just a handful of chords and you can literally play hundreds of the best songs that were

ever written. In the case of this lesson, I'm going to teach your four chords that you

can use to play ten songs.

First of all let's learn the chords that we're going to be using in this lesson. The first

one is a G major, second one is a C major, third one is a D major, and the last one is

an E minor. Okay, let's start with the G major chord. Put your third finger on the third

fret of the low E string, second finger is going to go on the second fret of the A string,

and your pinky finger is going to grab the third fret of the high E string. And you can

strum all six strings.

Now one thing you're going to want to remember when you're making these chords is come right

down on your fingertips, on the very tips of your fingers, and try to stay right behind

the fret. Keep you fingers as close to behind the fret as possible. That way you can ensure

a good sound without any buzzing.

Next chord, a C major. Let's take our third finger and put it on the third fret of the

A string, second finger is going to go on the second fret of the D string, and your

first finger is going to come back here and grab the first fret of the B string. Make

sure to come down on the very tips of your fingers for this chord. If you don't you will

definitely notice it. Check it out. Strum the top five strings, leave the low E string

out. Watch this little change right here. If I just let my fingers get a little lazy

that's going to sound terrible, so make sure to come right down on your fingertips.

Next chord, D major chord, open D major. Put your first finger on the second fret of the

G string, or the third string, third finger third fret of the B string, second finger

second fret of the high E string. Now leave the sixth and fifth strings out, and just

strum the top four strings there.

Alright, the last chord for you is just a regular E minor chord. Put your second finger

on the second fret of the A string and your third finger on the second fret of the D string,

and you can strum all six strings with this chord.

Now that I've showed you those chords that we're going to be using let's just talk about

strumming really quick in the context of this lesson. I'm going to keep things really really

simple for your strumming hand or your right hand. That way you can focus on learning the

songs and getting the chord changes for the song smooth.

Alright let's get down to business here and learn a song that uses these chords. We're

gonna learn probably one of the most popular tunes of all time, song by The Beatles called

Let It Be. Maybe you've heard of it.

Um, let's go put our G major chord on here, and I'm gonna do this in groups of two strums

for your right hand just so you know. So, the verse of this tune, just strum G twice.

And then go to a D. Strum that twice. E minor twice. And go to a C twice. Back to a G, a

D, a C, and then back to a G one more time. And that's pretty much the entire verse to

the song. It just goes through that whole progression twice. Let me play that progression

for you uninterrupted so you can hear what it sounds like.

So that's the verse of the tune Let It Be, and let's get to the chorus now. The chorus

goes to an E minor twice, a D, C, G, stay on a G and do that two more times, go to a

D, a C, and then finally end up on a G. So let me play the entire chorus for you real

quick.

So as you can see, you can get through that entire song using just these four chords.

There are some walkdowns and stuff in there, but like I said we're keeping things real

simple for your right hand. Um, another song that uses almost exclusively those four chords

is the Beyonce song If I Were A Boy. All it is is E minor, C, G, and D. I think there's

an A minor on the bridge somewhere, but almost the entire song is just those four chords

like this.

So you may be thinking "Nate that's great but I know all of these songs aren't in the

key of G major", and you're right. The song Let It Be is in the key of C. So what are

we going to do about that? How're we going to get around it. The answer is this little

gem right here. It's called a capo, and if you've never used one they are great. It lets

you use those four chords to play just a ton of songs. So, what I would do if I wanted

to play along with Let It Be to the album. I would put my capo on my fifth fret, and

then I can play those exact same chords, G, D, C, and E minor, those shapes and I'll be

in the key of C. I'll show you why.

If this note right here is a G, right here on the third fret of the low E string. If

I moved up a whole step from there, two frets, that would now be an A. Another whole step

would be a B, and a half step from there would be a C. So this G shape is now a C chord.

This capo is pretty much like a movable nut for the guitar.

Here you go, I'll show you what Let It Be sounds like playing it in the actual key that

it was written in.

So you see what I mean? This should show you how valuable these four chords are and how valuable knowing how to use a capo is too.

So what I'm going to do now is just go through all ten songs in this lesson, the choruses

of them to just help you see what they sound like. And below you're going to see the artist,

the title of the song, what key it's in, what fret to put your capo on, and then just the

main chord progression for the chorus. For some of these you'll be able to play just

the chorus. For some of them you can play the entire song using just these four chords.

So you see what I mean? This should show you just how valuable these four chords are, and

how valuable learning how to use a capo can be for you. So just to clarify, the chords

that you saw on the bottom of the page there as I was playing each song are the actual

shapes that you are playing, not the names of the actual chords.

So being able to play this many songs is awesome motivation for you. You're gonna be able to

play some real music, and it's great practice for you to work on your chord transitions

too. Pick a few songs that you liked out of these ten, and go back and pause the video

once they're up. Write the key of the song down and which fret you should be capoed on

and work on them. Work them into your practice time, and work on getting your chord transitions smooth.

Thanks for watching everyone. I just launched a new guitar lesson series that you can get

right now for free. Just go to www.GuitarSystem.com/free-series and I'll see you there.