Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond Tutorial/Lesson
Sweet Caroline
D7, G, C, D, Em, Bm7, Am7
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Video transcript
hey everyone my name is Ellen and today I'm going to be showing you guys how to play Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond on my zegger zad ADC guitar so if you're curious about this I do have more information linked down below as well as $100 off I want to give a quick shout out and thank you to my patrons for voting on this song as this month's Patron picks so if you want a little bit of voting power in the songs you see me Teach here on my channel make sure to check that out I will link that in the description below as well here's a quick overview of everything I'll be covering in this tutorial today and with that being said let's go ahead and get started all right guys so to play through this song we're going to need to know seven different chord shapes and we're going to start with our D7 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 in my free beginner Series right here on YouTube so make sure to check that out right here the next chord is our G major after that we have our C we also have our D major shape then there's our E minor we've got our B minor 7 and then lastly is our a minor 7 and those are the seven chord shapes to play through this song all right guys so go ahead and pause the video and take as much time as you need to memorize these chord shapes as well as practice transitioning back and forth between them cuz it'll make learning the rest of the song so much easier for you and if this is a skill you're currently struggling with I do have an entire practice with me playlist right here on YouTube where we go through this skill in real time together so I'll make sure to link that in the corner for you if you need it but once you have these chords under your belt then we can go ahead and talk about these strumming patterns that you can use for this song all right guys so as always I do want to start you off with a practice pattern this is for those of you who are brand new to playing guitar or if you're somebody who struggles with playing guitar while singing at the same time and basically what I suggest you do is to bring up the song and go ahead and play through the entire thing with a single down strum as you sing through the song and you want to take this time to really just get used to what word you're singing or what syllable you're on whenever those chords are changing so here's a quick example of what that would look like where it begin I can't begin to know but then I know it's going all right so that's just a quick example but you would essentially want to do that for the entire song and just really make sure you know where those chord transitions are going to be happening and there something you actually 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 for you um but once you've done that we can go ahead and add to it to do more of a full strumming pattern for this song all right guys so as you can see for this strumming pattern and it does look pretty simple but we are going to be counting this a little bit differently than you might be used to so we're going to be actually in a triplet Rhythm so each be is going to get three counts so we have one Anda two Anda three Anda four Anda okay so for this strumming pattern we're doing a down strum on the first count of each beat so we have one and a two and a three and a four and a so that last little beat there we're going to play a down strum on the first beat and an up strum that's a pickup into the next measure so all together it'll sound like this one and a two and a three and a four and a one and a two and a three and a four and a down down up down down down down up all right this might look super similar to a regular eighth note count but because we're counting it with triplets it is going to give it more of that bouncy feel that we hear in the original version of this song so just keep that in mind as we count forward but basically what you want to do is we're going to take this pattern and play it two times per for almost the entire song so let's go ahead and start here on verse one we're starting on our G chord we're going to go 1 2 3 4 up all right down down down down up and like I said we're doing that twice for each chord so we've got G twice to C twice back to G to D all right and something that's really subtle that I'm doing that you might be hearing is I am going to be accenting my third beat so that third down strum I'm kind of just giving it a little bit more emphasis when I'm strumming down down it does kind of help me keep a beat going as I sing through the song so if that's something that you find helpful feel free to add that in there as well um but basically this strumming pattern like I said is a appable for the entire song but there is something that I wanted to show you that's totally optional but I do think it kind of dresses up the song a bit if you add it in which is at the end of the phrasing we are going to do a quick chord change if you want to so let's look back at that first verse again for here on this line but then I know it's growing strong you can see we're going from our G to our D chord but what I would do on this D chord is instead of holding it for the entire strumming pattern I would actually switch to your c chord on that third beat so for our D chord we have down down down down up and then on the second time down down C back to D down up all right so essentially we're just adding that c on the third beat the second time around when we're repeating D so all together when we do that first it'll go like this we've got G twice C twice G twice D down down down down up all right where it begin I can't begin knowwhere then I know it's gr down down down down up all right and you can add that anywhere we're going to be ending the phrasing with that D chord and on a similar note another thing you can do is we can go from our c chord to our G chord back to C so a good example of where you would see this is of course in that famous Little Chorus section so on that first line of the chorus we've got sweet Carline we're holding our G for a full measure down down down down then here on the C chord what you can actually do is switch to your G chord on that last four and beat so we've got C down down G and and then back to C all right so it goes all right again totally optional but if you want to add that g on that fourth beat I do think it sounds a lot closer to the original so the chords Al together would sound like this with those added chords in time never seem so good I to believe they never and then again right here on that last little line just do single down terms for each of these chords to believe they never would but now all right so it just matches up with each of those words there and then basically this strumming Rhythm you can apply for the entire song I think it sounds really great really reminiscent to that piano that you hear in the original song and that is the strumming that I would recommend for this song all right guys so again go ahead and pause the video and take as much time as you need to get this strumming Rhythm under your belt even though it looks really simple on the surface it is important to kind of be able to do that triplet count um because it does give it more of that bouncy happy kind of feeling for this song so definitely pause and practice if you need to I also started a brand new practice with me strumming Series so if you need help with keeping the Rhythm while speeding it up I would definitely recommend checking that out I will link it in the corner um but once you come back we can go ahead and put everything we've learned together those chords the Transitions and that string Rhythm to play through the song One 2 one two ready go let it begin I can't begin to know then I know it's gr want to have fun jaming out to the rest of the song with me yeah then make sure to check out my patreon page where you can unlock access to this as well as all my other FastTrack and playong guitar tutorials I'll make sure to leave a link 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