Choosin' Texas by Ella Langley Tutorial/Lesson
Choosin' Texas
Dm7, C, Fsus2/C, Gadd4, Am7, D7
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Video transcript
Hey everyone, [music] my name is Ellen and today I'm going to be showing you guys how to play Choose in Texas by Ella Langley on the guitar. And today I am featuring my Orangewood Brooklyn guitar. So if you like what [music] you see, I will link more information about it down below. Here's a quick overview of everything I'll be covering in this tutorial today. And with that being said, let's go ahead and get started. All right, guys. So you only need to know six different chord shapes to play through this entire song. [music] And we'll start with our D minor 7, which looks like this. And sounds like this. And by the way, if you don't know how to read these chord charts you're seeing on screen, I do cover how to do that, my free beginner series right here on YouTube. So, make sure to [music] check that out right here. And also something to mention about our D minor 7 is it is technically a bar chord. So, if you wanted to avoid bar chords altogether, you could also replace your D minor 7 with your regular D minor. >> [music] >> All right, the next chord shape is our C major. From here, we have our Fsus 2 over C. Then there's our G add four. We also have our A minor 7. >> [music] >> And then the last chord shape you need to know is our D7. And those are the only six chords you need to know [music] to play through this song. So go ahead and pause the video and take as much time as you need to really look over these chord shapes, get them memorized, and also practice transitioning back and forth between them, cuz it'll make learning the rest of the song so much easier for you. And if this is a skill you're currently struggling with, I do have a practice with me chord transition series right here on [music] my channel. So, I will link that playlist in the corner if you need it. But once you have these chords under your belt, we can go ahead and talk about the strumming that I would suggest for this song. Now, as I always say, if you are brand new to playing guitar or you're somebody who struggles with playing guitar and singing at the same time, the first thing I would suggest doing is to bring up the song and go ahead and go through the entire thing with just a single downstrum on each chord change as you sing through the song. And you want to take this time to really get used to what word or what syllable you're on whenever those chords are changing. So here's a quick example of what that looks like. Just [singing] fall [music] in love with Tennessee. All right. So that's just a really quick example, but you would essentially want to do this for the entire song and just really make sure you know where those chords are going to be changing. This is also a great way to kind of figure out the structure of [music] a song. For example, you'll notice that most of the time we're going to repeat each of these chords for two measures throughout most of the song. And this is all stuff that you'll figure out as you do this practice pattern, which you can do right now if you go to my Patreon page. I do have this entire guide available to download and print out. So, I'll make sure to link that in the description box if you're interested. But once you've got those chord transitions under your belt and you know where to expect them, we can go ahead and add to this single downstrum to make more of a full strumming pattern you can use for this song. All right, guys. So, for strumming today, we are going to keep things pretty beginner friendly with this classic eighth note strumming pattern. As you can see, we have down, down, up, up, down, up. And it's going to sound like this. We have 1 and 2 and 3 and four and 1 and 2 and 3 and [music] four and 1 and 2 and 3 and four and down up down up [music] down up All right. And that's the only strumming pattern you'll need to play through this entire song. And basically, like I said earlier, what we're going to do is repeat it through two times per chord for most of the song. There are going to be a few measures where you only want to play it once, but I will have all of that marked on the guide that's on my Patreon page. So, let's go ahead and apply this strumming rhythm with some chords there. Looking at verse one, we're starting on our D minor 7 chord. All you want to do is play this pattern through two times on D minor 7. So, we have down, down, [music] up, up, down, up twice. [music] Then you switch to your next chord, C major. Same thing. Down, down, up, [music] up, down, up, [singing] down, down, up, up, down, up. Back to D minor 7. [singing] 1 [music] 2. And [music] then two measures of C. 1 2. [music] All right. Now, if you're already struggling with the coordination or you find yourself being a little bit confused with where you're doing your ups and your downstrums, that just signifies that you need to develop a little bit of muscle memory. So, um, all you want to do for that is you want to practice this rhythm over and over again slowly at first and then speed it up over time. I actually do have a practice with me strumming series on my channel as well. So, I'll link that in the corner that goes with this exact pattern. Um, but basically, you want to just start out slow and get used to the motions and which direction you are strumming those strings in. and which ones are silent strums, all of that kind of stuff. So, go ahead and check out the practice with me if you need a little bit more help with that. But once you have the rhythm under your belt, we just want to speed it up and string it together. So, here we've got our D minor 7 chord. We're going to do it a little bit faster. We've got 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and down up up down [music and singing] up two times to C down up [music] down up. All right. And this is about full tempo here. Just when I [singing and music] thought I got him to fall in love with Tennessee, I shouldn't have to take it back to Apple. [music] All right, into the second part of the verse. This is where we have a few different chords. So, we've got our Fsus 2 over C. We've got one, [music] two measures to G add 4 and then a single downstrum. So, on that last G, you can see it has a little star or asterisk by it. That's just my way of signifying to you that we're going to do a single downstrum. So, after two measures of our Fsus 2 over C, we're going to our G add four for one full measure and then ending on a [music and singing] single downstrum on beat one. Okay. I put him right back into her arms. I wasn't a match for that [singing and music] kind of spark. She's from Texas, I can tell. And then from there, we're going into the chorus. The chorus is going to follow exactly like the verses. We're sticking with the exact same strumming pattern. Just keep an eye out for which chords we're playing and for how many times we're repeating them. She's from Texas. I can tell by the way he's just stepping right around. Two measures for each of these [music] chords. Smile that's written on his face. [singing] There's nothing I can do. All right. Two [music] measures for each of those chords [singing] as well. For the last half of the chorus, we're going to see our A minor 7 chord here. For the first time in this song, we're going to play it exactly the same way two times with all with the same strumming pattern. And then looking at the end of the chorus here, you'll see that Fsus 2 over C. We're going to play it one time. And then that G add four again has that star. So we're just going to do a single downstrum. Okay. It doesn't take a Christmas ball to [singing] see a cowboy always find a way to leave Jack all by myself. One time single downrum. [music] He's choosing Texas. I can tell. [singing] And then the end of that chorus, that C major there, is also just for one measure. And then we go into that little uh kind of instrumental section before the next verse starts. Okay. Now, the bridge here is going to be a little bit different. Not only do we have different chords in a different order, but you can see here, most of these chords are only going to be played for one strumming pattern. So, we've got our Fsus 2 over C. Down, [singing] down, up, up, down, up. Straight into your Gad [music] 4. down, down, up, up, down. Okay, for one measure each so it'll feel a little bit faster with our chord changes there. Okay. When I'm spelled down and I can't help but [singing] cry cuz at 40 he gets lonier with every mile [singing] I'll know that his mind wasn't never going to change because his heart still [singing and music] belongs. Right there we've got our D minor 7 for one measure. His heart still belongs to the lone [singing and music] star state. Right there on that G, we've got our star again. Single downstrum. [music] Okay. So from here, we're going into the last chorus. And when we get to the last chorus, there is kind of like a solo kind of tab section that I like to do for the beginning of it. It's really reminiscent to the original song. So let's go ahead and talk about that next. All right, guys. So again, go ahead and pause the video and take as much time as you need to really look over this strumming rhythm. This is a really common one that you can use to play through so many songs, and it works really well with this one as well. So, as I said, if you are struggling with the coordination or anything like that, developing the muscle memory that you need to be able to sing on top of your playing, make sure to check out that practice with me video. It'll help a lot. But once you have that strumming pattern down, we can go ahead and break down this little solo tab. It's totally optional, but I think it sounds really pretty at the end of the song. So, let's go ahead and talk about that next. All right, guys. So, when we get to the last chorus, instead of strumming it all the way through, you can hear in the song that it kind of goes more to a picking kind of pattern. So, I thought the easiest way to teach this would be through this little tab that you see on screen. Um, first of all, if you don't know how to read guitar tabs, I do have a video breaking down how to do that. It's really fun and interactive. So, if you don't know how to do that, I'll link it in the corner so you can check that out first and then come back. Um, but this tab is going to be pretty easy. So, first of all, we're going to start with our Fsus 2 chord on our left hand. But what I like to do is I will just use the fingers that I need to fret down the strings that I'm playing. So, basically, I like to take my ring finger and put that where my pinky is and then take my pinky off. Okay? So, the only two fingers that are pressing down on strings are my index finger and my ring finger. And so, what you want to do with your guitar pick is we're going to pick the middle strings, our D and our G and [music] our B string. Okay? So, you're just going to go and you're doing that [music] twice. And then we're going to finish out that last beat just by doing another D string and another G string. [music] Okay. So, we've got and that's that first little section there. What we're going to do is play each of these little sections twice. So, we're doing the whole thing twice. >> [music] >> From here, I put my middle finger behind my ring finger on that D string on the second fret. And then I take my ring finger off. So now my middle finger is on the second fret of the D string. And your first finger is all in the exact same spot. And we're going to pick it exactly the same as well. So we've got our D string, G string, and B string. Okay. So we've got and again that's twice. All right. And then from here you're just going to let go of your middle finger. So we're playing an open D string now, but the rest of the like pattern still is exactly the same. >> [music] >> All right. And then if you're looking at the chords on the lyric sheet, from there we're going to be in our G add four chord. And from here, this is where I like to go back to strumming. So what I'll do here is I'll do a full measure of just downstrums. 1 and 2 and 3 and [singing and music] 4 and. And then I'll go back to that full strumming pattern we learned earlier. down, [singing and music] down, up, up, down, up. And then when you get back to that new FSUS 2 over C, I like to finish out the rest of the song with strumming. So, let's go ahead and go over that tab section again and kind of string everything together. It'll sound like this. We've got twice [music] and then to [music] strumming. [singing] 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and down [music] up down up. All right, let me go ahead and put some singing with that so you can hear how it all comes together. I'm going to speed it up a little bit as well. She's from Texas. I can tell [singing] [music] by the way he's just stepping judging by the smile that's written [singing and music] on his face. There's nothing I can do. Doesn't take a cris. Okay. And then from there to the end, we'll just go straight back into that strumming pattern that we learned earlier in the video. Um, but yeah, that is a kind of simple little solo tab that you [music] can play, especially there at that last chorus, but you can kind of hear it throughout the song as well. So, feel free to put that in your cover wherever you think it sounds nice. All right, guys. So, one last time, go ahead and pause the video and take as much time as you need to look over this little solo tab. This is one of the simpler ones to play. So, if you are brand new to kind of picking individual strings and stuff like that, this could be a really good one for you to learn first. Um, if you don't want to do it, you don't have to put it in your cover. You can obviously play through this entire song with just strumming, which also sounds really nice. Um, but either way, I wanted to show it to you guys. So, now that we have those chords and the strumming and that solo tab all down, we can go ahead and put everything we've learned in this video together to play through the song. One, two, ready, go. >> [music] >> Just when I [singing] thought I would fall in love with Tennessee. >> Want to have fun jamming out to the rest of this song with me? >> Yeah. >> Then make sure to check out my Patreon page where you can unlock access to this as well as all my other fast [music] track and playalong guitar tutorials. I'll make sure to leave a link for it in the description box down below. If you enjoyed learning this song with me, then you should definitely check out this video. Not only does it have a super similar vibe and feel, but it's just as fun and easy to play. So, [music] I'll see you over there. Bye.