Kokomo by The Beach Boys Tutorial/Lesson
Kokomo
C, F, Cmaj7, Gm, Fm, D7, G7, Am, Dm, G
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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 Cookamo by the Beach Boys on the guitar. Today I am featuring my Zaggers at ADCE guitar. So if you like what 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 we do have 10 different chord shapes to learn to play through this song. And we're going to 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 seeing on screen, I do cover how to do that my free beginner series right here on YouTube. So, make sure to check that out right here. The next chord is our F major. We also have our C major 7. There's also our G minor. From here we have our F minor. We also have our D7. There's our G7. We've got our A minor. There's our D minor. And last is our G major. And those are the 10 chords you need to know 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 because 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 the chord transitions playlist right here on YouTube. So, I'll link that in the corner for those of you who need it. But once you have these chords under your belt, then we can go ahead and talk about the strumming that I would suggest for this song. All right, guys. So, I have two different strumming options for you for this song, but we're going to go ahead and start with the easier one. As you can see, we're going to be counting this in an eighth note count. So, it's going to sound like this. We have 1 and 2 and 3 and four and 1 and 2 and 3 and four and down up down up down up Now, I say this is the more simple pattern only because it's more common. You'll see it used in so many different songs and it applies great to this one as well. But basically, what you want to do is we're going to play this pattern one time per chord throughout the song. Now, in the chorus, there are going to be a few lines where you want to repeat this pattern twice, but I have all of that listed on the guide that's on my Patreon page. So, it's all clearly listed there for you. But otherwise, basically, we're just going to strum this pattern once per chord. So, let's go ahead and look at that first verse. We're starting here on our C chord. You would go down, down, up, up, down, up, straight into your next chord, C major 7. Down, down, up, down, up. G minor. down, down, up, down, up to F. Down, down, up, up, down, up. All right. And there's no frills or anything on this. We're not going to palm mute or accent anything. You can just play this straight the way it is throughout the song. So, let's go ahead and string it all together so you can hear what that sounds like. We've got C down, up, up, down, up, C major 7, G minor to F. one time through for each of these chords. And that's how you can play through the verses. Off the Florida Key, there's a place called Cocoa. That's where you want to go to get away from it all. right. And that's the chord progression and how you would use the strumming pattern to play through all of the verses. And then again, you can carry the same exact pattern into the choruses as well. Just remember, there are going to be a few measures where we want to repeat this pattern twice. Aruba, Jamaica. Ooh, I want to take it to Bermuda, Bahama. Come on, pretty mama. Ooh, I want to take it down to go. We'll get there fast and then we'll take it slow. That's where we want to go. Way down in co. All right. So, that's an example of how you can use the strumming pattern for both the verses and the choruses. Throughout this song, we're just going to go back and forth between our verse and our chorus. So, we just played through an example of each of those. And that's how you can use the strumming pattern to play through the entire song. Now, if you are feeling a little more adventurous, I do have a slightly harder strumming pattern, but it's still pretty simple and beginner friendly. But I do think it sounds a little bit closer to the original song. So, let's go ahead and talk about strumming pattern two. All right, guys. For the second strumming pattern, as you can see, we're still going to be counting this in an eighth note count. So, it's going to sound like this. We have one and two and three and four and one and two and three and four and down up down up up down up up down up up. All right. Super similar to our first pattern, but what we're going to do here to make it a little bit more rhythmic is on the beats two and four, I'm going to go ahead and add a little X here. And what that means is I want you to chuck your strings on those beats. Okay? So what chucking is is basically whenever we practice like the rhythm these kind of like dead string sound that's kind of like a chuck. Okay. So basically in the context of strumming you would play through the first two beats down up and then on two when you strum down you want to take the side of your hand that has the pick in it and as you strum down you kind of want to like slide your hand against the strings to dampen or mute the sound. It's a little bit like a palm mute, but you want it to be even more pronounced. Okay. So, we've got down, up, chuck, up. All right. And you're doing that twice. 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and. So, go ahead and practice that chuck. You want to do it as you're strumming down. You want to just take the side of your hand and kind of like rub it against the strings. All right. And this is the second strumming pattern I wanted to show you guys. I think it sounds a little closer to the original song and it adds a little bit of that rhythm into it, like the beat of the drums that you hear throughout it. So, if you can, I would suggest playing this strumming pattern for the song. But again, besides the chucks, no frills or anything. We're just going to play this straight through one time per chord throughout the song. Again, there's going to be a few measures in the chorus where we're going to repeat a measure twice. So, starting on verse one, we're starting here on our C chord. And I am going to speed this up just a little. We've got down, up, chuck, up, down, up, chuck, up. All right. And you're doing that for each chord. C, major 7, E minor to F, minor. You just want to keep this check going the whole time you're playing through every chord. Okay. Off the Florida Keys, there's a place called Co. That's where you want to go to get away from it all. right. And again, this strumming pattern you'll use throughout the entire song. So, let's go ahead and go through an example of the chorus. Remember we have um twice the measures here at the beginning. Aruba, Jamaica, I want to take you to Bermuda, Bahama. Come on, pretty mama. Ko, Monte, I want to take you down a co. We'll get there fast and then we'll take it slow. And that's where we want to go. way down. All right. So, again, this song is really repetitive in the way that it's structured. So, we'll go through verse chorus, verse chorus until the end of the song. And like I said, this strumming pattern is only slightly harder than the first one, but it does add a lot of rhythm to your cover. So, I would definitely suggest trying to do those chucks if you can. Um, but either way, either of the strumming patterns that I showed you today will work really well with this song. All right, guys. So, again, go ahead and pause the video and take as much time as you need to really look over both of these strumming patterns. Like I said, either one that you choose to use in your cover will sound great. Um, however, if you want to add that chucking rhythm in there, I do think it adds a little bit of that drumming beat that makes the song sound a little bit more upbeat. Um, but either way, whatever you choose, we can take together everything that we've learned in this video today, the chords, transitions, and the strumming. Put it all together to play through the song. 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 Aruba, Jamaica. Ooh, I want to take you to Bermuda, Bahama. Come on, pretty mama. Ko, Montego, baby, why don't we go Jamaica off the Florida Keys? There's a place called Want to have fun jamming up to the rest of the song with me? Yeah, >> make sure to check out my Patreon page where you can unlock access to this as well as all my other fast 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, I'll see you over there. Fight.