Shake It Off by Taylor Swift Tutorial/Lesson
Shake It Off
G, Am, C, D, A7sus4, Cadd9
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 Taylor Swift's brand new single Shake It Off from her first pop album 1989 on the guitar so stay tuned if this is something that you want to learn that's what people say so can I just start off by saying I absolutely love this song I love the feel of it I love her music video for it and I just think this song is so catchy and what's even better is that this song is incredibly easy to play there's no capo so if you don't have a capo that's perfect for you and also there's only four required chords in the entire song so let me go ahead and jump into what those cords look like it's to be all right so like I said there's only four chords you need to know to play this song so I'll go ahead and show you guys those and then I also have two more optional chords you can learn that I think make the song sound even better so the first chord you need to know is G which looks like this and sounds like this then after that you need to know a minor which looks like this and sounds like this after that you need to know C which looks like this and sounds like this and then the last chord you need to know is D which looks like this and sounds like this so again those are the required chords you need to know to play the whole song but here are two more optional chords that I will be playing in my little cover so if you want to play along with me we need to know A7 suspended which looks like this and sounds like this and then you also need to know C add n if you want to which looks like this and sounds like this but again those last two are optional so if those are hard for you to play then you don't need to know them at all and also awesome no bar chord so this is turning out to be quite a simple song to play so once you've practice the fingerings for those cords and you have them memorized and can transition between them pretty easily then let's go ahead and start into some strumming pattern I'm on myet and that's what they don't see so this first strumming pattern I wanted to show you is the simplest one and what's really cool is that you can actually use this for the entire song so it's really great for super super beginners um what you're going to do is you're going to put each chord down and you're just going to take your pick and strum down once for each chord so you've got E A minor C and you're just going to strum it down once reach chord if you don't have a pick that's fine you can just use your thumb the side of your thumb you can do the same thing so go ahead and take that first strumming pattern and you're just going to play through the entire song using that one downstroke just so you know where to expect all of those chord transitions so you're going to start off with your G chord and you're going to play that once and then again I stay out too late got in my brain that's what people say m that's what people say m and you kind of just want to take that through the entire rest of the song um obviously this song is super high for my range I usually sing a lot lower so sorry about the singing but um yeah so that's how you're going to play through the first strumming pattern but of course you know in her song it's very upbeat and the Rhythm plays a humongous part in this song because it kind of has that beat throughout the entire thing so one way we can emulate that with our guitar is we can take the side of our hand and we're just going to tap right in the middle of your sound hole and it's going to make this percussive sound with your strings and if you go ahead and figure out a rhythm that you want to play with it it can make it sound a lot more upbeat so the Rhythm I like to play is just slapping it twice and then coming back and slapping it one more time and you just want to practice doing this in Rhythm after the down beat so you've got down two 3 4 and that's just the rhythm I like to play I think it's pretty reminiscent of her music so if you go ahead and add that into your first strumming pattern we've got something that sounds a little like this you can go ahead and play your G chord once and then right afterwards you want to add in that percussion and it'll kind of mute the strings and it'll make it sound really more upbeat so we've got and you can hear when I'm playing that I'm strumming the chord down once doing my little rhythm and then the next time I won't strum the chord and then I'll just continue Rhythm so you've got G nothing and you're going to do that throughout the whole rest of the song so let me go ahead and take you through an example of what that sounds like I stay out too late got nothing in my bra that's what people say that's what people say and as you can see sometimes I confuse myself and mess up that Rhythm as long as you keep it going nobody will be able to tell the difference and of course you guys should use whatever Rhythm comes to your head and that you think sounds great with your strumming pattern now if this strumming pattern is about all you can handle that's awesome because you can actually play it throughout the whole entire song but I think personally it sounds the best with the verses so that's where I will be using it in my little cover at the end all right so now moving on to strumming pattern two it's not really a pattern I just wanted to show it to you because when I play through the song I do use it um but it's just three downstrokes and I only use it once throughout the entire song but I just want to show you what it sounds like and where I use it so the place I use this is right after the precour leading into the chorus I only do it that very first time but I just wanted to show you guys what it sounds like because it kind of mimics the Rhythm you hear in the song so um it's like I got this music in my mind saying it's going to be all right and then right here I go down so I just do it three times down down down which leads into the verse cuz the play's going to play play play and it just keeps going like that so it's just optional if you want to add that in there as well that's how you do it it's just three downstrokes super simple um I only use it once in the song so if you want to skip it by all means go ahead and let's go ahead and jump into strumming pattern three so strumming pattern 3 looks a little something like this I know that this looks really long and intimidating but actually it's very simple once you get the rhythm of it down uh it's something that came really naturally to me so hopefully you guys feel it in your Rhythm as well but um what I'm going to do is go ahead and show it to you first and then I'll teach you more in detail how to play it but I keep cruising can't stop won't I moving like I got the be all right so you can see it goes by really super fast and what you're going to do is play this Rhythm through the whole thing once for each chord that you're on and you can hear that I was using this in the precourse it's very upbeat and it kind of makes a change from the um one downstroke Str string so if you have a little bit of variation in your strumming patterns it makes the guitar a lot more interesting which makes your cover a little bit more interesting so um let's go ahead and break this down so in the precourse you're going to start with your a minor chord so I have that chord down and you're just going to strum it down down up and then right here you're going to circle back around up down up Circle back around up down up when you practice it slowly it's a little bit harder to hear the Rhythm that it makes so you want to try to speed it up whenever you get the pattern down so we've got down down up up down up up down up again down down up up down up up down up down down up up down up up down up so you can hear I'm giving it a little bit of a slight pause between each of those groups so now let's go ahead and add in those chord transitions so you can hear what that sounds like so start off with your a minor chord we've got down down up up down up up down up c g twice so now one last thing that I'm adding to this strumming pattern is I'm letting the side of my playing hand kind of rest on the strings by the sound hole that way I can kind of mute the strings a little bit more and it'll give it more of a percussive feel just like her in her song so we've got down down up up down up up down up so you can kind of hear when I do the upstroke it rings a little bit more and then when I do the downstroke it's a little bit more muted and when you start speeding this up it actually gives a really cool texture to the rhythm of the song so we have of course it might take a little bit of practice before you can speed it up at that Tempo but um again just practice it slowly make sure you try to hear that Rhythm and then as you speed it up you can start adding in that Palm mute to make it a little bit more distinct and then soon enough you'll be able to play it with Taylor Swift on her song but IU like I got this music in my mind it's going to be all right one thing I wanted to mention is when I was showing you strumming pattern two with the three downstrokes like I said earlier I only play that the first time you're leading from the precourse to the chorus uh the second time you're leading from the precourse to chorus it's a little bit more muted there and uh you can only hear the Rhythm so instead of playing D down three times I just slap the guitar strings three times same same general Rhythm if you want to strum it if you want to slap it either way uh works right there but I just wanted to add that in there and so now we can go ahead and move on to our last fourth strumming pattern so here's the pattern for the fourth strumming pattern and um as you can see it's kind of reminiscent of strumming pattern three it looks a little bit shorter but that's because we're actually going to be playing this pattern through twice for each chord instead of once so um let me go ahead and show you what it sounds like first and then I'll teach it to you so I usually play this for the chorus cu the play I'm just going to shake shake shake it off shake it off so now let me go ahead and go into more detail on how to play this so if you want to use this for the chords like I am go ahead and put your a minor chord down what we're going to do is you're going to strum it down once and then this Little Star Aster thing that I have means you're going to go ahead and slap your guitar strings just to sort of chop up this Rhythm a little bit so you don't want it to ring very much so we've got down flap down that's the first half of this so down slap down and then once you do the down slap down Rhythm your hand should already be down here and we're just going to go back up down up so this is just kind of leading us back into the down so down flap down up down up and then let's go ahead and add in those chord transition so we've got a minor twice C twice G 2 3 4 and I think that this sounds really great with the chorus again it kind of gives a contrasting Rhythm from the pre chorus and the verses so it kind of varies your strumming pattern and it just sounds really cool so let's go ahead and try speed that up a little bit so we have our a minor chord down down up down twice C all right and then once you get the hang of that Rhythm go ahead again and just speed it up very slowly until you can play it at Tempo with Taylor cuz the play's G to play hater going to hate ha I'm just going to shake shake shake sh Shake it up Shake It Up all right and like I said because this song is so upbeat and percussive and just all about the Rhythm I don't actually have any picking patterns to show you because I just don't think that it fits with the feel of this song and also because the Rhythm in this song is just so predominant throughout the whole thing I think the actual slapping or however you want to do a rhythm it's going to be just as important as when you drum so make sure you try to pick something that you can handle and kind of uh play around with that so that you can play through the whole song and one thing I forgot to mention before we go into the cover where we play through the song together um the part where she's kind of talking or rapping in the middle I think that that's best if you just keep your rhythm going throughout that whole section but if you really wanted to you could add back in those cord progressions a minor C and G in that order and you can just play it once and then keep through them going so you can do it either way I think it sounds better when you just completely don't play any chords and just keep the rhythm going so that's what I'll be doing in my little cover here at the end but of course you can choose to do whatever you think sounds good so go ahead and practice those strumming patterns and whenever you're ready we can go ahead and add in those cord transitions with our struming pattern at Tempo to play Shake It Off by Taylor S come on over baby we can shake shake yeah this is Shake It Off by Taylor slift I st too late in my bra that's what people say that's what people say I too many but I can't make them stay at least that's what people say that's what people say but I keep cruising can't stop moving like I got this in it's going to be all right going to play going to I'm just going to shake shake shake it out shake it out I think it's going to break me think toake I'm just going to shake shake shake shake it shakeing on my and that's what they don't see that's what they don't see I'm dancing on my own I make the moves up as I go that's what they don't know M that's what they don't know M but I keep do can't stop W St moving like I got this in my it's going to be all right cuz the going to play going to I'm just going to shake shake shake Shake It Off shake it off this is going to bre me me this is going to fake I'm just going to shake shake shake it off shake it I shake it I shake it sh it sh it hey hey hey just think while you've been getting down and about all the ders and the dirty dirty cheats of the world you could have been getting down to this sick beat my ex-man brought his new girlfriend she's like oh my God and I'm just going to shake it to the Howe over there with the hell good hair won't you come on over baby we can shake shake yeah play going to play ha is going to hate I'm just going to shake shake shake it off shake it off going to fake think it's going to fake I'm just going to shake shake shake it shake it I shake it I shake it all I shake it all I shake it all I Shake It Off I shake it off I shake it off I shake it sh it I shake it I shake it shake it I shake it I shake it sh it sh it so thank you guys so much for watching my tutorial on this absolutely amazing song by Taylor slift and um please make sure that if you liked it and it helped you to give it a like down below and also leave a comment leaving any requests you may have for future tutorials sorry about my voice every single time I sing songs that are too high for me my voice just kind of gives out a little bit so I'm probably singing wrong but anyways um thank you guys so much um please make sure to subscribe so you know every single time I upload a new tutorial also make sure to check out these playlists I have linked over here for more songs some are just as easy as this one if you want to click on the basics covers and then some can go into a little bit more detail if you're slightly more advanced so that would be my detailed covers and also feel free to follow me on any of my social media sites because I just love keeping in touch with you guys and watching and reading about all your success stories you guys all are awesome you can all play guitar you should start with this song because it's so super simple right and it's such a great upbeat song I just love it and just in case you didn't know a couple of more episodes of homemade harmonies has been uploaded to the cartoonium Jr channel so if you want to figure out why I'm dancing like a big dope right now then go ahead and click anywhere on the screen and I will link it to the newest episode and it'll also be really useful if you want to learn about Rhythm and Tempo so I guess I'll just go ahead and leave this a little while longer so you guys can click and that's enough dancing so I think that's it thanks again for watching and I will see you guys in my next tutorial bye sh sh it