How to Play the Song Don't Be Cruel by Elvis Presley

Hi there kids, Your Guitar Sage. Today, we’re going to learn how to play Don’t Be Cruel by Elvis Presley and I’m just going to jump into it right away. For those of you who can just get it, you’ll get it about a minute or so here. I won’t play the entire tune for you but I will play every part, which in this song, I’m looking at my chart here on the screen, for this song there are two basic chord progressions not including the intro which is just playing a D [demonstration]. That’s actually a D chord but we’ll capo that at the second fret. So, for those of you that don’t understand that stuff, stick around and I’ll explain it all. For those of you that can get it, then you know what I’m doing. Capo of the second fret [demonstration], then let’s go. The tune is something like this, so I’m going to start from the intro. [Demonstration] Okay, that’s the basic first. The tag is going to go [demonstration]. So, there we go. Here we go. What I’m going to talk about what chords are in this. So for those of you that don’t know what I’m doing chord wise here or how I’m transposing this with a capo or strumming that leads or anything like that, check out yourguitarsage.com. I got a great informative eBook there that will help you with all these issues and also of course, it gives you privilege to all of these charts that I provide. So, I’m not able to provide them here on YouTube, just because it’s too difficult or I’ll have to turn the camera over on the screen and that’s a pain in the butt. So, check that out, yourguitarsage.com, otherwise; you’re going to be writing all of these chords out. But here we go, the intro, so we’ll capo at the second fret. Let’s talk about a little theory here. This for those of you that don’t know this, this is a C chord [demonstration]. So this is the base note [demonstration] C, C sharp, D. So, if I take this C chord [demonstration] and I bring it up to here, now becomes D chord but it still feels like a C chord, so since I brought that up, two half steps one, two or two frets, one, two, then I’ll have to bring my capo up, one, two, okay. So now [demonstration], it still feels like a C chord but it’s actually a D chord. On my chart here, I haven’t written in the number system, but basically the chords that you’ll need for this are [demonstration] C, F, G and a D minor. So here are the basic chord progressions. The song is in four so, it's like, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four. That’s how I want you to count, okay. And, the intro is four measures of C. So [demonstration], one, two, three, four, [demonstration], one, two, three, four, [demonstration], one, two, three, four, [demonstration], one, two, three, four, [demonstration]. So the verse is going to be four measures of C [demonstration], one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four. Two measures of F, two measures of C, a measure of D minor, a measure of G, two measures of C, one, two, three, four. Okay, so that’s the verse, every verse, okay. So again, I said there’s only two parts of this song, the verse and kind of like a tag chorus type of thing. So, that tag, the chorus of that thing is [demonstration] a measure of F, a measure of G, a measure of F, a measure of G, two measures of C. One, two, three, four, one, two, three, four. So even though I'm muting that one sometimes in this song, you’ll still count to four [demonstration], one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four. Okay. So, what else about this tune, let’s talk about the strumming or the rhythm. What I do as I do—this is just like the video that I gathered, the Elvis video that I just did which was Hound Dog, because it got the same basic vibe and a lot of the same chords. So, if you have it already, don’t view that other one and it's very simple, you’ll have two tunes right away. You’ll just need a capo to put it in the proper key that Elvis did it in. Okay, the rhythm that I do is [demonstration], one, two, and a four, and one, two, and a four, and one, two, and a four, and one, two, and a four. Okay, I’ll slow it down, it's going to go like this [demonstration], one, two and, and four, and one, two and, and four, and one, two and, and four, and one, two and, and four. Now, watch my hand while I’m doing this. If you have any issues with strumming, if you’re doing something anything other than what I’m doing, and you don’t get what I’m doing here by you watching the video, for a lot of people, go get the eBook. Because you do not want to if you have any sort of desire to learn the proper way of playing guitar, you do not want to start swapping up your right hand, getting your strumming hand a lot of rhythm. It's just not worth it. You really want to make sure that you’re doing the proper strumming technique. So, which means your hand will always be moving no matter what you’re playing, downbeats or upbeats, down strums or up strums. So [demonstration], one, two and, and four, and one, two and, and four. See my hand doesn’t move from this up and down movement no matter what I’m doing. Some people would go [demonstration], one, two and, and four, and one, two and, and four. You don’t want to do that. It's [demonstration], one, two and, and four, and one, two and, and four. Okay, you could play that for this entire tune and you’ll be set. Okay, so [demonstration], one, two and, and four, and one, two and, and four, and one, two and, and four, and one, two and, and four. [Demonstration] Okay, so there you go. That’s the basic tune. I wish there was more for that but there’s none kids. That’s it. All right, if you haven’t already hit subscribe, go to yourguitarsage.com and check out that eBook, and keep tuning in kids. All right, go practice.