Lacy by Olivia Rodrigo Tutorial/Lesson
Lacy
C, Am7, F/C, Dm7, Em7, C7sus4#5, G7
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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 Lacy by Olivia Rodrigo off her new guts album on the guitar huge shout out and thank you goes to Lava music for sponsoring today's video I will be featuring the brand new lava me play all-in-one guitar in this tutorial today so make sure to stay tuned for a little bit more about that later and here's a quick overview of everything I'll be covering in this video today and with that that being said let's go ahead and get started all right guys so we have seven chord shapes 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 in my free beginner course right here on YouTube so make sure to check that out the next chord shape is our a minor 7 after that we have our F major over C and then we also have our D Minor 7 then there's our E minor 7 and then this next chord is kind of a funny chord shape so it's going to be kind of like your F over c chord except you're going to take off your your middle finger and move your pointer finger over one string I had to look this chord up and I got some conflicting information but I think this is C7 suspended 4 Sharp 5 so that's how I'm going to refer to it in this tutorial but it sounds like this and I know it doesn't sound too pretty by itself but I promise within context of the song it sounds really good and then the last chord shape is our G7 and those are the only chords to play through the 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 will make learning the rest of the song so much easier and this is actually the first thing I wanted to show you guys about the laam me play guitar one of their smart features includes the practice app where you can actually choose the chord shapes you're currently working on and it will help you practice transitioning between them faster seriously I was impressed with just how many cord shapes they had available to choose from Beyond just your basic open chords and once you select the chords you want to work on you just put them in order of the song that you're trying to learn and then you start playing and the lava me play will listen to your shapes and let you know whenever you're nailing the transitions it can even generate a report at the end of your practice session to let you know how you're doing over time which is so cool but if you haven't gotten your hands on this guitar yet you can also check out my practice with me Series where we go through this skill in real time together but once you have your chord transitions down we can go ahead and talk about some strumming that you can use for this s song So as I always say if you are a beginner or somebody who struggles with singing and playing guitar at the same time the first thing I would suggest is to bring up the song and go ahead and sing through it with a single down strum on your guitar for every chord change and just take this time to really get used to where those chord transitions are happening as you sing through the song so here's a quick example of what that would look like with the first verse see you Lacy skin like puff pastry aren't you the sweetest thing on this side of hell all right so basically you want to do that exact same thing for the entire song and just really get used to where those chord transitions are going to happen and this actually something you can do right now if you check out my patreon page I do have this entire guide available to download and print out so I will make sure to leave that link in the description box for you guys um but once you get that kind of practice pattern down then we can talk about a full strumming pattern that you can use with this song all right guys so the first strumming pattern I want to show you as you can see is super simple simple just down down down down up so let's go ahead and zoom in and talk a little bit more about this Rhythm all right guys so we are going to be in a super simple eighth note rhythm today that almost counts more like a quarter note Rhythm basically you're just going to go like this we have 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 four and 1 2 3 4 and down down down down up down down up super simple Rhythm and all you want to do is play this pattern one time through for each chord throughout the song so let's go Ahad and take a look at that first verse you start with your c chord and you're just going to go down down down down up to your a minor 7 down down down down up F over C down down down up to C down down down and you would apply that for the whole song so Al together without stopping we've got C A Minor 7 F over C back to C you got it Lacy oh Lacy skin like puff pastry or you the sweetest thing on this side of H all right and this would work for the entire song if you wanted to strum through the song so here's a look at what that chorus would look like I care I care I care feel that you where I linger all the time watching hidden in all right and you can see there that D Minor 7 you would have to hold that out for two measures um so you're going to do this pattern twice but the other ones are going to be for one so let's go ahead and finish out the chorus cuz the ending there is a little different o I try I try when it takes over my life I see feel everywhere the sweetest torture all right so that's how this strumming pattern would sound for the entire song I wanted to actually just jump straight into strumming pattern too because the only place I'd like to use this is on this G7 chord that we just covered so basically what I do there is instead of doing the down down down down up pattern that we were doing I like to do a full eighth note strumming pattern so I'm adding all of the up strums the ANS in there so it goes 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and all right down up down up down up and like I said the only place I use this is on that G7 chord at the end of the choruses because it kind of builds and then leads into the next section so at the end of the chorus it sounds like this o try try I try when it takes over my life I see you everywhere sest torture one good all right basically those are the strumming patterns I would recommend for this song so again go ahead and pause the video and take as much time as you need to really get those strumming patterns under your belts and try to internalize them so that you can play them without counting it so much in your head and that'll make putting the singing on top of it so much easier um but as much as strumming is fun for this song I do really think that the original song lends itself to a picking pattern and I have a really simple but beautiful one to show you guys so let's go ahead and jump into the finger picking section all right guys so let's talk a little bit more about this finger picking um basically let's talk about our right hand first what I want you to do is we're going to assign our fingers to a specific string on the guitar so your thumb is going to be on the fifth a string your pointer finger is going to be on the fourth D string middle finger is on the third g string and your ring finger is on the second B string okay so you're basically on all four of these inside strings with your thumb pointer middle ring okay and we're going to keep them there for almost every single chord so let's go ahead and just break down some of these chords first on our left hand go ahead and put your c chord shape down all you want to do is go down the guitar okay we're GNA go five 4 3 2 just all the way down thumb pointer middle ring okay so um basically you want to do that twice for every chord so for C we have all right and that's the picking pattern super simple and you'll see as we go through the other Chords it's going to stay exactly like this on your right hand so you don't have to move your right hand fingers for a Minor 7 you just take that ring finger off and it's the same picking pattern 5 4 3 2 and you want to do that twice all right F over C same thing all right we're going to skip over D Minor 7 for a second cuz that's the only chord that's a little bit different for our E minor 7 same thing 5 4 3 2 all right for that kind of strange C7 suspended four sharp five chord um you know it's a mouthful to say but your right hand is going to be the same you go 5 4 3 2 twice all right and then the last chord we need to talk about here with this pattern is our G7 um again you're going to do 5 4 3 2 if you want to pick this chord but you would do it four times instead of two all right um the way the reason I say if you want to pick it is cuz like I said in the strumming section I actually like to strum that chord I think it sounds much better but if you wanted to pick it that's how you would pick it so again let's go back to this D Minor 7 cuz like I said that's the only chord that's a little different for our right hand what you want to do for your D minor seven chord is take all four of these fingers and just shift them down one string each okay and the pattern is still the same you're still doing thumb pointer middle ring except you're all down one string okay so all the other chords are played in the middle strings but D Minor 7 is played on the bottom strings all right other than that the actual pattern on your right hand is going to be the same so if you can just get used to picking your thumb then your pointer middle ring if you can just do that over and over again and really get used to that on your right hand it'll make playing through this song so much easier cuz your left hand all you have to do is switch those chords okay so let's go ahead and look at that first verse and this is how this would sound with the picking we've got C twice a minor 7 twice F over C back to C you got it Lacy oh Lacy skin like puff pastry aren you the sweetest thing on this side of hell all right and then again with that chorus we're starting with our D Minor 7 so you're going to shift all your fingers down a string um but again the patterns the same uh remember for D Minor 7 you will have to play this finger picking pattern four times in instead of two cuz we're holding it for two measures so we have D Minor 7 twice 3 four times to a minor 7 and shift all your fingers twice to E minor 7 all right so without stopping 2 3 4 A Minor 7 E minor 7 you got it I care I care I care like perfume that you where I linger all the timeing hidden inight all right and let's go ahead and finish out the chorus since again it is a little bit strange at the end there o I try I try I try but it takes over my life I see you everywhere the sweetest torture one could be all right so at the end there what I like to do with that G7 chord is I'll actually pick it just twice and then I'll finish it out with that second strumming pattern down up down up down up and that'll lead really nicely back into the second first um so basically that is how I would suggest picking the song for the whole song so again go ahead and pause the video and take as much time as you need to really get used to this finger picking pattern the entire song is just picked arpeggios of chord shapes that you're already familiar with so as soon as you get that right hand down then the whole song should come together for you and if you're somebody who's new to finger picking or playing one note at a time don't worry the lava me play practice app has you covered one of their features includes an arpeggio training mode where you can select a chord and work on arpeggiating each note individually as you play each note the lava me play guitar will listen to and highlight which note you just played and if you play a note that's not in the chord it'll tell you so you can work on your accuracy and understanding how notes come together to build chords and just like with all the other practice app features it will generate a report for you to look over at the end of your practice session so you can track how you're doing over time it's so awesome but once you have that pcking pattern under your belt we can go ahead and put everything we learned together to play through the song 1 2 Ready Go Lacy oh Lacy skin like puff pastry aren't you the sweetest thing on this side of Hell dear Angel La eyes wide as daisies want to jam 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 playalong 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 but it's just as fun and easy to play so I will see you over there bye