Somebody That I Used to Know by Gotye Tutorial/Lesson
Somebody That I Used to Know
Dm, C, Bb
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 show you guys how to play Somebody That I Used to Know by Goautier. Um, I know there's a lot of great tutorials out there already for the guitar, but I'm going to show you guys how to play it without a cable. So, stay tuned if this is something that you want to know. Okay, so as always, I'm going to start you guys off by showing you the different chords you'll be using. Um, this song only needs three chords, so it's super easy. And I'll go ahead and show you guys how those are played. Okay, so the first chord you need to know is a D minor chord. And that looks like this. And sounds like this. And remember the X's mean don't play that string. So for this chord, you're not going to be playing the top two strings here. Okay. The next chord you need to know is C, which looks like this. And sounds like this. So again, for this chord, you're not going to be playing the top E string. Okay? And then the last chord you need to know is a B flat, which looks like this. And it's a bard chord, so it's a little bit harder. And it sounds like this. And even though I'm barring this last E string, you don't really need to play that either. Okay. So, go ahead and practice those three chords. And whenever you have them memorized, then go ahead and continue. And I will show you a lot of different variations on strumming that you can do. Okay. So, for strumming on this song, there's a lot of different variations of things that you can do. And as I always say, if you have something that you kind of just play naturally, I'm sure it'll sound fine. But, um, if you want to kind of imitate the sound that you hear in the song, I will show you those kinds of strumming patterns. So, this is going to be pattern number one, and this is going to be the one that sounds most like the song in my personal opinion. So, the way I'm playing that is, so you're going to take your thumb and you're going to pluck the lowest string and then kind of finish off the chord by strumming the other three notes in D. So, and then for the baseline, you're going to come back and play that low string. So, one round is And if you don't want it to ring that much, you can also palm mute it. And how I'm doing that is I'm just kind of resting the side of my palm on the strings after I strum them. Okay. Um, so from there, you would just repeat the same thing except with the C chord. So, lowest string strum, lowest. Lowest string strum lowest. Okay. So, if getting that baseline is a little bit hard for you, then you could definitely just do the low note and then just go straight to C. So, that makes it a little bit easier because you don't have as much to concentrate on while you're playing your song. Um, also if that's a little bit harder for you, then you can also do this strumming pattern. And the way I would do this is you just kind of pick it. Instead of strumming it, you're going to pick with your fingers. Okay? So for D, I would pick the lowest string. And then with my other three fingers already set on the rest of the strings, I'm just going to pluck them twice. So then I'd go. So that's the same for all the chords. Okay. If that's still a little bit too hard for you, you could definitely just strum all the strings. Okay? And to imitate the rhythm that it has in the song, you could definitely do Okay, so I'm doing all down strokes. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. except you want to emphasize certain beats to make it sound like the original song. So 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4. Okay. So definitely pick a variation that you're most comfortable with. That way you can um play the song and sing it together. So uh why don't you go ahead and practice your chords and your strumming patterns and pick which variation you like. And when you're ready, I'm going to go ahead and play through the whole song with you and I'll have all the chords listed and um yeah, we'll put it all together. So, there's a little extra melody that you can hear in there, and I'm going to go ahead and show you guys how to play that one. So, to play the little extra melody, you're just going to need the D and E string, the top two thinnest, highest strings. Um, go ahead and take your second finger or your middle finger and you're going to go to the sixth fret on the D string. So, if your guitar has dots like mine, it's going to be between the first and second uh dot because 1 2 3 4 5 sixth fret. Okay? You're going to put your second finger there. Play that twice. Then put your pinky on the eighth fret. Then you're going to shift over to the t the high E string. Put your one on the fifth fret, two on the sixth fret, four on the eighth fret, back to one, and then back to four on the D string. So the whole thing is Okay. So one more time. 2 2 4 4 1 2 4 1 4 4 4. So from there, you're going to use the next two strings over the B and the D. Okay? So start again on your second finger or your middle finger on the sixth fret of the D string. Then you're taking your first finger and you're doing that on the fifth fret. Then you're going to stretch over, put your third finger on the B string on the seventh fret. And then you're going to end it with your first finger on the B string on the fifth fret. So that last part again is okay. Okay. So, if you put that extra melody all together, it's going to sound like this. Okay. So hopefully you guys feel pretty comfortable with the different chords and whatever strumming pattern you decided to use and also that little extra melody if you want to add that in there. So let's go ahead and put everything together and play through the entire song. I'll have all the chords listed for you right here. And um I'm going to go a little bit below tempo just so that we can all keep up. So yeah, good luck. This is Somebody That I Used to Know by Goautier. Now and then I think of when we were together like when you said you felt so happy you could Told myself that you were right for me. But felt so lonely in your company. But that was love and it's unique. I still remember You can get addicted to a certain kind of sadness like resation to the end. Always the end. So when we found out we could not make sense, well, you said that we could still be friends. But I'll admit that I was glad it was over. But you didn't have to cut me off. It got like it never happened and that we were nothing. And I don't even need your love, but you treat me like a stranger and it feels so rough. You didn't have to stoop so low. Have your friends collect your records and then change your number. I guess that I don't need that though. Now you're just somebody that I used to know. Now you're just somebody that I used to know. Now you're just somebody that I used to know. Now and then I think of all the times you screwed me over but had me leaving it was always something I' done and I don't want to live that way into every word You say you said that you could let it go and I wouldn't catch you hung up on somebody that you used to know. You didn't have to cut me off. Think out like it never happened and that we were nothing. And I don't even need your love. But you treat me like a stranger and it feels so rough. You didn't have to stoop so low. Have your friends collect your records and then change your number. I guess that I don't need that though. Now you're just somebody that I used to know. Now you're just that I used to know. Now you're just somebody that I used to know. Somebody All right. Sorry, I'm actually not that familiar with this song. This tutorial was requested to me today. So, um, anyways though, I hope you guys liked it and I hope that you enjoyed my tutorial and I hope that it helped you at least a little bit. Um, remember to keep practicing and make sure you subscribe if you are looking forward to more tutorials like this one. And, um, yeah, thanks so much for watching. Bye.