Begin Again by Taylor Swift Tutorial/Lesson
Begin Again
G, Cadd9, Em7, Dsus4
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Video transcript
hey everyone my name is Ellen and today I'm going to be showing you guys how to play Begin Again by Taylor Swift on the guitar so stay tuned if this is something that you want to learn so this song is going to be really great for anybody out there who doesn't have a capo because it is in standard tuning so you don't need one and also for people who are familiar with Taylor Swift songs because she does use the same four chords in this song that she uses in a lot of her others so I'll go ahead and teach you guys what the so the first chord you're going to need to know is G which looks like this and sounds like this okay after that you're going to need to know C add nine so all you're going to do for that is take your first and middle finger and put them each down one string so it'll look like this and it'll sound like this remember the X means not to play this top E string okay after that you're going to need to know E minor 7 so again you're just going to take these first two fingers and put them on the second fret so it looks like this and it sounds like this and then the last chord you need to know is D suspended 4 which looks just like d if any of you guys know that one but you're going to put your pinky on the third fret of the top E string okay so it looks like this and it sounds like this so remember for this chord you're not going to be playing the top two strings so that's that those are the only four chords you need to know to play the song so um go ahead and practice those until you have them memorized um and then we can move on to some string P the first struming pattern I'm going to show you is the most basic one it's pretty much just downstrokes on the beat so if you put your G chord on it would sound like this down down down down down up down down down down down up you can pair this with the whole song and it would sound fine kind of plain but very simple take a deep breath in the mirror he didn't like it when I wore high heels but I do okay the next one I'm going to show you is similar to that one but it is a little bit more dressed up so the pattern for this goes down down down up down down up and if you've seen any of my other tutorials you know that this is the strumming pattern I always teach for Taylor Swift because it goes really well with the song and the Rhythm and it's also pretty easy to learn and play once you get the hang of it so again that's down down down up up down down up and again you can play this with the whole song just like the first one it's a little it feels a little more space though take a deep breath in the me he didn't like it when I wore high heels were I so if you listen to Taylor s's original Begin Again the guitar has a lot of picking going on and it sounds really pretty um but I'm going to teach you guys kind of like a simplified version of that so I do only have one picking pattern but it is pretty simple to learn and you can probably catch on to it pretty quickly so I'll go ahead and show you guys what that looks like so to show you guys how to play this simplified picking pattern I'm going to start you guys off by showing you kind of like the Baseline of the song so go ahead and put your G chord on and this is what it looks like you're going to play the bottom string first six and then you're going to alternate between the top two strings 2 1 2 so the pattern is 6 2 1 2 6 2 1 2 then you can move on to C at 9 and again you're going to pick the bottom string which in this case would be 5 2 1 2 5 2 1 2 okay and if you want to pick the whole song and not just the verses I'm going to go ahead and show you E minor 7 so again the lowest note is going to be the E so you're going to play 6 2 1 2 okay and then the last chord you need to know of course is D suspended four so go ahead and put that on and you're going to play the bottom string which is 4 2 1 2 4 2 2 1 2 so you'll notice during the Baseline the top two strings are always going to be played the same way no matter what chord you're playing G C D E minor so once you get your fingers used to that you can go ahead and add in this next step which will complete this picking pattern so if you put your G chord back on we're going to add a few more strings in between okay so you'll notice the only string I'm adding in is the third one and we're going to pretty much just play that between each note in the Baseline so instead of six 6 2 1 2 we're going to play the third string between each of those notes 6 3 2 3 1 3 2 3 again that's 6 3 2 3 1 3 2 3 and that's going to be the same for all the other chords as well so if you put your C add n chord on same thing except you're now going to be playing the bottom string which is five but the 3 2 1 are still going to stay the same so 5 3 2 3 1 3 2 3 5 3 2 3 1 3 3 2 3 okay for E minor 7 same thing put your E minor 7 chord down you're going to play the lowest string which is six and then 3 2 1 stay the same so 6 3 2 3 1 3 2 3 6 3 2 3 1 3 2 3 and then the last chord is D suspended four so put that chord down again you're going to be playing the bottom string first which is four and then 3 2 1 stay the same 4 3 2 3 1 3 2 3 4 3 2 3 1 3 2 3 so you'll notice the only difference between the Baseline of the picking pattern and the fancier version is just adding that third string in there so instead of it's and you can play this with the whole song too took a deep breath in the mirror he didn't like it when I wore high heels but I do so I just showed you guys all the basics you need to know for this song the four chords two different strumming patterns you can use and a picking pattern that isn't too complicated so go ahead and practice all that until you're pretty comfortable with all the core Transitions and patterns and everything and then um go ahead and click continue on the bottom here and we will play through the whole song together and I'll list all the chords out in front of you so you don't have to worry about those and um yeah you throw head backing like little kiss so hopefully you guys feel pretty comfortable with this song now it's not too hard right so um we're going to go ahead and play through the whole thing and I'll go a little bit slower so that we can all keep up um yeah good luck this is Begin Again by Taylor SLI take a deep breath in the mirror he didn't like it when I wore high heels but I turn the lock and put my headphones on he always said he didn't get this song but I do walked in expecting you'd be late but you got here early and you stand and wave I walk to you you pull my chair out and help me in and you don't know how nice that is but I do and you throw your head back laughing like a little kid I think it's strange that you think I'm funny cuz he never did and I've been spending the last 8 months thinking all of ever does is break and burn end but on a Wednesday in a cafe I watched it begin again you said you never met one girl who had as many James Taylor records as you but I we tell stories and you don't know why I'm coming off a little shy but I do and you throw your head back laughing like a little kid I think it's strange that you think I'm funny cuz he never did and I've been spending the last 8 months thinking all love ever does is break and burn end but on a Wednesday in a cafe I watched it begin again and we walk down the block to my car and I almost brought him up and you start to talk about the movies that your family watches every single Christmas and I won talk about that for the last first time what's P is p and you throw your head back laughing like a little kid I think it's strange I should think I'm funny cuz he never did and i' been SP in the last 8 months thinking all of ever does is break and burn and end but on a Wednesday in a cafe I watched it begin again but on a Wednesday in a cafe I watched it begin again so that was it um I hope you liked it thank you so much for watching this tutorial and I really hope that it helped you make sure to like and favorite down here so you can remember how to play this song at any time in the day and also um maybe subscribe up here if you're looking forward to more tutorials like this in the future um thanks again so much for watching and I'll see you guys next time bye on Wednesday in a cafe I watched it begin again