Today you're gonna learn an easy 3-chords song Amazing Grace on the guitar.
I'm gonna show you the chords, and the strumming and I'll even throw in a
little bonus at the end. Let's go. Amazing grace, How sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I am found, Was blind, but now I see.
'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, And grace my fears relieved.
How precious did that grace appear The hour I first believed.
Let's start off with the chords. We're gonna have 3 chords and before we
start I wanna explain. I have a capo on my guitar so I'm gonna play the chord
forms but actually the name of the chord the sound will be different. Now I
encourage you if you're following along to put a capo on the third fret but you
don't have to you can watch this video and do everything without the capo just
as well. It'll be in a different key and I'm doing this because this is easier
for my voice. I'll show you at the end a little more about the capo on how you
can adjust it for your voice. So we will start with the D. Basic folk style D
chord. I'm using an open fourth string the third string and the first string. I
have my first finger and second finger on the second fret covering those. And
the second string is covered by my third finger that's a third fret.
Now in A7 and the easy way to switch to A7 is you just move
these two fingers over a string and take the third finger off. So I've got my
first finger on the second fret of the fourth string and I've got my second
finger on the second fret of the second string. The other strings are open and
I'm using an open fifth string. There it is. You can hit the sixth
string too though its part of the chord but I like the bass note that's in the
fifth string so don't worry about it. Now for the G, now there are several forms
you can use for the G chord. If you've been playing for a little bit I would
encourage you to use the four finger G. It's actually easier than it looks.
You're using the pinky but the third finger is supporting the pinky right
next to it so that actually gives us some strength. I've got my pinky and
third finger on the third fret of the 1st and 2nd strings then the first
string is on the 5th string 2nd fret and the second finger is on the 6th string
3rd fret. Nice and full. Now a lot of people like to do a three finger G and
you can do that with the pinky too. That's actually a little bit harder because
you've got nothing supporting the pinky so it's usually the weaker finger. I often use
it though because it's convenient to go from here to other chords. Now if
you're just beginning, you may want to try the two finger G. It'll actually
sound quite good in this song. The two finger G looks like this. We've got your
second finger on the third fret of the sixth string and your third finger on
the first string third fret and I'm actually not hitting the fifth string
I'm deadening out by touching it slightly with my second finger.
Now you might have noticed I'm saying third fret but I'm referring from the
capo 1 2 3 not the third fret on the guitar as a whole. That way wherever
you put the capo, you can still follow along. It's three frets from the capo. Now
let's map out the chord changes. By the way this song is in what we call 3/4
time. It just means there's three pulses instead of four like a lot of pop songs
1 2 3 - 1 2 3 so when we map it out let's do a straight down and
just so we get the change with the words. We'll do just the first verse. Okay, go
ahead and follow along. We'll start on the D
Amazing Grace going to G now How sweet the back to D - sound
That saved a wretch going to A7 like me - and one more measure 1 2
going to G now
back to D
A7 and go to G - G and on D
Now let's add some strumming to that. We're gonna do a simple strum to start
off with - down down up down up. You see that some three pulses 1 2 3 - 1 2 3
Go and try that on the D chord - 1 ready, hit it.
D 1 2 3 go to G now one time and back to D 123 123
Okay, I think you're ready. I'm ready. We're gonna play through the whole song
one time. Feel free to even listen or play along. You can always come back to
it again. Well start off with strumming on the D chord. Here we go 1- ready, hit
it - 1 2 Amazing
Grace going to G how sweet
back to D - that saved a wretch - going to A7 like me . Back to D - I was once lost
back to G now - back to D
Was blind - going to A7 but now G - I see.
and D. We'll do one more verse here we go - 'Twas grace that taught - to G - my heart to fear - back to D
A7 - relieved - going to D - How precious did that grace appear
A7 to G - believed
and D.
Okay good work. Now a little bit about making it adjust to your voice. I've put
the capo on in a way that it raises it up a little bit and makes it a little
easy for me to sing. If I played it here without the capo would be kind of low
for my voice. I could also raise it up if I wanted it a little bit higher but this
is about right. For those of you who know a little bit about music theory I'm
actually playing in the key of F now with the capo moved here. You can move
the cable anywhere up and down the neck and find a place that fits your voice
the best. Give it a try and just experiment. We could get more into the
music theory of what key it is as you move the capo up and down but for now I
just want you to play the song and find the place where it is for your voice. Ah
and here's a bonus. If you're ready, you can play it with a finger picking
pattern instead of just a straight strum. Here's a good one that works. It's
in 3/4 time. I've got my D chord and I put my thumb on the fourth string, my
first finger on the third string and my second and third fingers on the second
string and the first string. So as I plant them I'm gonna pull them off one
at a time like this - thumb first finger, second, third back to
first, second, third and back to first. If I were to count it, it would sound like this
1 and 2 and 3. Try that with nice and slow. Thumb
on the fourth string ready, hit it. Thumb, 3rd string, 2nd, 3rd, 3rd string, 2nd, 3rd
3rd string and again. Thumb 3rd string 2nd 3rd, 3rd string 2nd 3rd, and 3rd
string. Now for the G chord, you'd played the low string for the bass note like
this. Keep your other fingers on the first three strings, first three strings.
Here we go - bass 1st finger, 2nd 3rd, 1st finger, 2nd 3rd, first finger, 2nd 3rd,
So string wise it would be 6, 3, 2, 1, 3, 2, 1,
321 and 321- something like that. Now for the A7, we'll use the fifth
string for the bass note. Bass
I'll do one verse with the fingerpicking so you can either
hear what it sounds like or you can try playing along. Here it goes - Amazing grace!
How sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me! I once was lost,
but now am found
Was blind, but now I see.
That's it for this lesson. Thanks for hanging out with me. Did you learn
something? If you did, go ahead and subscribe to my YouTube channel right
now. And if you want exclusive lessons and tips head on over to my blog at
tomasmichaud.com and sign up for my newsletter, it's free. Now I want to turn
it over to you what form of the G chord are you gonna use?
Do you prefer to try that four finger G chord or maybe the three finger G chord?
Or maybe the two finger would be the right one for you. And which strum are
you going to go for? Would the simple strum be best or do you want to go for
that finger picking strum or is there another strum you think that would work
great. Let me know by leaving a comment right now. I look forward to seeing you
again soon. Bye for now.