seven by Taylor Swift Tutorial/Lesson
seven
A, Em, D, G, Bm
Are you new to playing the guitar? Watch my free Beginner Series where I show you all of the basics. You'll be playing your first songs in minutes!
Video transcript
hey everyone my name is ellen and today i'm going to be showing you guys how to play seven by taylor swift off of her new folklore album on the guitar so stay tuned if this is something you want to learn make sure to subscribe to my channel that way you never miss out on another new tutorial and also follow me on instagram for your chance to win a free lesson with me so the song is going to be not too bad if you're a beginner it is one of the easier songs off of the folklore album to play in my opinion um so if you want to play in the same key as taylor go ahead and make sure your guitar is in standard tuning and put your capo on the second fret if you don't have a capo it's okay you can play the song without one it will just be a whole step lower than her album version on top of that we're gonna need to know five different chords to play through this song unfortunately one of them is a bar chord which is our b minor but no worries i will show you an alternate fingering of b minor in the chord section so that you don't have to bar it and then on top of that we're just going to know one strumming pattern to play through the whole song so let's go ahead and jump into an overview of what i'll be showing you in this tutorial all right so like i said you only need to know five chords to play through the song and those are a e minor d g and b minor now that b minor chord is a bar chord but like i said at the beginning i will be showing you an alternate fingering so that you don't have to bar any chords so if you're already familiar with those chords and you don't need to review them then that's perfect but if you do want me to break it down and show you how to play those chords go ahead and skip to this time here where i will show you how to play those chords um but after that we'll go into the strumming pattern so the first strumming pattern i have to show you guys is actually going to be a practice pattern which is going to be one down strum on the beat for every chord change i always suggest beginners do this because it's a really great way to get to know the song and get used to where you're going to be making those chord transitions before you jump into harder strumming patterns so if you feel like you don't need to go through an example of that then that's totally fine however if you do want me to show you what that would look like in the song make sure to skip to this time here where i will go through this practice pattern with you but after that i will show you the actual pattern that i do use in my cover here and as you can see it's just eight down strums and it's gonna sound a little something like this now i like to put a palm you on this pattern and then call it a day and play through the whole song with it so if you feel like you already got the rhythm and everything just by watching me play it just now then that's great however if you do want me to break it down for you and kind of count it out the rhythm and show you guys how to use that in the song go ahead and skip to this time here where i will be going over the strumming pattern of course if you feel like you have everything down and you're ready to just play the song you can always go to my play through here at the end and that's where i put all the lyrics and chords and everything that you need to know on screen in front of you and we can play through the song together so if you feel like you want to jump ahead to that then go ahead and feel free to do that but if you do want to take a closer look at any of these parts then let's go ahead and go into the more in-depth part of this tutorial and i'll start with the chords alright so let's go ahead and take a closer look at these chords like i said you only need to know five to play through the whole song and we're going to go ahead and start with our a chord which looks like this and sounds like this the next chord you need to know is e minor which looks like this and sounds like this after that we have our d chord which looks like this and sounds like this next we have g which looks like this and sounds like this and then the last chord you need to know is our barre chord which is our b minor chord and that looks like this and sounds like this now as promised if you're a beginner and you are having trouble with bar chords there is an alternate way you can play this so instead of barring your first finger go ahead and just put it on the second fret of the top e string and your new alternate fingering for b minor will look like this and sound like this all right and those are the only chords you need to know to play this song all right so after you have those chords memorized go ahead and take a few moments to practice transitioning between them if that's something that you're having trouble with make sure to check out my tmt right here on how to transition between chords faster but with that being said let's go ahead and jump into the strumming patterns that you can use with this song so if you're familiar with any of my other tutorials you'll know that i always start with one down strum strumming pattern and in this case this is going to be our practice pattern because i don't actually use it in the cover at the end but i do suggest that you take the time to do this if you are a beginner so um let me go ahead and just show you what this would be like let's put our a chord down since that's the first chord in the song and all you want to do is strum down once then you would move on to the next chord which is our e minor strum down once then we have d then back to a and that is the progression for most of the verse and what i want you to do now is just go ahead and go through the whole song sing through it with just that one down strum till you get used to you know what words and stuff you'll be singing on and that'll really help you get used to where to transition whenever we move into a harder strumming pattern so let me go ahead and go through an example of that with you and i'll do the first verse again we have our a chord on and we're just doing one down strum for every chord please picture me in the trees i hid my peak at seven feet in the sink over the creek i was too scared to jump in alright so basically you would do that exact same thing for the whole song until you know where you're going to be making those core transitions and then once you've done that we can go ahead and move on to our actual strumming pattern so the strumming pattern i do actually use in my cover here at the end as you can see is just eight down strums super simple really beginner friendly so let's go ahead and go through the motions if you have your a chord on that's the first chord in the song and you're just gonna take your pick or your thumb and strum eight times down so we've got one two three four five six seven eight all right and that's it that's the whole strumming pattern it's super simple we're gonna play this through one time for every chord change so um let's go ahead and put it in rhythm now so you can kind of hear what that rhythm sounds like i'll go ahead and show it to you guys first once one two three four one two three four five six seven eight one two three four five six seven eight all right super simple why don't you put your a chord on and try that with me and i'll count us in one two three four one two three four five six seven eight one two three four five six seven eight nice so um it can sound very um ringy and it kind of you lose the rhythm a little bit when we let it ring like that so what i actually want you to do now is we're going to add a palm mute so what i do there is i'm taking the side of my hand that is that has my pick in it and i'm just really lightly resting it on my strings here between the sound hole and the bridge and when you do that and strum down do you see how it kind of like mutes the strings a little that's really going to help us kind of build the rhythmic aspect of this strumming pattern so let's go ahead and do that eight down strum one more time but this time let's add that palm mute okay so i'll count us in one two three four one two three four five six seven eight one two three four five six seven eight nice and then once you have the palm muting down the last thing you want to do is add in a little bit more of that like beat that drives the song and so what i do there is i like to emphasize certain ones of these down strums so i'm going to go ahead and underline them for you so you can see them so as you can see i'm underlining the first the fourth and the seventh down strum and so what that's going to do is kind of create more of a rhythm so let me go ahead and show you once i've got one two three four five six seven eight one two three four five six seven eight all right and all i'm doing there is for those underlined beats i'm just kind of strumming it down with a little bit more energy a little bit more force than the other beat so we've got one two three four five six seven eight one two three four five six seven eight all right so why don't you go ahead and try that with me we're gonna add that paul mute in there and we are going to emphasize the underlined beads okay one two three four one two three four five six seven eight one two three four five six seven eight nice and then once you have all of that down so you've got the eight dumb strum pattern down and you have the rhythm and you've added the palm mute and the emphasis now all you want to do is add in those chord transitions so like i said we're just going to be playing through this pattern one time through for each chord change so let me go ahead and put the chord progressions on screen for you there and uh let's go ahead and go through this together okay i'll count us in one two one two three four a two three four five six seven eight e minor d a good again a four five six seven a e minor b a you got it please picture me in the trees alright so once you have all of that down and you put in those chord transitions you are ready to play the song because the rest of the song does follow this exact same pattern as far as strumming goes and you can incorporate it for the entire song and i think it sounds really great so if you feel like you need a little bit more time to practice this no worries go ahead and pause the video and just practice at your own pace until you can keep up at tempo but um let's go ahead and move on to the play through here at the end where i will have the chords and lyrics and strumming patterns and have everything that you need to know on screen in front of you to play through the song together your dad is always bad and that must be why i think you should come live with me and we could be pirates then you won't have to cry or hide in the claw this is seven by taylor swift good luck please i hit my peak at seven feet in the swing over the creek i was too scared to drop it but i me are they still beautiful your braids like a pattern love you to the moon and a saturn passed down like folk songs i've been meaning to tell you i think your house is haunted your dad is always bad and that must be why i think you should come live with me and we could be pirates then you won't have to cry or hide in the closet just like a folk song our love will be passed anytime i wanted no other and though i can't recall your face i still got love for you pack your dolls in a sweater we'll move to india forever all right so that was my tutorial for how to play seven by taylor swift if you liked it make sure to give me a thumbs up down below as well as to subscribe to my channel that way you never miss out on another new tutorial here are my social media sites in case you'd like to follow me on any of those that's just where i do fun things like behind the scenes looks at things coming up i'll pull you guys on things you want to see and i have a free monthly lesson giveaway going on on my instagram right now so make sure to follow me on there if you'd like to enter this is also where i go to find people to feature in my segment forever features this week we have seba performing cruel summer by taylor swift let's give it a listen people dream high in the quiet of them so if you want to be featured in an upcoming tutorial make sure to follow me on instagram and post a short cover of you playing any song that you've learned from any of the tutorials on my channel use that hashtag forever features in the description so i can find it and the next feature spot could be you one last little plug if you liked the shirt i was wearing in today's tutorial this is my okapo shirt and you can find this and a lot of other different designs in my merch store link down below as well as under this video every purchase there really helps my channel to grow and allows me to continue making these free tutorials for all of you guys so thank you so much to anyone who's ever supported me in that way but i think that does conclude this video so thank you again so much for watching i hope it helped and i will see you in my next one bye you