Pokemon Theme Song (Gotta Catch 'Em All) by Jason Paige Tutorial/Lesson
Pokemon Theme Song (Gotta Catch 'Em All)
Em, D, Bm7, C, G, A, B, D/F#, Am
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Video transcript
hey everyone it's Ellen here and in case it wasn't obvious today I will be showing you guys how to play the Pokémon theme song on guitar today I Am featuring my journey instruments of660 travel guitar this company does have some of the coolest guitars that I own because they are collapsible and you can actually take them apart and put them in a backpack and have it to easily travel with you so if you are interested in checking out their website or any of their other models I will make sure to leave that link link down below for you here is 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 eight different chord shapes to play through this song and we're going to start with our E minor 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 shape is our D major we also have our B minor 7 next is our C major after that we have our G major we also have our a major next is our B major bar chord after that we have our D over fshp and then the last chord you need to know is our a minor and those are the nine chords you need to know to play through this song all right guys 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 cuz it'll make learning the rest of the song so much easier and if this is skill you're currently struggling with I do have a practice with me chord transitions playlist right here on YouTube so I'll make sure to link that in the corner for those of you who need it but once you have those chords under your belt then we can go ahead and talk about these strumming patterns that you can use to play through this song all right so 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 play through the entire thing with a single down strum as you sing to the song and you want to take this time to really get used to what word you're on or what syllable you're singing whenever those chords are changing so here's a quick example of what that would look like I want to be the best like noever all right so that's just a really quick example but you would essentially want to do that for the entire song and just really make sure you know where those chords are changing and it's 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 for free so I will make sure to leave that link in the description box for you um but once you've done that and you kind of know where to expect those chord transitions then we can add to this pattern to make more of a full pattern that you can use for this song all right guys so I did go ahead and take off my gloves cuz it is pretty hard to play guitar with gloves on but anyways let's go ahead and break down the strumming for this song I do actually have a few different strumming rhythms for each different part of the song but what I have listed on screen first is like the main pattern so as you can see it's just all down strums and we're going to count it with eighth notes it's going to sound like this we have 1 and 2 and 3 and four and down down down down down down down all right and for the beginning part of this song what we want to do is play this pattern one time through per chord so let's go ahead and look at the beginning we're starting on our E minor so we have 1 and 2 and three and four and and something that I like to do when I play through this is I'll actually add accents to some of these arrows so I'm going to go ahead and turn some of them green and basically what I mean by that is we're going to emphasize those strums a little more so I like to think about it as like strumming all the strings for the green arrows and then kind of just concentrating on the top strings for the purple ones so with the accent it goes 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and all right so totally optional but if you can add Accents in I do think it helps Drive the song forward so anyways we're starting with our E minor we have one and 2 and 3 and four and to D same strumming pattern 1 and 2 and 3 and four and back to E minor 1 and 2 and 3 and four and and then here like no one ever was we're going from our D to our B minor 7 so this is the first time our strumming pattern is going to change a little on our D I just want you to do half the pattern so we have 1 and to and and then on the third beat we're going to switch to our B minor 7 and on the and of three we have down and then on the end of four we have up all right so that whole measure is like this 1 and 2 and 3 and four and down down down down down up okay so it's a quick transition there so practice that then to our next line we have C we're going back to our all down strums 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and to g 1 and 2 and 3 and and four end and then again this last line to train them is my cause this is going to be a little bit different with the rhythm again so on our G we have down down on our a we have up up and on our B we have down up down up down up all right so if you need a little more breakdown of the Rhythm there what we're doing is our G chord is on one and two so we have 1 2 a is on and and and three and and then B comes on four and then the next measure is up down up down up down up okay so if you put it all together it goes g a b all right so now let's go ahead and play through that first little section we have E minor to D E minor D switch c g g a b all right so hopefully you can hear the song kind of come together a little for the second little verse there it's going to be played exactly the same way um and then when we get to the chorus or like the main part of the song that everybody knows this is where we're going to change our strumming Rhythm once again so I'm going to go ahead and change it on screen so now we have our classic Island strum so it's again in our eighth note count we have 1 and 2 and 3 and four and 1 and 2 and 3 and four and down down up up down up down up up down up all right so now for the main part of the song we are going to use this strumming pattern and you're going to play this one time through per chord just like in the beginning so C has down down up up down up to G down up up down up C to D E minor e over F SHP and then here this g a b world we must defend it's going to be played just like we did earlier where we have G down a up up to B down up down up down up okay so starting on the line before E minor we have down down up up down up D over F sharp g a b up down up down up all right and then the second half of this little CH is going to be the same thing so we have C Island strum E minor e over F now it's changing a little we' have a minor down down up up down up to G down up up down up here's that same rhythm again g g a a b up down up down up all right we're almost done with the song on this last line we're going from our C down down I'm splitting the island pattern up okay so we have C is down down then go to your D on the first upstrom up up down up and then E minor just gets a single strum and then a mute you want to like cut that off pretty quick okay got to catch them all okay so let's go ahead and play through this whole Little Chorus section with the island strum so you can kind of hear how it goes together starting on our C we've got down up up down up all right so that's the whole chus there um one last thing I wanted to advise you guys about is if you are up to it something that I like to add into my cover is called a palm mute so what I'll do is I'll take the side of my hand with my pick in it and I'll very gently kind of lay that on the strings near the bridge of my guitar and as I strum you can hear it's a little bit more dampened like the sound of it so totally optional but if you wanted to add this in along with the accents I do think adding both really helps Drive the song forward so what I like to do is Palm mute the verses so E minor to D so I'll let that ring and then back to muting and then I let this part ring down down up up down up down up down up all right so um to play through the whole theme song you do need to know a few different kinds of rhythms but other than that I do think it's a lot of fun to play through and these are my suggestions for The rhythms that you can use all right guys so again go ahead and pause the video and take as much time as you need to really get used to all of these different strumming rhythms although this song is really short because it's just the theme song for the anime there are a lot of different rhythms and chords and stuff that we're using so make sure to take as much time as you need to really get used to those um but once you have that down then we can go ahead and put everything we've learned in this tutorial together to play through the song all right guys this is the Pokémon theme song Good Luck 1 2 ready go I want to be the very best like no one ever was to catch them is my real test to train them is my call I will travel across the land searching far and wide teach fing mind to understand the power that's inside Pokemon oh it's you and me I know it's my destiny Pokemon oh you're my best friend in a world we must Pokemon our heart so true our courage will pull us through you teach me and I'll teach you m got to catch a all got to catch them all Pokemon all right guys that does it for the tutorial today thank you so much for sticking through if it was a little bit janky I did enjoy dressing up for this though so if you have any other requests for theme songs or anime songs or anything like that make sure to leave it in a comment cuz I am actually a huge nerd at heart and I would love to teach more of these kinds of songs remember to check out my patreon page for a free printable guide for everything I've taught in this tutorial today and while you're over there if you like what you see consider joining as a member because I do offer a lot of perks on there as well um but again thanks so much for watching and if you are watching this the day it comes out happy Halloween stay safe out there I hope that you have a lot of fun tonight and uh yeah I'll see you in my next