Say Something by Great Big World Tutorial/Lesson
Say Something
Bm, G, D, Asus4, A
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Video transcript
hi my name is Ellen and today I'm going to be showing you guys how to play say something by a great big world and Christina Aguilera so stay tuned if this is something that you like to lightning um give me so this song is going to be really excellent for beginners out there because there's only four chords and once you figure out how to maneuver between them and transition you pretty much know how to play the entire song but um yeah so you won't need a capo for this so that's even better and I'll go ahead and show you guys the four chords you need to know by the way I'm a little bit sick I don't know if you guys can tell but I really wanted to record this tutorial for you because it's been really requested so pardon my voice I'm trying to get better so okay it's so you only need to know four chords to play through this entire song let's go ahead and take a closer look at each one of those we'll start off with B minor and I promise this is the hardest chord you're going to need to know for this song it looks like this and it sounds like this now I know this is a barred chord which is really hard for a lot of you especially if you're a beginner so I do have an alternate fingering for this what you're going to do is instead of barring this first finger which can be kind of hard for you guys all you're going to do is take it and play the second fret on the top B string ok so instead of borrowing it you're just putting it on that top E string the other three fingers are going to stay in the exact same spot ok so now we have B minor alternate and it looks like this and it sounds like this now notice if you're playing the alternate fingering we're going to be ignoring the top two strings so we're not going to plug those okay alright after B minor we have G which looks like this and sounds like this you and it's important that you play G with this fingering I know there's other fingerings that play it without the pinkie but um you'll need to put it with both your pinky and your ring finger and I'll show you guys why in a second after G we need to know D which looks like this and sounds like this you okay and after that the last chord you need to know is a suspended two which looks like this and like this if you're up for experimenting and making your guitar accompaniment sound a little cooler you might also want to note a which is super simple all you're going to do is take your ring finger and slide it down one fret so a looks like this and it sounds like this and those are all the chords you need to note for the song so as I said earlier once you guys get those transitions between those four chords and/or their variations down um that's pretty much the entire song because if you listen to the song it's very on the beat and it's very kind of mellow on the piano and it's mostly just chords so we're going to imitate that with our guitar but I'll go ahead and teach you guys a couple of variations of ways you can play it and you can choose which one you think sounds the best let's go ahead and start off with what I always suggest people start off with what I want you to do right now is you're going to go through the entire song and just play each chord once on the downbeat and you can sing along with it also if you like and once you get this down it kind of just helps you know where those transitions are and on what note to sing it and play it on and things like that so go ahead and practice stood at one time so here's an example of how you can do this strumming pattern go ahead and put your B minor chord on and you're just going to play it once on the downbeat and then switch to G then you go to D and then lastly as SS and you're going to play through that for the whole thing and you can practice singing with it also say something I'm giving up on you sorry about my voice I'll be the one if you want me to and you're pretty much going to go through the entire rest of the song just like that just to make sure you know where those court positions and court changes are and then after that I'll go ahead and show you a cool way you can spice it up a little bit and make it sound a lot like the piano with some picking so we'll go ahead and do a picking pattern first good so the picking pattern I have to show you guys is so super simple if you notice with the fingerings that I gave you for all the chords um whenever you play through them there is one note that's exactly the same all the time and that would be the note that you're playing on your b string which is your second thinnest string so second string from the bottom so in B minor we have this note in G we also have this note and D and in a suspended so the reason that this is so important is because if you listen to on the piano part and the original song he plays this key over and over again so we're going to mimic that with our guitar so go ahead and put your B minor chord on and what you're going to do is you're just going to pick the B string four times one two three four and this will be like the beginning of the song okay so after you pick the B string four times to make the beginning of this song you're just going to strum your B minor chord and then pick that B string one more time okay then we're going to switch to G strum that pick the B string again switch to D and strum it then pick the B string and then switch to a suspended strum that once and then pick the B string so pretty much besides the beginning when you play the B string four times on its own after that the pattern is going to look very similar so what you're going to do for the chorus every time they say something I'm giving up on you you're going to strum the chord once and then pick the B string once strum the chord once pick the B string once strum the horn once pick the B string once you guys get the idea a suspended and just so you know if you do the alternate fingering for B minor it's going to still have this note I'm sorry if you play the alternate fingering for V minor it's still going to have this note so you can still do the same thing okay so let's go ahead and play through the chorus and give that practice say something I'm giving up on you I'll be like if you want me to the great thing about this picking pattern is that you can use it for the entire song and I think it actually sounds very close to the original song and I if I were doing a cover of it I would probably just stick with this the whole time but if you guys don't like picking and you want a strumming pattern no worries because I do have a string pattern for you guys as well before we move on - strumming though let's go ahead and address the verses in this it's going to be a little bit different than the chorus as far as the picking goes so if we go to the first verse I'm feeling so small it was over my head I know nothing at all you're going to strum the D chord once and then the B a string but this time instead of going strum and then pick strum pick you're going to strum and then pick three times so let's try that put your D chord down strum it once and then pick the B string three times one two three okay so for the first when you have your D and your a and your G you're going to be strumming each of those chords once followed by three picks of the B string so let's go ahead and practice that we have D big pick a suspended pick G pick pick pick and then now here at the end of the verse it's going to go back to the way we played the course so we're going to strum D once pick once and then strum a suspended once and pick woods okay so let's go through the whole first together just to make sure we got it so we're starting on D feeling so it was my you see soap changes and what kind of transitioning so that way we can go back to how we play the course say something I'm giving up on you and there you have it that's pretty much the entire picking pattern that I think sounds great throughout the entire song of course as I always say if you come up with something that you like better or your fingers just feel more naturally definitely go with that because that'll make it easier for you when you sing along with your cuckoo anywhere so if you think that picking pattern is a little bit boring to play throughout the entire song don't worry I did come up with a strumming pattern that you guys can use it sounds really great with this song as well um here it is and it's really super simple it's just down down up down up and you play this whole pattern through twice for each chord so let's go ahead and practice that with the chorus go ahead and put your B minor chord down and we're gonna play down up down up down down up down and like I said after you play through this pattern twice for B minor you'll go ahead and switch to G and you'll play it through twice again down down up down up switch to D down up down up down down up down up and then a suspended - down down up down so let's go ahead and play through the course and see what that sounds like with this strumming pattern I'll be now another cool way to dress up your a cord that I want to show you guys is changing from an a suspended to an irregular a so all you're doing is you're taking your ring finger and on the B string you're going to move your ring finger from the third fret back down to the second so you're going from an a suspended to an A now if you couple that with the strumming pattern that I just showed you it kind of gives it a cool effect and I'll go ahead and show you what I mean by that I'll be so as you can see all I'm doing there is when I get to the a suspended chord instead of holding it for the entire two times that I play through this strumming pattern you're only going to play the a suspended for the first half down down up down up and then switch to the a down down up and it kind of just gives it like a little conclusive feel to this little pattern so um let's go ahead and play through that one more time okay B minor down down up down up G a suspended a B minor G a suspended and there you go that's a really simple way to dress up the course and any part really that has an acorn in it and it just sounds really awesome all right now if you guys are ready and you have all your chords down and you know where you want to use your picking pattern versus your strumming or if you're just doing one the whole time let's go ahead and put everything we just learned together and play through the entire song this is say something by great big world featuring Christina Aguilera good luck say something I'm giving up I'll be if you want me to anywhere I would have followed say something I'm giving up on feeling so it was over just starting to cool I'm giving up on I couldn't get anywhere I would have followed you see something I'm giving up anywhere say something I'm giving up on you see something so congratulations you guys made it through the entire song and like I said it's not that hard right there's only four chords and it's very repetitive so it's actually fairly easy to play and learn I hope that you guys enjoyed my tutorial sorry again about my voice and about any mistakes I might have made I've been sick for like a week and I just it's I've been out of it okay so but um I do have a giveaway for you guys I don't have anything to mail you but I did want to give away a free Skype lesson where I can umm we can Skype and you can tell me a request of any song that you want to learn and I will learn it for you and try my best to teach it to you so this will be great for anyone who has song requests that are a little more obscure and maybe songs that are older or something like that so all I've to do to enter is to like this video make sure you subscribe to my channel and then leave a comment below and I will automatically enter you I usually have lots of fun with my Skype sessions and I love getting to know you guys and seeing your face and just learning more about you and so yeah make sure if you'd like to Skype and have a lesson then go ahead and leave a comment and yeah and um thanks again so much for watching I hope this is able to help you and make sure to follow me on my various social media if you would like to you know when surprise giveaways on my Instagram or take part in the polls that I do on my Facebook page or if you have a question you just need a really quick response Twitter is an option too so um thank you guys again so much for watching I will see you guys next time and I love you bye see something