Surfin' USA by The Beach Boys Tutorial/Lesson
Surfin' USA
D, A, A7, G
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Video transcript
Hey everyone, it's Ellen here again and today I'm going to be showing you guys how to play Surfing USA by the Beach Boys on the guitar. Today I am featuring my Journey Instruments OF660 guitar which is one of my coolest guitars because not only is it made of carbon fiber and it changes colors from blue to purple depending on the lighting, but it also collapses so you can take it with you if you have any summer travel plans. So, if you are interested in this model or any of their other collapsible travel guitars, I will make sure to link them in the description box down below. Here's a quick overview of everything I'll be covering in this video today. And with that being said, let's go ahead and get started. All right, guys. So, you only need to know four different chord shapes to play through this entire song. And they're all very beginner friendly. We're going to start with our D major, which looks like this and sounds like this. And by the way, if you don't know how to read these chord charts you're seeing on screen, I do cover how to do that my free beginner series right here on YouTube. So, make sure to check that out right here. The next chord shape is our A major. From here, we're going to go to our A7. And the last chord shape is our G major. And those are the only four chords you need to know to play this entire song. So, go ahead and pause the video and take as much time as you need to really memorize these chord shapes as well as practice transitioning back and forth between them because it'll make learning the rest of the song so much easier. And if this is a skill you're currently struggling with transitioning between chords fast enough, I do have a practice with me series right here on my channel where we go through this and build this skill up in real time together. So, I'll link that in the corner for those of you who are interested. But once you have these chords under your belt, then we can go ahead and talk about the strumming that I would suggest for this song. All right. So, as I always say, if you are brand new to playing guitar or you're somebody who struggles with playing guitar while singing at the same time, the first thing I would suggest doing is to bring up the song and go ahead and go through the entire thing with just a single downstrum on each chord change as you sing through the song. And you want to take this time to really get used to what word or what syllable you're on whenever you're changing chords. So, here's a quick example of what that would look like. If everybody had an ocean across the USA, then everybody'd be surfing like California. All right, that's just a really quick example, but you would essentially want to do that for the entire song and just really make sure you know where those chords are going to be changing. And this actually something you do right now if you check out my Patreon page. I do have this entire guide available to download and print out. So, I'll make sure to leave that link in the description box. But once you've got that, then we can go ahead and add to this single downstrum to create more of a full strumming pattern that you can use for this song. All right, guys. So, for strumming for this song, we're going to keep it super simple in an eighth note count. As you can see, we have down, down, up, up, down, up, and it's going to sound like this. We have 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and four and down up down up down up. All right. And that's the only strumming pattern you're going to need to know for the entire song. And basically what we're gonna do is repeat this pattern two times per chord for the entire song. So let's go ahead and take a look at that first verse. As you can see, we're starting on our A chord. And what we're going to do is play this pattern through two times. So on our A, we have down, down, up, up, down, up, down, down, up, up, down, up. Go to your next chord, D. Same thing. Down, down, up, up, down, up, down, up, up, down, up. Next is A7. Back to D. All right. So, you would essentially want to keep that rhythm going for the entire song. Um, we are going to have to speed it up quite a bit just to make sure that we can play it more at the original speed of the song. So, if you're already struggling with the, you know, coordination of up and down strums and things like that, I would recommend checking out my beginner series where I break this down in more detail on how you can strum and make it a little bit more rhythmic. Um, but also I have a practice with me strumming series as well where I take this exact strumming rhythm and build it up in real time with you. So, I'll link that in the corner too so that you can build that speed up. But once you get it more at tempo, it'll sound like this. We've got down, down, up, up, down, up, down, down, up, up, down, up. All right, so it's quite a bit faster. So, just make sure to pause the video and make sure to practice and get that speed up. Um, but once you get it, again, we just apply it twice per chord. So, we have A twice to D twice, D7 twice to D. Just like that for the verses. Everybody had an ocean across the USA. Everybody deserve the California air. All right. Super simple. You would take that through the rest of the verse. We're starting here in our G. See them wearing their bagels too. Twice. Pushy pushy blonde. So right there, this line is the only line that's going to be kind of unique in this song. On our last A7 in the whole song at the end of each phrase, you're going to only play it once. Down, up, up, down, up. Then straight into the next measure on our G chord. You're just going to play the first beat. Down. And then mute your strings. Okay. So in just that line, we have a seven down, up, up, down, up, G, mute. All right. Bushy bushy blonde hair surfing USA. All right. So, basically throughout this song, the chord progression that we just played through is going to repeat for all of the verses and all of the choruses. So, just remember that A7 to G in that last little lines there. You want to always keep in mind that that's going to be one measure each. Okay. So, let's go ahead and take this into the chorus. You'll see how we can use this exact same pattern and chord progression to place the chorus. You catch them surfing at Cher County Santa Cruz and Austral. All right. And again, the second half is just like the second half of the chorus. All over Manhattan and down. Here's that part. Gone surfing to G surfing USA. All right. So again, um you can see in the chorus and the verse how the A7 to G is always going to be played that way. Down, down, up, up, down, up, down, mute. All right, so just keep that in mind. If you are looking at the guide on my Patreon page, I do have all of this marked there so that you can remember that a little bit easier. Um but basically what we just played through the verse and the chorus, that's just going to repeat throughout the entire song. However, there is one fun little thing you can do that I think makes it sound a little closer to the original, which is we can play each of these chords for just one measure and then we're going to take our second measure and just mute our strings. Okay? So, for example, let's look back at the very first verse. We're starting on our A. You would do it once. Down, down, up, down, up. And then this time, instead of repeating it for a second measure, you're just going to tap on your strings on the beat for four times. 1 2 3 4. What I'm doing there is I can you can either like take a fist and kind of tap on your strings like this. Um or you can do like an open hand and kind of like tap more on the wood of your guitar. Um just anywhere any way you can add a little bit of rhythm. But basically you would do one measure of strumming down up down up then go immediately into your taps. 1 2 3 4. And that'll really mimic the drums of the original song. So if you wanted to, I would recommend doing this kind of tapping rhythm throughout all of the verses. Okay? If everybody had an ocean across the USA, then everybody be like California. All right. So, that's just my suggestion. I like to do that through the verses and then in the choruses, I'll go back to just straight strumming for two measures, but that's all up to you and what you like to do for your cover. But, of course, the basic pattern is here on screen. So, as long as you follow this rhythm and kind of apply it for the entire thing, I do think it sounds really great with this song. All right, guys. So, again, go ahead and pause the video and take as much time as you need to really get the strumming rhythm under your muscle memory. You want to get it to a place where you can play through this rhythm without counting the rhythm in your head. And at that point, you'd be able to sing on top of it. So, it's going to take a lot of practice every day so you kind of get it internalized. So, again, check out my practice with me strumming video if you need help with that. But once you come back, we can go ahead and put everything we've learned in this video together, the chords, the transitions, the strumming to play through the song. 1 2 3 4 1 2 ready go. If everybody had an ocean across the USA, then everybody be like California and you'd see them wearing their baggies, too. A bushy bushy blonde hair surfing USA. Want to have fun jamming out to the rest of the song with me? then make sure to check out my Patreon page where you can unlock access to this as well as all my other fast track and playalong guitar tutorials. I'll make sure to leave a link for that in the description box down below. If you enjoyed learning this song with me, then you should definitely check out this video. Not only does it have a super similar vibe and feel, but it's just as fun and easy to play. So, I'll see you over there. Bye.