Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow! by Dean Martin Tutorial/Lesson
Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!
C, D7, G, G7, Dm7, A7, Am7, Bm7, E7
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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 Let It Snow by Dean Martin on the guitar. And today I am featuring my Orangewood Brooklyn guitar. So if you like what you see, I will link more information about it down below. I want to give a quick shout out and thank you to my patrons over on my Patreon page for voting on this song as this month's patron picks. So if you want a little bit of voting power [music] in these songs that you see me teach here on this channel, make sure to check it out. So, I will link it in the description box 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 nine different chord shapes to play through [music] this entire song. We're going to start with our C major, which looks like this, and sounds like [music] 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 shape is our D7. After that, we have our G major. We also have our G7. Next is our D minor 7 and our A7. >> [music] >> our A minor 7. Then there's our B minor 7. And the last chord shape is our E7. And those are the 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. 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 while 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 downstroum 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 would look like. Oh, the [singing] weather outside is frightful, but [music] the fire is so [singing] delightful. 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. And this is actually something to do right now if you check out my Patreon page. I do have this entire guide available to download right now for free. So, I will make sure to link that in the description box if you're interested. But once you're comfortable with where those chord changes are going to be taking place, then we can go ahead and add to this to create more of a full strumming pattern you can use for this song. All right, guys. So, for strumming today, we are going to be counting this in a triplet rhythm. So basically what that means is there's going to be four beats in a measure and each of those beats is going to get three sub beats. Okay? So essentially it's going to be counted like this. We have one and a two and a three and a four and a one and a two and a three and a four and a one two a four a down up down up. All right. Now, this strumming pattern is easy enough, but you want to take notice of the fact that we are in a triplet count. So, what that's going to do is it's going to create more of a bouncy kind of rhythm with our strumming. So, um what we're going to do with this pattern is we're going to play it through one time per chord. Um except for the parts where we're going to split the measure in half. So, I'll explain that in a second. Let's go ahead and look at verse one of the song. You can see we're starting here on our C chord. What you would want to do is play through this entire pattern. So we have down down up [music] down up. And for C, we're doing it twice. Down, [singing] down, up, up, down, up. All right. [music] So hear that kind of like bouncy rhythm. Down and up, [clears throat] up, down, up, down, down, up, up, down, up. Okay, we're going to accomplish that with those triplets. That first line is just as is. The weather [singing and music] outside is frightful. In this next line, you can see here some of these chords have this little like hash mark. That's my way of signaling to you guys that we are going to be splitting these measures. So, whenever we split the measure, we do want to play two different chords within a measure. And that is going to change the strumming pattern just a little bit. So, I'm going to go ahead and put a vertical line here in the middle of this pattern. And I'm also going to change around some of these arrows. And what this vertical line means is that's where I want you to change chords. Okay? So, for that second line, we've got C to D7. [music] That's an example of the split measure. So on our left half, we've got C, down, [singing and music] down, up to D7. On the right half, down, down, up. All right. Same thing with the next two chords. We've got G for the left half. Switch into G7 for the right half. So if you string that second line together with all of these split measures, it's going to sound like this. We've got C, D7, G, G7. [music] All right. So, those are some pretty quick chord transitions there. So, you want to make sure you've already practiced them and you can kind of get to them pretty quickly. So, now that you understand how a split measure works, just keep an eye out for all those little hash marks. Again, I have all of this listed on the guide that's available on my Patreon page. So, keep an eye out for those. That's when we're going to do this split measure pattern. Otherwise, we're going to keep the full pattern going. So, looking at verse one, we're starting on our C. We've got down, up, up, down, up. [music] Two full measures. Then [singing] C split D7 to G [music] split G7. All right. And so for the rest of the verses, we're starting on our D minor 7. You can see here we're doing another split. So we've got D minor 7 to A7, then D7 gets a full measure. [music] And then that last little line, we've got G split to G7 and then a full measure of C. All right. And that's how all of the verses will play out. So let's go ahead and go through the entire verse without stopping. We've got C [music] twice. C split [music] E7 G split G7 D minor 7 split A7 [singing and music] D minor 7 G split G7 C. The weather outside is frightful. [music] But the fire is so [singing] delightful. It seems to go. Let it go. Let it go. [singing] Let it go. [music] All right. So, that's how the verses go. Let's go ahead and bring this into the chorus because we do have a few different chords here. So for strumming for the chorus, we're keeping the exact same strumming pattern going and we're still going to have those split measures as well. So on our chorus, we're starting on our G. We have down, [singing] down, up, up, down, up twice, K minor 7 to split, D7 to G, again. Here's our first B minor 7 split to E7. [music] And then that last line is A7 split to D7 [music] split to G and G7. All right. So these chords come at you pretty fast. So you really want to make sure you have all of them memorized and that you can transition into them. So the whole chorus without stopping would sound like this. So we've got G twice minor 7 57 [singing and music] G again minor 7 E7 [music and singing] but if you really hold it tight all the way home. I'll be warm. All right, good. So, that's an example of the chorus there. And then this whole song is basically just going to be verses and chorus back and forth like that. Occasionally, you will come across chords that are just a single downstrum. For example, in the intro, in the intro, you can see these little starred chords. That's just my way of signaling to you guys to just do a single downstroum. So the intro would be two measures of C and then all single strum C D7 G. All right. And then the song starts. So anytime you see in the guide that little asterisk by any of these chords, that just means we're going to [music] do a single downstrum. Other than that, that's how you can do the entire song with strumming. So again, go ahead and pause the video and take as much time as you need to really look over this strumming rhythm and understand that kind of triplet count in order to make the whole thing sound a little bit more upbeat the way Dean Martin sings it. But once you have this strumming pattern under your belt, you can actually go ahead and play through the entire song with strumming. However, I do have a fun picking pattern that I wanted to show you guys that sounds really similar to the original song. So if you'd like to learn that, let's go ahead and talk about picking next. All right, guys. So this picking section is totally optional, but I thought it sounded really good with the original song. So, I wanted to show you guys how to do it in case you're interested. Um, before we start, I wanted to go over just a few rules. One is that our left hand is still going to be holding down all of these chord shapes just like we've been doing throughout the song. So, your left hand, nothing is changing. On your right hand, what I want you to do is assign certain fingers to certain strings, okay? Because we're going to be using our fingers to pick instead of our pick to strum. Okay? So, basically what I want you to do is take your pointer, middle, and ring finger, and you're going to lay those on the bottom three strings here, the G, B, and the E. And they're never going to leave these three strings, okay? They're going to live there throughout this picking pattern. The only finger that's going to move around is your thumb. And that's because it's going to be covering the bass note of each chord that we're playing. So, for example, in our C chord, our bass note is this fifth A string. All right? So our thumb is going to live here on the A string for our C chord. And then your other three strings we're going to pick at the same time. Okay. So basically our picking pattern is going to go bass bottom three strings at the same time [music] and then mute. Okay, that's the whole picking pattern. But what's going to be a little bit trickier is being able to switch your thumb to the appropriate string as quickly as you need to to play through this song. Okay, so looking at verse one, we're starting on our C chord. You just go five 3 2 1. [music] And what I do here is for this mute, I do it really quick. All right. And all I'm doing there is I'm taking the side of my palm and I'm just like kind of hitting the strings to prevent them from ringing out. And what we're going to do is we're going to play this through for each of the chords. So for D7, your thumb's going to move to this fourth D string because again, we're covering that root or bass note. All right? So, and then for our G chord, again, your thumb's moving to the six E string because that's the bass note. All right. And G7, same thing. [music] All right. So, basically, the pattern that we're playing is not different. The only thing that changes is what note you're picking with your thumb. Okay. So, looking at that first verse, we've got C [music and singing] 2 3 4 C D7 G7. All right, next line is our D minor 7. Your thumb again is on the fourth string. And then our A7 is fifth string. Back to D minor 7. [music] All right. Then we've got G, G7, and then C. So the whole verse picking sounds like this. We've got C [music] 2 3 4 C [singing] D7 G7 D [music] minor 7 A7 G G7 [singing] C Oh, the weather outside is frightful, [music] but the fire is so [singing] delightful. And since we've no place [music] to go, [singing] let it. All right, so that's how you can pick through the verses. You can again bring this exact picking pattern into the chorus as well. So looking at the chorus, we're starting on our G chord. We have six and then the bottom three [music] and mute. Okay, so we've got G 2 3 4. A minor 7 goes to the fifth string. D7, G, again, [music] B minor 7. Here we're going to be on the fifth string for that bass note. And then E7 is six string. And then we've got A7, D7, [music] G, G7. All right. So, let's go ahead and go through that chorus. There we've got G [music] 2 3 4 A minor 7 G again B minor 7 [singing] E7 then we finally kiss good night. [singing] [music] How will hate going out in the storm? But if you [singing] really hold me tight all the way home, I'll be warm. [singing] All right. And so again, like I said earlier, the whole song goes back and forth from verses to choruses. So you now know how to pick through the whole song. And then one last thing I wanted to show you that's totally optional is with our C chord. Since we are holding it for so many measures, one fun thing that I'll do is I'll take my ring and my middle finger. I'll move them up one string each to make more of like a G and four chord shape. And I'll also take my thumb and pick the low E string [music] the second time. Okay? So I go 5 3 2 1. And then I'll move my fingers. Six 3 2 [music] 1. Okay? So if you do it back and forth, it sounds like this. All right. Oh, the [music and singing] weather outside is frightful, but the fire is [singing] so delightful. [music] All right, so if you wanted to add that in there, totally optional, you can go back and forth between your fifth string on C to your sixth string on that G add 4 shape. And then you can do a similar thing with the chorus because we're staying on our G chord for two measures. Instead of just playing six and then 3 2 [music] 1 over and over, what I like to do is I'll go back and forth between sixth string and our fourth D string. All right. So, we've got six 4 6 [music] 4. Still on the G chord on our left hand, we're just switching [music] which strings we're picking with our right hand to create more of this like [music] bouncy back and forth feel when we finally kiss. Good night. How will going out [singing and music] in the storm? All right. So, if you wanted to those two things with the C chord and the G chord, totally optional, but that's just the way that I like to do it whenever I pick through it. So, I wanted to show you guys that as [music] well. But anyways, this basic picking pattern is one that you can use to apply through the entire song. All right, guys. So, again, one last time, go ahead and pause the video and take as much time as you need to really look over this picking pattern [music] for this song. Um, if you're new to picking, this can feel very kind of strange because you might not be used to, you know, using your fingers to pick through some of these songs. You can also just strum straight through the song if you like that better. Um, but now that we've talked about all the different ways we can play through this, let's go ahead and put everything we've learned in this tutorial together to play through the song. And really quick before we jump into playing through the song together, I did want to mention one thing. You might have noticed that I am using a rather large capo today. And this is intentional. Um, if you've heard the original song with Dean Martin's [music] version, it does go up a half step at the very end of the song. And rather than, you know, introducing a bunch of bar chords and things like that, I wanted to keep this tutorial fairly beginner friendly. So, you could do one of two things if you're playing this for a party or anything like that. You could just totally ignore the key change and continue playing the chords as usual to the end of the song. Or another thing that I like to do if you do want to have the keychains at the end is I am using this large capo on purpose because it does have this trigger capability and it's really easy to see and grab onto. And at the end I'll just kind of scoot my cable up one fret to play through the outro of the song. So basically just to show you guys what I'll be doing in my cover here is at the end of the last chorus we've got all the way home I'll be warm. What I'll do there is on the G chord, I'll do one downrum [music] and then I'll quickly change my capo up one half step and then I'll do the end of the song. Oh, the fire is [singing] slowly. Okay? And so what I'll do is I will take you through that transition with the singing and not with the guitar. Okay? So let me just go ahead and show you a little example of what that sounds like. But if you really grab me tight on [singing and music] the way home, I'll be warm. Oh, the fire is slowly dying. All right. So, at the end, that like kind of outro section, I am playing the exact same chord shapes that we've already learned, all I did was scoot my capo up one fret, and that'll kind of raise the whole song a half step like the original song. So, if you do have a capo and you want to kind of challenge yourself, I do think that's kind of a fun way to get to [music] that key change that is still very beginner friendly. However, if this quick switch is a little bit too much for you to handle, you like I said, you can always just completely ignore the key change altogether and stay in the same key all the way through the song. One, two, ready, go. Oh, the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful. [music] Since you've got a place to go, [singing] let it >> want to finish jamming out to the rest of the song with me. >> Make sure to check out my Patreon page. I do have the entire playthrough uploaded there and it is totally for free. I just have to cut it short here because of copyright stuff on YouTube, but again, I will link it down below. All you have to do is click on that link in the description box and it'll unlock the full playthrough for you. Um, anyways, thank you so much for watching this video. So, I really hope that it helped you and that you had fun learning this song with me. And I will see you in some new videos coming out soon. [music] Happy holidays. Bye. [bell] >> [bell]