Gratitude Guitar Tutorial

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Gratitude Tutorial Transcript:

In this lesson, we're going to cover the song gratitude by Brandon lake a really, really pretty song. And there's some different versions out there that show you just some normal chords like G shaped chords. But I'm going to show you how to actually play it like it really sounds in the recording. It kind of sounds like two guitars are playing at the same time. And I'm in an alternate tuning to create this effect. So I want to cover that with you the chord shapes, and then we'll cover the picking pattern as well.

So let's jump in. I spent some time with this trying to figure out different ways to create that actual sound to get all of the notes and and had to experiment with something. And I think I figured it out with something that works, at least for me, and it's DADGAD tuning with one twist. So we've we've covered that before and alternate tunings. This is one of the most popular ones, for taking your low E down to a D.

And then normally you take your little two strings down a whole step, so he would go down to a D and then your B will go down to an A. But what's different here is we're just going to take this B string back a whole whole step to an A and then leave the Eastern where it is. It's a really weird sound. And then we're going to capo to so it's a very kind of unique alternative tuning that we're using here. This was very creative with whoever came up with this song, it's really smart and creative, and we're going to be playing as though we're in a kind of a capo to put you in the key of B, so we're in the key of A, but our chord shapes are a little different, and you probably haven't used them anywhere else.

But once you learn them, you can actually use them for Songs in the Key of B. So this is just something to keep in your back pocket. I love this kind of stuff of just something different and normal.

So let's cover the the chord shapes first, you can think of them in terms of Nashville Numbers, which I prefer or you can think of them in terms of their actual chord name. So I'll cover both as we do it. But the first chord is your one chord, which is your B. If you've ever played an Asus2, this is the same shape, it's kind of an A without your ring. It doesn't matter which fingers you use for it.

Your next chord is going to be your 6m chord. And this is the next chord in the intro and the verse progression. So what you'll do here is take three fingers all together: pinky, ring, middle, and then put them on the fourth fret of the low strings.

And then you're going to follow with your pointer finger on the second fret of the third string from the bottom. And then you'll keep the same shape for your next chord, it will just take these three fingers moving to the second fret, and then your pointer finger goes to the first fret where it was on the second of that third string. So this is your F# chord, which is also your 5 chord.

So we've gone one, six minor, two, five, and then we're going to go to four, this is a really cool chord; just slide that pointed finger back to the second fret. So this is your four chord, which is an E. And that's really all you need for the song!

And there's some other chords at the very end. But for the main part of the song, that's all you need is your chord shapes. And then you're combining those chord shapes with a picking pattern. And the reason why it's important to do these chord shapes is if you miss a string or you accidentally mess up, it's gonna sound good still because you have your full chord that you're playing, so your fingers will know what to do and if they don't, they mess up.

It sounds great still, sometimes I do play this very first chord with I don't play both fingers. I'll just do one of them. Because I'm mainly focused on how to get to the next chord easily, which is the three fingers here. So I do kind of cheat a little bit on the first chord. So let's talk now About your right hand and your picking pattern.

This is pretty tricky, it's going to take some time to get used to I've been messing with it for the last couple of hours just getting comfortable with it because it's so different. But the trick here is for your thumb to cover the bass notes and kind of the alternating low part which you hear in the guitar. And then your other three fingers get the high part of what you hear as the kind of offbeat notes.

So I use my ring, middle and then pointer. And those guys are doing the same thing pretty much the whole time, they're just playing the off beats, you're in six, eight. So it's the off beat of the 6/8 notes and then your, your thumb is getting the bass out and it's different with each chord.

So let's cover that. So the first one with the one chord it's a really good core to start with because you're going to you're going to have just kind of a steady 123456.

By the way, I've made tabs for this if you'd like to read tab, so you can just follow along there if you'd like. But we'll just stay with the that a string 23456 And then I'm going to have the off beats ping ponging back and forth with my three fingers then have these three guys ready for the next chord and what you'll do here is your pattern here is that low string followed by the A string so your sixth followed by your fifth and then again your your off beats every other time are these three so they stay the same the whole time then your next chord shape and this is your five chord same thing as far as your right hand is concerned and then your E chord as far as your right hand is concerned, same thing here.

So once you get that picking pattern at last for this few chords so there you get kind of the low end and the high end mixed together and it sounds really cool which can do to practice to if it's if your brain just isn't letting you do that it's just practice the low part, practice the high part separately.

So you can start with a 456 and that next chord does you're on beat notes and if you accidentally hit another one sounds fine. So you can do that as well. So typically in the verse in the chorus, you're gonna have two measures of six, eight, so two measures of the chord.

So it'd be playing each one twice, so 1234512345 next chord. And then the only difference on the chorus is you just shift which chords go where so we're still going to start with the B or the one and then that third chord that you played that F sharp, which is our five chord, you're gonna go to that next so it's and then from there, you go to your E chord, which is your four chord and then you'll share, G sharp minor, it's really just one measure so it feels like half measure but it's one measure of six eight into your F sharp which would be six minor and five and you're back to where you started on the verse or the intro so again, this song is different I love it.

It's It's really beautiful. It's different unique. It has an alternate tuning. And these chords by the way, if you want to strum with this song, it works great so if you ever had another song in B, and you were somehow in this tuning, you could use those chords for that song and be too so this is maybe something you could experiment with further and try with other songs as well. So hope you enjoyed that.

That's how to play the song Gratitude!