Drops of Jupiter by Train Tutorial/Lesson
Drops of Jupiter
C, G, F, D, Dm, Bb
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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 Drops of Jupiter by cran on my zeger zad ADC guitar so 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're going to need to know six different chord shapes to play through this song and we're going to go ahead and start with our C major 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 sing on screen I Do cover how to do that in my free beginner course right here on YouTube so make sure to check that out the next chord shape is our G major after that is our first bar chord which is f then we have our D chord we also have our D minor chord and then the last chord shape is our B flat which is the other um bar chord shape and those are the six chords you need to know to play this song so go ahead and pause the video and take as much time as you need to really memorize these chord shapes as well as practice transitioning back and forth between them because it'll make learning the rest of the song so much easier for you and if this is a skill that you're currently struggling with I do have an entire practice with me playlist right here on YouTube where we go through the skill in real time together so make sure to check that out if you need help with that um but once you have these chord shapes down we can go ahead and talk about the strumming that you can use for this song all right guys as always if you are new to playing guitar or you're somebody who struggles with singing while playing at the same time the first thing I would suggest is to bring up the song and go ahead and play through it with a single down strum on every chord change as you sing through the song and take this time to really get used to what word you're singing or what syllable you're on whenever those chords are changing so here's a quick example of what that would look like now that she's back in the atmosphere with Drops of Jupiter in her head all right so that's just a quick example but you would essentially want to do that for the entire song and just really make sure you know what words you're singing when those chords are changing and this actually something you do right now if you check out my patreon page I do have this entire guide available to download and print out so I'll make sure to leave that link in the description box for you but once you have this simple strumming pattern under your belt we can talk about more of a full strumming pattern that you can use for this song all right guys so I have two different strumming patterns I want to show you to play through this song and they're both going to be counted in 16th note rhythms so if you don't know what I mean by that or how to count that make sure to check out my beginner series cuz I Do cover that there um but this first one we're going to go over is for the choruses so it's going to count like this we have 1 E and A 2 E and A 3 E and A 4 E and A 1 E and A 2 E and A 3 e and a four and a down down up up down down up down down up up down down up all right and basically you're going to want to play this pattern through one time per chord as you go through the song and again like I said it's best to use this strumming Rhythm for the chorus because it'll really be reminiscent of the original song so let's go ahead and pull up the chor and take a look at it we're starting on our G chord here we're going to go down down up up down down down up to D down down up up down down down up to F down down up up down down down up to C down down up up down down down all right so basically you want to pause the video and really make sure that you can do this strumming Rhythm and get it to the point where you can kind of play it without counting it actively in your head and that'll make it easier to sing on top of it um but if we speed it up a little bit it'll sound like this we have g d f c back to G d d Miner and then for this last F in the chorus I like to just do a single down Strom okay but tell me did you still across the Sun did you make it to the Milky Way and see the lights all faded and that heaven is overrated tell me did you fall for a sh star that a permanent Scar and did you miss me while you were looking for yourself out there all right so I know this can be a pretty intense pattern but I promise once you get the kind of internalization of the Rhythm it'll really fall together for the rest of the song which is the verses the bridge and the outro I would suggest a second strumming pattern so let's go ahead and talk about strumming pattern to hey really quick in addition to the the printable guide we've been looking at did you know I also offer customizable backing tracks polls for What songs you want to learn next and even video chats if you're having trouble you can unlock all these perks and more if you become a patron which helps me grow my channel and make more videos just like this one or if patreon's not your thing you can still help me out a lot by giving me a thumbs up and leaving a comment below to help me reach more people in YouTube's recommendations it only takes a second but makes a huge difference so thanks so much and let's get back into it all right guys so for strumming pattern two like I said earlier we are going to still be in a 16th note Rhythm this one's going to count like this we have one KN and a 2 e and a three e and a four E and A one E and A 2 e and a three e and a four E and A down up up down up down down up down up up down up up down down all right so basically we're going to use this pattern for the rest of the song anywhere that's not a chorus so let's go ahead and look at the second verse as an example you can see here we're starting with a c chord you're going to go down up up down up up down up to G down up up down up up down up to F down up up down up up down up and we're going to stay on F for two measures so you're going to repeat this pattern down up down up up down down all right so that's how you play basically all of the verses is that little chord progression right there so if we speed it up a little sound like this we have down up down up up down down up down up up down down up twice for f that she's back Soul vacation tracing her way through the constellation yeah all right um that's how you would play through the verses as well as the bridge so let's go ahead and go over the bridge um the chord progression is the same we still have c g and then F twice can you imagine a love de your best friends always speaking up for you even when I know you're wrong can you imagine the first dance fre Str Ro about conversation bested that you ever had all right again on that bridge I like to just end it with a single down strum and then the last place you'll see this is the outro and again it's going to sound just like the verses in the bridge we have C you finally get the chance to dance along the L of day did you fall for a shooting star for a shooting star all right um so basically between those two strumming rhythms you should be able to play through the whole song strumming Rhythm one for the verses and then strumming Rhythm two for the rest of the song song really quick there is one place that the strumming changes which is going to be the end of verse two um we're going to be on our F chord here and basically you're going to repeat F twice as always the first time you're going to go ahead and do the first strumming Rhythm down up up down down down up and then the second time we're just going to pump an eighth note down strum Rhythm 1 and 2 and 3 and four and all right because there's where he kind of like builds up into the chorus so let me do the um end of that little verse for you now that she's back in the atmosphere I'm afraid that she might think of me as bra old J told a story about a man who was too afraid to fly so never tell me all right so you could see there on the F chord the second time around you just want to pump all down strums to build into the chorus um but basically between those two or if you want to think about it as three strumming rhythms that's how you can play through the entire song You Don't Have to Palm mute or accent or anything like that it's just going to be straight up understanding the Rhythm and those are the strumming patterns that I would suggest for this song all right guys so again go ahead and pause the video I know that some of these strumming rhythms can be a little bit more intense especially if you're a beginner but I promise the more that you really slow it down and get the Motions under your hand and then slowly try to speed it up and then internalize it it'll be a lot easier to find finally put the singing on top of it after that but once you have everything like the chords the transitions the strumming rhythms and all of that under your belt then we can go ahead and put everything we've learned together to play through the song One 2 ready go now that she's back in the atmosphere with Drops of Jupiter in her hair Want to Have Fun jamming out to the rest of this song with me then make sure to check out my patreon page where you can unlock access to this as well as all my other FastTrack and playong guitar tutorials I'll make sure to leave a link 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 I'll see you over there bye