on the bass line and then you look at the notes above it, okay. I’ll get to it, don’t worry. So, starting out for the intro, I want you to put your ring finger on the fifth string, which is your fifth string up to your A string on the fourth fret, that’s where your ring finger goes. Your middle finger goes on your two string, it’s your B string on the third fret, okay. The first note you’re going to play is going to be an open D [Demonstration], just like we talked about on the bass line, okay. So you’re going to play the open D [Demonstration], then you’re going to play the high E string open [Demonstration] and where your pointer finger on, okay [Demonstration]. I want to picking up once and the hammering on creates the volume for the second one and take that pointer finger off [Demonstration], put the high E open. So the first set of notes goes open D [Demonstration], open D, high E open, hammer on the second and then play open E on the second. Okay, so once you’ve done that, you’re going to move on the next bass note, okay [Demonstration]. Which is the A string fourth fret, where your ring finger should be already [Demonstration] and once you play that, you’re going to play the high E [Demonstration] on the B string. The good thing about that is, since your high E is open and on your B string, you already have the middle finger on third fret, then really, you don’t have to move your fingers at all between those first two, okay. So where you see the four on the A string that bass note, you play that four, you play the high E open, and B string third fret, okay. Then, the only thing you need to do next is after you play those notes [Demonstration], you take your ring finger off and you bar on the same fret across the bottom five strings, okay. Now, once you’ve done that, you play that third note, the bass note which is the two on the A string and you play your high E and your B string, okay. Your middle finger is still here on the third fret on the B string because the only thing we move from the last set, which is the ring finger. Your middle finger kind of stays there as an anchor, so you put that bar down[Demonstration], okay. So I know this is probably a little bit fast for you guys. I’m going to stop, go back to the beginning, kind of walk you through slowly from the beginning, okay. So you’ll play the open D [Demonstration], high E hammer on, high E again open. So, [Demonstration], then you play this A string where your ring finger is on the fourth fret then high E, and your B string, on your B string, you got that middle finger on the third fret. So, from the beginning it’s, [Demonstration]. Then you take the ring finger off, leave that middle there on the third fret of your B, bar across the bottom five, okay. And you play second fret bass note [Demonstration], that’s the second fret on the A, if you’re looking to tab, high E, B, so that’s the five string. Then, this middle finger stays right there, it doesn’t go anywhere. You just take your bar off and you play an open A, then on the B string you play three where that middle finger is, and the right below it, you're going to play two notes, which I like to take my middle finger off and put my pointer right behind it [Demonstration]. So [Demonstration] from the top. Open on the D for that bass note [Demonstration], bar, open A and three two on the B, okay. Once you’ve made it through that, you’re halfway through the part first line on the intro. The next thing you’re gong to do is, once you play this three, two, I like to bring my middle finger over here and you play third fret of your low E, then you play the high E and B. So six, one, two, walk it down on that low E, your middle finger is now on the second fret of your low E. You play two [Demonstration]. Now, the only difficult thing about this is whenever you’re here and you go to put your middle finger down here on the second fret of your low E, remember to stick your pinky on the third fret of the high E, okay, so you have. [Demonstration] So, we’ll see the three on the E string, that’s this. Play the sixth string, one, two, then you can actually use your pointer finger if you’d prefer, it doesn’t matter. Anyway, you need to hold down second fret of your low E and your pinky needs to be on the high E string third fret and those three notes sound like this, two on low E [Demonstration], three on the high E, open B string, okay. Then, you’re going to play an open low E [Demonstration], put the B string open and hammer on the second fret, so [Demonstration]. After you play that open, hammer on the second fret note, put a high E open. We did the last bass note you’re playing on the first one, the intro was the A string [Demonstration], then two, three on the B string, okay. So I’m going to play that a whole way through slow, the first time through, I want you to focus on the bass notes I'm playing and then after you get the bass notes down, then we’re going to add the other notes, okay. So starting from the beginning. [Demonstration] But then again, I’m kind of mixed up a little bit. So, we’ll start that again. [Demonstration] Okay, last time really slow, and we’re going to move on the second line of the intro. So. [Demonstration] Okay, now, the second line of the intro is the exact same first half is exactly the same as the first line of the intro halfway through.