How to play Where I'm From by Jason Michael Carroll

Hey, what’s up? This one is on a song from Jason Michael Carroll. Actually, I had the honor of meeting him on a flight from Raleigh to Nashville actually. He sat in coach by the way. He didn’t first class. I was in coach obviously, too, but he’s a real cool guy. I’ve talked with him for quite a bit. In my older videos, you guys have seen my guitar, so my other guitar, my Alvarez. But I wanted to teach you this song and hopefully you guys will get into his music. He’s a great artist and he’s actually a really laid back and cool guy in person, I know that. The capo on the 1st fret that are in the standard tuning and it’s really got some simple chords. It’s a G chord. I like to play the four-finger G. If you like to play the three-finger G, that’s cool, it doesn’t matter. There’s a C chord and there’s a D chord. I’ve said this in a few of my other videos, but I have a lot of people saying, “Hey, I have a hard time changing from my G from my four-finger to a C.” One thing you guys can do is if you’re playing a G chord, you can just move these two fingers in each down string and play it C9 chord instead of a C chord, alright? It doesn’t matter. You can play it. If you have a C chord, you can play it C9. If the tab says C9, you can play a C. It’s just a variation. It’s just like playing a four-finger G or a three-finger G. It’s just your preference so take that in consideration. But the verse is a C chord to a G, to a C, to a G, to a D, C, G, and then back to C to the D. So I’m going to go through the strum patterns with you. “On a three-hour flight from Memphis to LA,” you just play a C. [Demonstration] So down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, down, up, switch to G back to C. Second one through, “I was silently celebrating my first class upgrade,” down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, down, up to the G. [Demonstration] Third line, “Laughing at my jeans and my boots,” [Demonstration] so D, it’s down, down, up, down, up, switch to a C, down, down, up, down, up to a G. And that G I’m playing down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, down, up back to the C chord, finish that verse on a D. Another thing I remember, strum patterns are not set in stone. You can play it anyway you want as long as you keep with the rhythm of the song. Another thing is if you’re singing this, don’t worry about the strum pattern because as soon as you start singing, nobody listens to the strum pattern anymore, unless it’s [Demonstration] something like that. They’re not going to pick up on it. So just get comfortable with the strumming, the chords, how long to hold each chord. Base it by listening to the song and using the strum patterns I gave you. And once you get comfortable with that, if you decide to start singing it, just go for it. Don’t worry about strum patterns. I strum something one way and when students start singing, I change the strum patterns. So second verse, just the same. The chorus is a little different. It could sound something like this. I’m going to play it the whole way through and then I’m going to go back through and work on the strum patterns. [Demonstration] So basically, it’s just G to C. G, E minor, D, G, C, G, C, G, D, G, D. So strum pattern, “I said I'm front the front pew,” [Demonstration] I would just play it in the G, down, up, up, down, up, switch to C. I’m playing C9 like I said earlier—down, up, up, down, up back to G to the C, G “where a man’s word”, so I play it down, down, down, up, E minor, down, down, down, up to your D, down, down, down, up. Same thing, “Where moms and dads”, down, up, up, down, up, down, up, up, down, up. Simple. Then there’s the verse 4, there’s the verse 4, second chorus, verse 5—I guess you’d say verse 5. It says verse 5 but that’s really the bridge. So where you see verse 5 in the tab, I may change it. If you see a verse 5, I didn’t change it obviously and it’s just the bridge. And that’s an E minor chord to the D, G, C, E minor “I was the quarterback of my high school team, we took state back in ‘63” D, “and my wife, well, she’s still my homecoming queen” D. Alright, back in the chorus. So I’m going to take you through each part of this, sing it, play along. Hopefully, the vocals won’t make your ears bleed and you guys can kind of get the feel. [Demonstration] Okay, that’s the first two verses actually. And then the chorus like I taught you, it picks up “I said I’m from the front pew of a wooden white church,” [Demonstration]. Verse 3 is the same. Verse 4, second chorus, [Demonstration]. Okay, where that tab is, the C is over “always been my style.” That should be over—once you finish “style” then you start strumming on the C so you don’t switch from G to C too early. [Demonstration] Last chorus at the end, “but it’s where I’m from”, you’re playing D to G to C. [Demonstration]. You finish this on a D. So good luck with that, guys. Check out Jason Michael Carroll’s music. He’s a cool guy and I wish him the best. Good luck, have a good week.