In this lesson I'm gonna teach you how to play happy birthday on the acoustic
guitar for beginners. Now hang out to the very end because I have a bonus for
you. They'll make this lesson even more valuable.
Happy birthday dear Johny. Happy birthday to you.
Hi there I'm Tomas Michaud from Real Guitar Success. I'm gonna get right into
the lesson. First I'm gonna show you kind of the traditional chords that a lot of
people play for this song but then I'm gonna quickly go into an upgraded
version which is what I just played and you'll see why that's not only easier
but I think it even sounds better. And then finally, I'll show you some
strumming patterns and a special bonus at the end. I'm going to show you how to
change the pitch to fit your voice better. Let's start off with the G chord.
Now I'm playing a three finger G chord using my pinky. The main reason I like
this chord for this is that it's gonna be easy to switch over to the folk style
C chord but if you know a different version of G and you want to use it
that's perfectly fine. Next comes the folk style C chord. You noticed I just
take my pinky off and move the second and third fingers over and put the first
finger down on the first fret and then we're going to play a folk style D chord.
So I've turned these two fingers around and put that third finger in the middle.
Now let's go on to the upgraded version. I'm not gonna play the song yet. What
you're going do is either use the traditional chords or the upgraded chords
and everything else will be the same. By the way I've written out the chords
and the tab for you. I'll put a link in the description so you can get that. The
first chord is a four finger style G chord. It looks difficult but I actually
find it easier because even though you're using the pinky you've got the
third finger there supporting it. It's also going to be really easy to move to
the C and the D chord from here. So I've got my second finger on the sixth string
third fret. First finger is on the 2nd fret of the fifth string. I have my third
finger and pinky together on the third fret that's the second string and the
first string. It sounds like this.
It's a very full sounding chord and it's used a lot in modern pop music. Now we're
going to a version of a C chord. Look how easy it is to switch. We're gonna take
the second finger and move it over a string and the first finger. Now I
usually do that together so from here it's gonna be like this. Technically this
is called a Cadd9 but a lot of people just call it a version of C. You'll find
that it works as a substitute for the folk style C and many many songs not all
but many and it adds a little more modern sound to it. Here's what it sounds
like.
I hit that low E string not necessary I usually go from the fifth string. It's
also not wrong so if you accidentally hit it you'll notice it doesn't really
sound bad. Now the final chord we're going to use is a folk style D chord. Now
I'm going to show you moving from this C to the D. Did you notice that my third
finger stay right where it is? I am gonna lift off my pinky. This third finger acts
like an anchor between these three chords. Watch this. I go to the G chord,
pinky down, to the C chord. The third finger and the pinky stay right where
they are and now to the D. The third finger stays where it is and I lift off
the pinky. These two fingers move around.Now back to G. Watch this. Pinky goes down
and the two fingers go over to the 6th and 5th strings back to D. Because that
finger is an anchor, it actually makes it a little easier to get to the other
notes because you've got something to refer to.
If these chords are new for you I recommend you practice like this. Start
off fingering the chord, press down and then release your hand and do that over
and over maybe you know 10 times and do it over a period of days as well not
just once. Then do the same thing but strum down and see how the notes sounds.
Spent just a couple of seconds. Adjustment if you need to and take it
off and do it again. Now you're starting to develop some muscle memory. Once
you're starting to feel comfortable, it doesn't have to be perfect and another
chord so you can practice switching. I'll recommend the D because we're going to
use this change a lot. Going to the D chord, I move the two fingers over. Noticed
I switched them around. The first finger goes the third string and the second
finger goes to the first string and then take off the pinky third finger again
stays exactly there. Now strum it and see what it sounds like.
If it's new, you can go ahead and take it off and finger it a few times to get
used to putting your fingers in the right place but then practice the
switching. Go to the G chord do a simple strum to see how it sounds and then to
the D chord. Do a simple strum and see how it sounds. Do that a
little each day and it'll get more and more natural. Now it's time to put the
chords to the words. This is one of the easier ways to decide when to change
chords. Now use whichever versions of the chords that you want. It's going to be
the same but start off with the G chord and I'll sing the words along and go
very slow just so you can see where the chord fits with the words. You can follow
along with me which I encourage you to or if you want you can just watch and
then try it the second time around. Happy birthday - E chord.
Happy birthday to - go back to G - Happy birthday
dear - you put somebody's name here - Johnny
Happy - how about the C chord, going to D - birthday
to - back to G and that's the end.
We're gonna add a strum to it now. This song is in what we call 3/4 time. What's
most important about that is it just has a three pulse feel to it - 1 2 3
so you can just strum straight down like this 3 1 2 Happy Birthday to you 1 2 Happy Birthday and so on. I'm gonna show you
a simple strum that kind of helps you keep track of where the pulse is. We're
gonna hit the bass note and then strum twice. Now when I see hit the bass note
don't worry if you hit one note or two notes or three it doesn't matter. I mean
more like in the base area so if I hit this note or if I hit the first two
that's okay. It still sounds different enough to give it a little groove. So the
strums going to be like this base, strum, strum. Let's count it 1 2 3 .
Play any G chord you want and let's do it together. One, ready go bass, strum
strum, bass, strum, strum, bass, strum strum, base, strum, strum. Now let's do it on a D
chord because we got a different bass note. The bass note for the D chord is on
this fourth string. Again a little harder to hit exactly right on. It's okay if you
hit the fifth string even if you get all the way the sixth string but usually what
people do is they hit that fifth string. Let's try it. Try to hit the fourth
string. Here we go - 1 ready play - base, strum, strum, base, strum, strum, base.
I hit the fifth string sounds good, right? Okay now let's try that C chord. We're gonna
use the fifth string for the bass and again if you hit the sixth string it
sounds just fine. Here we go. Go ahead and make any C chord you want and here we go.
One ready play 1 2 3 - 1 2 3 - 1 2 3 - 1 2 3
Now we're gonna put the strum and the words together along with that melody
and actually plays a song. I'd love for you to play along with me
or if you just want to watch and then try it afterwards that's fine too. I'm
gonna start strumming and then come on with the words. Here we go and again another strum.
Here we go - happy birthday to D happy birthday back to G. Happy
birthday happy to C birthday , happy B birthday to you. One more time
Happy birthday going to G now you - Happy birthday dear Johnny - C chord happy B chord birthday to G you. Now here's a bonus
I'm gonna show you how to adjust the song to fit your voice. Now for many
people the way we played it is just fine. It works for me fine but sometimes
you'll find that it's a little too high or too low for your voice. If it's too
low we're gonna raise it up a little bit and to do that I'm gonna use what's
called a capo or capo and this allows me to raise the sound up even though I'm
using exact same chords. Basically it takes the place of this and makes it go
higher. So I'm gonna put the capo or capo on the 2nd fret and now we're gonna play
it just briefly. Everything is a little bit higher in pitch but I'm still
playing the chord form the same. Happy birthday
to you. Happy birthday to you and so on. You'll see that I'm playing
the exact same chord form so it's really easy. I could raise it up and up and make
it higher and higher. Once you get up in here it starts sounding a little tinny
kind of like a mandolin set of a guitar but it's pretty good all the way up into
around the fourth or fifth fret. So now let's say the song is too high for you
without the capo. What you want to do is bring it down.
Well, you can't make the capo that way so what you do is you drop the whole
song down one octave that means you sing the same notes but everything is
eight notes lower . So example would be if I were playing up in here I'm gonna play
the song, watch. Happy birthday - it's really high for my voice so I'm gonna drop the whole thing down and alter. Happy
birthday to you. Happy - that's one octave. Same notes but eighth
notes lower. Now what you do, you drop the song without the capo one octave and
then you keep moving the cable up and up until it's just right for your voice. So
that's it for this lesson. I've included a download which will have
the chords, the diagrams, and the tab for you. I'll put a link in the description.
Make sure and get that and watch it as you go along with the video. Now I'm
going to turn it over to you. Did you find this lesson helpful? Wasn't helpful
to show you how to change the key of the song or adjusted to your voice with
the capo? Let me know in the comment field below and let me know if there's
something else that you'd like to see me do in a lesson.