Safe and Sound by Taylor Swift / Civil Wars Tutorial/Lesson
Safe and Sound
Dm, Am, F, C, G, D
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Video transcript
for hey everyone my name is Ellen and today I'm going to be showing you guys how to play Safe and Sound by Taylor Swift featuring The Civil Wars so stay tuned if this is something you want to learn so this song may be a little bit challenging if you're completely new at Guitar you may want to start with some other Taylor sft songs first before you attempt this one but um I did try to simplify things and make it a little bit easier for those of us who have been playing just for a little while a lot of what I'll be teaching you in this tutorial is based off of of what I played in my cover and I'll go ahead and put a little link over here so you can go watch it if you want to um but that's pretty much what I'm going to be teaching you today so yeah let's get started so first of all you are going to need a capo for this guitar and it's going to be on the seventh fret so 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 um if you don't have a capo you can play it without one using these same chords and the same strumming and picking and everything it'll just sound a lot lower but if you wanted to sing it in the exact same key Taylor Swift sings it in which is very high may I add then um you would put it on the seventh fret so along with your cap being on the seventh fret you're also going to need to know seven different chords to play this song and so I'll go ahead and show those to you now so the first chord you're going to need to know is D Miner that looks like this and it sounds like this okay after that you need to know a minor that looks like this and it sounds like this okay after that you need to know F which is a B chord so I know that's kind of hard for some of you but I'm about to show you an alternate way to play it but this is f and it looks like this and it sounds like this and as you can tell it's kind of hard for me to play F this high on the guitar neck so I'll go ahead and show you an alternate fingering for f which looks like this and it sounds like this okay after that you're going to need to know C which looks like this and sounds like this okay we're almost done you need to know G which looks like this and sounds like this and last but not least you need to know D which looks like this and sounds like this so as you can tell there are quite a few chords in this song but most of them are pretty simple and a couple of them you don't even play except for maybe like once or twice in the whole song so don't fret too much if you're having trouble with them just keep practicing I promise it'll get easier as you practice more when you're ready and you have all your chords memorized and you think you can play them pretty well then go ahead and continue this video and I'll show you some strumming patterns you can use with this song Can Hur you now so if you've watched any of my other tutorials I'm sure you know what I'm about to say um always start your strumming pattern if you're new at guitar with just strumming each cord one time on the down be that way you know kind of where you're going to be transitioning between your chords and you can just kind of practice singing along with it without having to do anything extravagant so I'll go ahead and give you an example of how it sounds when you just strum with it once I remember tears streaming down your face when I said never let you go when all those Shadows almost killed your light and you can pretty much practice the entire song with just strumming once on the beat and then um when you get that and you kind of know where these transitions are and you're kind of um used to where to expect them then go ahead and try to up your game with your strumming and I'll go ahead and show you a very simple pattern that would work for the entire song So this next pattern I have to show you will work for the entire song and I'll go ahead and give you the pattern right now the pattern is just down down down up and it's like that for every chord that you're going to play so for instance on D Minor you play Down down down up down down down up and what happens is if you practice this with every chord so let's go ahead and try a minor down down up down down down up and then same thing F down down down up down down down up and once you get the hang of that with every individual chord you can kind of start linking them together um and it'll become more fluent like this down down down up down down down up down down down up that way you can play the entire song with just this pattern and it'll sound fine so I'll go ahead and give you an example of how that sounds tears down face when I said I'll never let you go all the Shadows almost killed you and occasionally you'll hear that sometimes at the end of a phrase you'll have two chords in one little measure so it'll go D Minor A minor F and then C G kind of like together the C and the g are so um whenever you do that you could just do this pattern down down up down up for each chord so C would be down down up G would be down down up so just remember whenever you have a full measure with just one chord you're going to play down down down up and then whenever you have a measure that's broken up into different beads with two different Chords it's going to be down up for each cord so let me go ahead and show you an example of that all the way through down down down up down down down up down down up down down up so you can hear at the end there's more than one note in that last measure so you're just going to shorten the pattern a little bit to make it down down up so let me give you one more example of how that sounds when you put it all together I remember tears down face when I said I'll never let you go when all the Shadows SK okay so go ahead and practice that strumming pattern if you don't like it then like I always say you can always make up your own whatever feels natural to you and just whatever you feel comfortable playing um but if you want to learn some picking patterns to make it sound a little bit more like the original song then go ahead and continue this video and I'm going to show you some picking patterns next all right so now I'm going to show you you guys some picking patterns that you can use for this song um just keep in mind that for this part I will be using the alternate fingering for f whenever I play F just because um later on when the picking gets a little bit harder it'll be easier to play the alternate version so um go ahead and put your D Minor cord on and what we're going to do is you're going to start by plucking the bottom string so four and then the next string three and then you're going to pick the top two strings together okay so four 3 2 1 now go ahead and put your a minor chord on and we're going to do the same thing we're going to pick the lowest string first which is five then we're going to play the middle string which is three and then again we're going to play the top two strings at the same time so 5 3 2 1 so you may have noticed between D minor and a minor that the top three strings are always going to be played in the same pattern the only one that you're ever moving is your thumb the which bottom string you're playing so let's go ahead and put D minor and a minor together it'll be 4 3 2 1 5 3 2 1 okay so as you can guess the F would be next and I'm going to be using the alternate fingering for f remember this one and uh what we're going to do is we're going to play the bottom string again which in this case would be four and then three and then play the top two strings at the same time so 4 3 2 1 and then lastly you're going to put your c chord on and it's going to be the same thing we're going to play the bottom string which is five and then three and then the top two so C again is 5 3 2 5 3 2 1 so this is just a really simple way to play this song and kind of have it sound a little cooler than if you were to just strum it um so go ahead and let's start from D minor and go all the way through one little round here 4 3 2 1 5 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 5 3 2 1 D Minor A minor F alternate C okay so that's pretty much how you would play the whole rest of the song for every chord the three two and one the last three notes are always going to be the same all you're ever going to change is what string you play with your thumb and that's just going to be whatever string is the lowest in the cord so this next pattern I have to show you is going to look a lot like the first pattern I just showed you but I'm going to teach you a cool little little technique you can use that will make it sound a lot more like the original so go ahead and put your D minor chord on and we're going to start this out the exact same way we started out picking pattern one pluck four then three and then two and one except this time what we're going to do is actually going to be with our left hand our playing hand when you pluck the top two strings you're going to let go of your pointer or your index finger and when you let go of it it's going to make a sound when it comes off did you hear that so what happens is when you play the whole thing it kind of sounds more like how you hear it in Taylor swis version so 4 3 flick the string let's practice that a couple times so now from there you're going to go to your a minor chord and you're going to play this just like in picking pattern one 5 3 2 5 3 2 so if you go from D Minor to a minor it sounds like this okay now you're going to put your alternate F chord on and this time it's going to get a little bit trickier what we're going to do is we're just going to play the fourth and third strings we're just going to pluck those on okay but this is going to be opposite of earlier earlier we took our index finger and we flicked it off to make that sound this time what we're going to do do is we're going to start with our middle finger off the string so all that's on is our third finger and after we pluck the third and fourth strings you're going to kind of slap your middle finger onto the string where it's supposed to be so you can kind of hear that it makes that own sound so whenever I kind of Hit the string I'm making a sound with my left hand and my right hand is not even doing anything okay so go ahead and pluck the third and fourth string and you're going to slap that middle finger onto the neck of your guitar so and so now with your right hand what you're going to do is you're going to finish out that sound so after you slap you're going to keep you're going to keep picking the third string so you're going to play both slap it play the third string three times the first two times you're going to play it with your middle finger on the third time you're going to take off the middle finger okay so let's practice that a couple of times play both the middle strings and then slap on the middle finger play that twice take off the middle finger okay so one more time I know this seems a little tricky but I promise if you slow down and you practice it a couple of times you'll definitely get it and then from here your hands almost already in the position for C so go ahead and just put your c chord on and you can just strum this one so the whole last part goes like this one more time okay I know this is a little hard to catch on to but you guys have to just keep practicing and keep persevering and I promise you you'll get it eventually so let's start with D minor and go through the entire round D Minor A minor okay let's do that one more time D Minor flick a minor normal F alternate C strong all okay and as you could have guessed for the rest of this little phrase first two chords are the same at least D Minor A minor but this time when we get to the alternate F chord what you're going to do is play each string once so starting with the bottom string which is the fourth you're just going to play 4 3 2 4 3 2 so this one's a little easier all you have to do is pluck each string once 4 3 two and then right after that you just go to C all you have to do is move your middle finger and your ring finger up one string and that's C and you just strum it so let's try that again with the alternate F 4 3 2 C 4 3 2 strum C so the last part of this phrase is really easy it's just that middle part that gets a little confusing so let's go ahead and try to play this entire phrase through using picking pattern two so you have D Minor A minor f C D Minor A minor F D Minor A minor F C D Minor A minor it's f c okay so one more one more time and that's pretty much how you play picking pattern two you set through the entire song it just repeats over and over again for the whole song and uh if you kind of have this down and it's kind of coming easy to you because you've practiced it a lot then go ahead and continue and I will show you the third picking pattern which is the most complicated and it sounds the most like Taylor Swift's real song So for this third picking pattern it's going to sound a lot like picking pattern to so go ahead and put your D minor chord on and this is going to start the same 4 3 both with a flick but this time after you flick off that first finger you're just going to come back and play it one more time so 4 3 both flick 1 4 3 both flick one so it's exactly like picking pattern one all we're doing is coming back and playing that open e one more time so faster it sounds like this and what that open e is doing is it's going to help us lead into our next chord which is a minor okay so for a minor it's going to be exactly like picking pattern two we're going to play the bottom string 5 3 3 2 5 3 2 1 5 3 2 and 1 okay so all we're really adding is that open e at the top so let's put D minor and a minor together okay one more time just like picking pattern to right um here's where it gets a little bit different so um we're going to start this out just like picking pattern two so remember that little bit of a slap so that's exactly like picking pattern two but this time when we get to C instead of strumming it we're going to play the strings individually so for C we're going to pick the bottom string which is five then we're going to play three and two 5 3 2 5 3 2 so C is going to be 5 3 2 5 3 2 and then here's where it gets different you're going to take off your third finger your ring finger and you're going to scoot your middle finger up one string so from here to here okay so after you play the after you play C 5 3 2 take off the ring finger put the middle finger up and then play 5 3 2 okay so 5 3 2 5 3 2 so your right hand is playing the exact same strings both times the only thing that's changing is your fingering position on your left hand so let's do c one more time just put your C on like regular and we're going to play 5 3 2 let go of your ring put your middle finger up one string 5 3 2 so faster C should sound like this so let's go ahead and put that F before the C to see what it sounds like together one more time so if you put all of picking pattern three together it should sound like this okay let's go through that one one more time D Minor flick open a minor just regular f c okay and then that's like the first half of the phrase the second half would be pretty much the same it would be D Minor exactly how we just played it and then a minor exactly the same still and then now it would go back to what we learned in picking pattern two F we're just going to strum each string in it 4 3 2 and then C's just coming so you can see picking pattern 3 is almost exactly like picking pattern two except for the little bit of extra we're adding with that c chord so let's play all of picking pattern three together if this is extremely hard for you right now my suggestion would be to go back and Rewind a little bit until you get to the part where you think you're having trouble and just practice that so slowly over and over again um or if you're in a rush and you kind of have to know this song for some reason like you're going to perform it then maybe just stick with the strumming patterns cuz I think it sounds great either way so remember don't try to just jump to picking pattern three immediately if you're brand new at Guitar make sure to build up your skills so start with picking pattern one then try to add in things for picking pattern two and then move on to picking pattern three when you're ready so you should be starting off like this that's the simplest picking pattern and then if you feel comfortable with that then you can move on to picking pattern two and then after much much practice if you get that then you can move on to picking pattern three so as I said in the beginning this song is not one that you can just pick up like that you know you really have to put in a lot of time and effort and practice into it and um one thing I know that helps me that you guys might want to try to start developing is some calluses the tips of my fingers are extremely rough from years and years of violin and now years and years of guitar so um if your hand starts to really start hurting and then you see these little creases in your fingers that's normal but if it starts to really hurt then go ahead and just put your guitar down and take a little bit of a break before you pick it up and try to do it again again cuz um usually I know if you're starting to feel like you're in pain you're going to get more frustrated and then you're going to think I just can't do this but I swear you guys can it just takes a lot of practice okay so hopefully you guys feel pretty comfortable with all the different chords um the one and two strumming patterns that I showed you as well as the three different levels of a picking pattern that I showed you um when you feel comfortable with that go ahead and continue this video and I will take you through the entire song s I'll have all the chords and lyrics and everything listed in front of you so that you don't have to go searching for anything and um yeah I'll play an example and you guys can just follow along with me what's going to happen is that I really can't sing this song one because it's like so incredibly high but two also cuz it's very hard for me to concentrate on the guitar when I'm picking as well as sing at the same time so what I'm going to do is I'm going to sing while strumming and then I'm going to have a little um box of here where I will show you the picking pattern in case that's what you're following along with so let's go ahead and when your hands are all rested and you feel up to it go ahead and continue this video and we'll go through the whole song Together close your eyes Sun I remember tears dreaming down your face when I said I'll never let you go when all those Shadows almost killed you I remember you said don't leave me here alone all that's dead and G Just Close Your Eyes the Sun is going down you be all right no I can hurt you now come on you and I be save and sound o ooh o la oh la Just Close Your Eyes you'll be all right come Morning Light you die be safe and sound oo o ooh did you guys survive congratulations you just played through the entire song it's such a beautiful song but it is one that's a little hard to learn so I'm really proud of you guys for making it this far into the video and because I'm so proud of you I wanted to announce and uh sneak in a little bit of a giveaway I have here a red Capo and I know a lot of you guys are always like oh I don't have a c so I can't play all of these songs that you're teaching um remember you can always make your own but um if you don't have things for that then go ahead and leave a comment below and also make sure you're subscribed to my channel and if you do those two things then I will enter you into this Capo thing um what you'll get is this Capo a guitar pick a little letter from me and also that letter will have my Skype screen name in it and I will give you a free 30 minute guitar lesson on Skype with me so um yeah to enter all you got to do is leave a com below and make sure you're subscribed and um just so you know this is going to be like a new series thing that I'm doing I've signed it forever faithful I have the song that it was from safe and sound and then this is here is it there we go this is the number one Capo in my Capo giveaway I think what I'm going to do is from now on whenever I have a cover song like this I'm going to give away a capo at the end so make sure that you subscribe now so that you're eligible for all the different capable giveaways that I'll be doing in the future so um yeah thanks so much you guys for watching this video I really hope that I was able to help you even if it was just a little piece of advice or something um make sure please to comment and like And subscribe and favorite and share and do all those amazing crazy things that you guys do and um yeah I guess I'll see you guys in my next video Until then take care bye I remember you said leave me alone all that's dead and G pass tonight that's the key it should be in Taylor Swift girl you seem too high girl