Let It Go (Frozen) by Idina Menzel Tutorial/Lesson
Let It Go (Frozen)
Em, C, D, Am, A, G, Bm, Bb, Em7, Csus, Dsus4, Dsus2, Asus4, Cadd9
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Video transcript
Hi, my name is Ellen and today I'm going to be showing you guys how to play Let It Go from the Disney movie Frozen, the Adena Menzel version. So stay tuned if this is something that you'd like to learn. So for this song, you will need to have a cable on your first fret if you would like to sing it in the same key as a denimel. Of course, if you take off your cable, you can use these exact same chords and strumming and picking and everything and it'll sound just perfectly fine, except it'll be a half step lower. Now, this song was in the movie, so there are quite a few chords to it. I'm going to show you guys the easiest version that I can think of. Um, which does involve quite a few chords. So, if you're a complete beginner, then maybe start with a different song because there are barred chords in this and there's just no way to get around them. But, um, I do have some chords to show you as well as some alternate fingerings and things like that. So, um, let's go ahead and get started with the chords. let them know. So, as I said earlier, this song has a lot of chords, so it's not the best if you're a complete beginner, but um I'm going to go ahead and show you the chords you definitely need to know to play the song. And I'm also going to show you a couple of variations with those chords, which will be great for if you want to be a little bit more adventurous and, you know, kind of um explore with some of the different options we have. But let's go ahead and start with the first chord, which is E minor. Okay. So, you definitely need to know E minor, but another way you can play this is E minor 7. So, this will be more of an optional chord. You don't need to know how to play this one, but I'll go ahead and show it to you. All right. Now, let's go on to C. And this is another chord that you do need to know for this song. And then another variation that you can play is you're going to take your pinky and put it on the top E string on this third fret here that matches your ring finger. So I'm not exactly sure what this chord is called for the purpose of this tutorial. I'm going to call it a C suspended chord. But again, you don't need to know this one. This is an optional chord. Okay. After that, let's jump into D. And remember, the X's need not to play those strings. For the D chord, we're not going to be plucking the top two strings. So now D is a chord you do need to know for this song, but there are a couple of variations that you can learn that make it sound really cool. Um, one of those is D suspended four. And all you're going to do is take your pinky and place that right next to your ring finger on the top E string. Okay. And then one more optional chord would be D suspended two. So for that you're just going to take your D chord and let go of your middle finger. Okay. All right. Now, let's go back to chords we definitely need to know, which is a minor. Another A chord you do need to know for this song is A. Okay. And then now one more variation of A is a suspended four, which you don't need to know for this song, but it's cool if you do know it. And all you have to do for that is take your ring finger and you're just going to scoot it up one fret. All right. After that we need to know G. Okay. So this chord is important to know to play the song. Um this next chord though is optional. It is C add 9. And all you have to do is take your first two fingers and move them down one string each. Okay. So this is C add 9. All right. And now the last two chords I have to show you. Both of them are required for the song. You don't play them too often, but you do need to know how to play them. And they are both barred chords. So, the first one we need to know is B minor. All right. If this barred chord is too hard, one way to make it a little bit easier is to take your first finger and instead of barring all the way across on this fret, you're just going to play your first finger on the second fret of the top E string. Okay? So, that'll change it from this to this. And now we're going to ignore the first top two strings here, and we're just going to play the bottom four. So, this is still B minor. It's just an alternate fingering. And then the very last chord you need to know for this song is B. And again, if this is too hard to play, an alternate variation for this is just again take your first finger and just play the top E string and ignore the bottom two strings. So, I know that's a lot of chords to take in all at once. and to try to memorize. But go ahead and practice through them and try to play through them and transition and see if you can get those fingerings down pat. And once you can do that, let's go ahead and move on to some strumming patterns that I want to show you. So, let's go ahead and figure out some of these strumming patterns. Um, like I always say in all my other tutorials, the best way to start out if you're complete beginner is just to go through the entire song and play through each chord once with a downstroke on the beat. So, let's do an example of what that would sound like with the chorus. Go ahead and put your G chord on. And we're just going to strum one time with a downstroke on each chord as it changes. So, for the chorus, let it go. Let it go. Can't hold it back anymore. Let it go. Let it go. Turn away. So, you're just going to keep doing that for the entire song, the verses, the pre choruses, the chorus, everything, just to make sure you know where those chord transitions are going to be. And it's a very simple way to kind of ease yourself into it. Once you've done that for the entire song, we can go ahead and move into a strumming pattern. Um, here it is. I'll go ahead and show it to you. may recognize this from some of my other tutorials. So hopefully if you recognize it, that's good because you already know it. It just is down, down, up, up, down, up. So go ahead and put your G chord on. It's just going to say down, down, up, up, down, up, down, up, up, down. Okay. So, this is mostly going to be for the choruses and the pre chorus is where I'm going to be using this strumming pattern. Um, but once you speed it up a little bit, it makes it very full sounding and it sounds pretty good. So, let's do that one more time. Down, down, up, up, down, up. So, you're just going to play it once, then switch to the next chord, which would be D. Down, down, up, down, up. Next is E minor 7. Down, up, up, down, up. And then last is C. Down, down, up, up, down, up. So when you speed it up a little bit more, it sounds like this. Down, down, up, up, down, up, down, down, up, up, down, up. So again, if you'd like to, you should play through this entire song with this pattern just to make sure that you get it. So let's do um an example of what the chorus would sound like with strumming pattern two. Let it go. Can't hold it back anymore. Let it go. to the door. All right. Awesome. Now, these next two strumming patterns I have to show you are kind of similar. The only difference is what you're going to emphasize, what beats you're going to emphasize. So, here's the strumming pattern. As you can see, they are all downstrokes for eight beats. And so, let's go ahead and start with the first variation of this, which is strumming pattern three. What we're going to do is go ahead and put your G chord on. We're going to play G eight times with downstrokes. So, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. But what's going to make this sound less boring is we're going to emphasize every other beat. So we're gonna emphasize 1, three, five, and seven. So 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. Right now it's hard to tell which beat is emphasized because we're kind of letting them ring. So there's a lot of extra background noise going on. So, what we're going to do now is practice a little bit of a palm mute. So, again, all you have to do for this is just kind of rest the side of your playing hand on your strings as you play. So, instead of letting it ring, you're just going to have your palm there. So, doesn't sound too great, but we're going to be playing this a little bit faster than we're practicing right now, so it'll sound a lot better. So again, we're going to palm mute and play G eight times. And we're going to emphasize every other note starting on one. So 1 3 5 and 7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 four five six seven eight. Okay, so I know that sounds really boring. So, let's go ahead and see what that would sound like if we do some chord transitions. So, let's start with G on the chorus. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 D E minor C. Okay. So, the intention of this strumming pattern is going to be for that kind of transition instrumental area between the first time you sing the chorus and the first time you sing verse two. Um, so go ahead and put your G chord down. And what we're going to do is we're going to speed it up a little bit. Okay. So, let's speed it up a little and see what that sounds like. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. Okay. And then now all we have to do is add in some of those chord transitions. So let's go ahead and see what that sounds like with verse two. It's funny how some distance makes everything seem small. And the fears that once controlled me can't get to me at all. right, now that we have that down, let's go ahead and move into our last strumming pattern, which is strumming pattern four. And again, it's going to be all downstrokes very similar to the one I just showed you. The difference is what we're going to emphasize. So instead of thinking of this as onoff pairs like 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8, we're going to think of it as triplets. So we're going to group them into groups of three. So we have 1 2 3 4 5 6 and then 7 8 is a pair on its own. Okay. So now that we've split it up this way, we can focus on emphasizing the first beat in each group. So 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. Or an easier way to think of it would be 1 2 3 1 2. So let's go ahead and translate that onto our guitar. Go ahead and put your G chord down. We're going to emphasize 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2. So if you string them all together, we have 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2. Again, as with strumming pattern three, we need to kind of do a palm mute just so we can hear the rhythm a little better. So let's do that. 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 Okay. And again for each chord, you're just going to play through this once. So let's practice that with our chord progression. In the chorus, we have G D 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 E minor C. And of course, as we did with strumming pattern three, we will need to speed this up a little bit. So, let's go ahead and do that a little bit faster. Okay. 1 2 3 4 G E minor C. Now, although this pattern sounds pretty good with the chorus and actually fits pretty well, um my intention was actually to play this strumming pattern for the bridge, you know, where she's making all her ice castles and all that stuff. And remember, for this part, there's only going to be two chords that we're playing this for, C and D. And what's going to happen is it gets held out for a very long time. So, let me go ahead and show you what I'm talking about in that part. My power flies through the air into the ground. My soul is spiring in frozen fractals all around and one thought crystalizes like an icy blast. Okay, sorry. Um, that's actually what I meant to play because right there, what's going on is we're kind of building into the very last time she sings the chorus. And so that's why I think that this strumming pattern works really well in that spot. So let's go ahead and practice that together. 1 2 3 4. My power flies through the air into the ground. Still see my soul is spiraling in frozen fractals. all around me and one thought crystallizes like an icy bust. Okay, I think that that pairing of this strumming pattern with that portion of the song sounds so good, especially when you put it all together. But of course, like I said earlier, you can use this strumming pattern for any part of the song that you would like to. So, strumming patterns are great for whenever you want to build up suspense and kind of make it sound fuller. But if you notice at the beginning of the song, it's a piano melody that's very beautiful and more um mellow, I guess. So, for that, I would recommend a picking pattern. But don't worry because I do have one to show you guys. So, let's go ahead and learn how to do the picking. So, let's go ahead and start off our picking pattern with the simplest that we can do it. So, if you go ahead and start with your E minor chord down, which is our very first chord in this song, this pattern is going to hold true for each chord that you play in this song. And the way the pattern works is you're going to take your thumb and you're going to pick the very bottom string in whatever chord you're playing. So, for example, in E minor, the very lowest string is the last sixth string, which is our low E string. So you're just going to pick that once with your thumb. And then with these three fingers, you're going to pick the top three strings. G B E or 3 2 1. So for E minor, we have 6 3 2 1. And just a little trick that I have is I like to take my pinky and just kind of rest it here so that my hand my playing hand can be balanced. So, let's do that again for E minor. 6 3 2 1. Okay. Then we switch to C. And again, it's going to be the same type of pattern. We're going to pick our lowest string first, which in this case is our fifth string, A. So, again, I'm paying that with my thumb. A G B E. So 5 3 2 1. Okay. So C is 5 3 2 1. Now we can move on to our D chord. In D, the lowest string is our fourth string. So again, we're going to go four with our thumb and then 3 2 1 with our other three fingers. So we have 4 3 2 1 for D. And then the last chord in our progression is a minor. So if you put that down again in a minor, the bottom note is our fifth string. So we're going to go 5 3 2 1 So you'll notice that everything that's being played with my right hand is going to stay the same except for which string I'm picking with my thumb, which will either be six, five, or four. So, let's go ahead and go through that whole progression once. We'll start on E minor. 6 3 2 1. Switch to C. 5 3 2 1. Switch to D. 4 3 2 1. Switch to A minor. 5 3 2 1. Okay, one more time. 6 3 2 1 5 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 5 3 2 1. Now, an extra step you can do here is before you pick your A, if you'd like to, you can go ahead and put an A suspended four chord before that, which is going to be played the same way. 5 3 2 1. So, what you're going to be doing is in our chord progression, we're going to go from E minor to C to D to A suspended to A minor. Okay, so let's do that again. E minor, C, D, A suspended, A minor. So, let's go ahead and see what this sounds like with the beginning of our song. Snow glows white on the mountain tonight. Not a footprint to be seen. Kingdom of Isolation and it looks like I'm the queen. And I should probably show you guys that, too. Um, sometimes the chord progression, it'll go from E minor to C to D. And then, like I said earlier, you can do A suspended to A minor. And then other times it'll be a suspended to a. Okay. So now this picking pattern can be used for the whole song and it sounds very similar to what you hear on the piano, but a good way to build it up is to actually go back up the guitar after we finish going down. So what I mean by that is on our E minor chord, we do 6 3 2 1 and then we kind of just let it ring and rest there. But if you'd like to, what you can do is you can add on to the end of this pattern. And instead of just doing 6 3 2 1, we're going to go 6 3 2 1 and then add back on 2 3 4. So we have 6 3 2 1 2 3 4. Okay, so we're going down the guitar and then back up. 6 3 2 1 2 3 4. And it'll be the same for all the other chords as well. So, let's go to C. We have 5 3 2 1 just like earlier. And then we're going to go back up. 2 3 4. Okay. So, C again is 5 3 2 1 2 3 4. Then we have D. 4 3 2 1 2 3 4. And then for this last little part, it's going to be just the way we played it earlier. You're only going to go down the guitar. So A suspended and then immediately switch to A minor. Okay. So, let's go ahead and practice what that sounds like for a whole round. We have E minor, C, D. A suspended A minor, E minor, C, D, A suspended A. Okay. And that's pretty much how you play the whole beginning of the song. So, let's go ahead and do an example of what that sounds like. The snow glows white on the mountain tonight. Not a footprint to be seen. Kingdom ofol. And it looks like I'm the queen. All right, awesome. Now, one last thing I wanted to show you guys as far as picking goes is when we play E minor and then C, our D chord is really unique because there's so many ways you can switch up D with just moving a finger or placing another one down. So, we have our regular D chord. And like I showed you at the beginning, we also have D suspended four where you just put your pinky down right here next to your ring. Or you can have D suspended two where you take off your middle finger. Okay? So, we have D suspended 4, D suspended 2. And the reason why this is so cool is because with just a little bit of practice, you can make the beginning sound so amazing and everyone will think you're just a pro at a guitar, but actually it's really easy to do. So, what we're going to do is with our picking pattern we just practiced, we're going to go ahead and pick that for our D suspended four chord. So we have 4 3 2 1 And then as you pick that top E string where your pinky is, if you pick it hard enough, you have time to let go of your pinky and it'll change the note. And actually what I'm doing there is I'm taking my pinky and I'm kind of just flicking that last E string. So when you couple that with picking the suspended four chord right before it, makes a cool little sound. So we have Okay. And we are so close to finishing. All we have to do now is it's going to be the opposite of what we did. Instead of flicking one of our fingers off, since we just took off our middle finger and we have this open E string, we're just going to hammer this finger back down. And you can hear when I hammer it down that I'm making a sound. And I'm not even doing anything with my right hand. Okay. So, if you pick this last open string, you can hammer down your second finger. And that's how we're going to end this little phrase. So, we're going to start with D suspended four. We have 4 3 2 1 flick pick and then hammer down. Okay. So, let's try that again slowly. 4 3 2 1. Flick your pinky. Pick the open E string. And then hammer down your second finger. All right. And now if you stick that into the chord progression, you will sound like a professional guitar player. So let's go ahead and start back on our E minor chord and let's do this entire picking pattern. Okay, let's do it again. All right. And if this seems really difficult, just make sure you take some time to slow down and practice because I promise once you get down this whole hammering and flicking action, it will help you so much in all different sorts of songs to make you sound way more professional. So, let's go ahead and play through the entire beginning and see what that sounds like. We have E minor, C, D, A, E minor, C, D, A. So, I know I showed you a lot of strumming patterns today, as well as that picking pattern. And um if it's too overwhelming, then definitely just stick to one or two patterns and try to build up your ability to play different patterns throughout a song. But I will go ahead and tell you while we play through it right now. This is what I'm going to be doing. So, I know that this is all really confusing. There's a lot of stuff here, but don't worry. When we play through it together, I will list at the very top here which strumming or picking pattern you should be using. If you want to follow my version, of course, like I always say, if you have a different strumming pattern or you're just comfortable with one or two variations, then just stick to whatever you're comfortable with. You do not have to follow what I'll be doing. This is just what I think sounds really good. fit in. Heaven knows I tried. All right, so hopefully you guys are comfortable with all of the chords, the strumming, and all the picking. And um let's go ahead and put all of those elements together and play through the entire song. Good luck. This is Let It Go by Adina Menzel. Snow glows white on the mountain tonight. Not a footprint to be seen. A kingdom of isolation. And it looks like I'm the queen. The wind is howling like this swirling storm inside. Couldn't keep it in. Heaven knows I tried. Don't let them in. Don't let them see. Be the good girl you always have to be. Conceal. Don't feel. Don't let them know. Well, now they know. Let it go. Can't hold it back anymore. Let it go. Let it go. Turn away and slam the door. I don't care what they're going to say. Let the storm on. The cold never bothered me anyway. It's funny how some distance makes everything seem small. And the fears that once controlled me can't get to me at all. It's time to see what I can do to test the limits and break through. No right, no wrong, no rules for me. I let it go. I am the one. Let it go. You'll never see me cry. Here I stand. And here I sto my power flies through the air into the ground. My soul is spiraling in frozen fractals all around. And one thought crystalizes like an icy blast. I'm never going back. The past is in the past. Let it go. Let it go. And I'll rise like a break of dawn. Let it go. Let it go. The perfect soul is gone. Here I stand in the light of day. The stor anyway. So, that was my tutorial. I hope that you guys enjoyed it and I hope that you found it helpful. My voice is giving out a little bit because this song is so super high and really difficult to sing, but I tried my best for you guys. Um, make sure please to leave a comment below if you have any questions that I wasn't able to address in this video and I will try my best to get back to you. And also, if you guys out there know the answer to any of the questions you see below, then please answer them for me because I love when we are a community and we all just come together and answer each other's guitar questions. And I just I love it. So, please make sure to subscribe to my channel if you are looking forward to more guitar tutorials just like this one in the future. And also make sure to click on this playlist so that you can watch all of the other tutorials that I've uploaded to YouTube so far. I also wanted to let you guys know that you can follow me on my different social media sites to get in touch with me if you have questions or requests. Um, Twitter is a great place for quick questions because I check that every day and I try to get all of you guys' questions answered in that fashion. Facebook is a great place to send me all of your requests and it's also the first place I turn when I have a dilemma on which songs I should teach you guys next. So, that's a great place to start. And then also my Instagram right here if you're interested in my personal daily life. And also, I do lots of giveaways on there. I'm actually nearing my next giveaway for that. So, please follow me on those social media sites if you would like to. Of course, I wanted to end this tutorial with a giveaway. Again, I have nothing to mail you this time, but I did want to give away a free Skype lesson for 30 minutes. It'll be one-on-one. It's a great time for me to get to know some of you subscribers because I never forget a face. And if you have a request that I've not yet done and is maybe like an older song or something that's a little bit more unique that's maybe not on the radio or anything, this is a great place for you to ask me about that song so that we can do our 30 minute one-on-one Skype lesson and I can try to help you guys learn whatever song you might want to be learning. So yeah, thanks again so much for watching. I hope this helped and I will see you guys in my next video. Bye. The storm may never bothered me anyway.