The Great Divide by Noah Kahan Tutorial/Lesson
The Great Divide
Cmaj7, Em, D/F#, G, Am7, Bm
Download Printable Guitar Guide
Unlock with Patreon
Watch play along cover
Unlock with Patreon
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 The Great Divide by Noah Kahan on the guitar. And today I am featuring my Journey Instruments OF420 guitar, which is one of the coolest guitars that I own cuz you can actually fold it in half and take it with you anywhere, so it's a great travel guitar. So if you're interested in this or any of their other collapsible models, I'll make sure to link more information about them down below. 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. I just wanted to note that the way I'm teaching this tutorial today is with a capo. If you watch Noah Kahan play it live, he does do it without a capo, but that's because his guitar is tuned [music] a half step down and in my experience people don't like to retune their guitars, so I thought the capo version was a great way to still have easier chords, but also you don't have to retune your guitar. So with that being said, let's go ahead and get started. All right guys, so you only need to know six different chord shapes [music] to play this entire song and we'll start with our C major 7, which looks like this and sounds like this. >> [music] >> 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 shape is our E minor. >> [music] >> We also have our D over F sharp. >> [music] >> Then there's our G major. >> [music] >> We've also got our A minor 7. >> [music] >> And the last chord is a bar chord, our B minor. >> [music] >> And those are the only six chord shapes you need to know to play through this song, but really quick while we're on chords, I wanted to go over just a couple of things. First of all, you'll see throughout this tutorial that for my C major 7 chord, sometimes I'll fret it with my ring and middle finger like this. And other times I'll fret it with my middle and pointer finger like this. >> [music] >> It depends on what part of the song I'm on. I try to prioritize easy chord transitions. So for example, in the verse, we often go from our A minor 7 to our C major 7. So I like to use my ring and middle finger there just cuz that's an easy transition. >> [music] >> All right? But in the chorus, we're often going from our C major 7 to our G. So in that instance, I like to use my pointer and my middle finger cuz that makes that transition a little easier. So if you can be flexible with how you fret different chord shapes, it'll totally help you throughout your guitar journey whenever you're playing different songs. And then the second thing I wanted to bring up is throughout this song whenever you see your E minor chord, it's always going to be as part of this progression where we go E minor to D over [music] F sharp to G. So something you'll see me doing if you wanted to copy it is I actually ignore my pinky and my ring finger on those chords. What I'll do is just play the top four strings for all of those. So for E minor to D over F sharp to G. >> [music] >> This part of the song goes so quickly that you won't even be able to tell that those strings are missing and it's just in that little instrumental section, it'll make the chord transition a lot easier and faster. >> [music] >> All right? But those are just my suggestions. You don't have to do that at all, but if you wanted to, that is what I'm doing. So as always, my first suggestion is to pause the screen right here and make sure you have all of these chords memorized and that you can transition back and forth between them before moving on. This will make learning the rest of the song so much easier for you. But once you have these chords under your belt, we can go ahead and talk about the strumming that I would suggest for this song. So as I always say, if you are brand new to playing guitar or you're somebody who struggles with playing guitar and 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 down strum 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 those chords are changing. So here's a quick example of what that would look like. I can't recall [singing] the last time that we talked [music] about anything [singing] but looking out for cops. All right, so 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 can 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 if you're interested. But once you've done that and you're comfortable with those chord transitions, then we can go ahead and add to this to create more of a full strumming pattern to play through this song. All right guys, so strumming for this song is going to be a little bit more detailed just because there's going to be a lot of places where we're going to have to split a full measure into different parts. So what I wanted to do here today is we're going to go ahead and start with the full measure, which you can see here on screen. This is going to be counted in a 16th note count, so it's going to sound like this. We have one-e and-a two-e and-a three-e and-a four-e and-a one-e and-a two-e and-a three-e and-a four-e and-a one and e and-a e [singing] and-a e and-a down [music] down up down up up down up up down up. >> [music] >> All right? And like I said, we're going to play this entire pattern through whenever we have a full measure throughout the song. So a good example of that would be the chorus. You can see here we're starting on our C major 7 chord and basically what you're going to want to do is play through this entire pattern on your C major 7. So we've got down down up [music and singing] down up down up up down up to your next chord G. Down down [music and singing] up down up up down up up down up to B minor. Down down [singing and music] up down up up down up up down up and then back to C major 7. >> [music] >> All right, so basically what I want you to do is if you're already struggling with the coordination of like getting your up and down strums on the right beats and things like that, go ahead and pause the video and really make sure that you take time to understand how to count this and then apply it to your strumming. Once you kind of develop a little bit more of that muscle memory, then we can go ahead and speed it up. So more at full tempo, it'll sound like this. We've got 1 2 ready go. Down down up down up up down up >> [music and singing] >> up down up G. E minor. C major 7. >> [music] >> All right, so you can see it's moving quite a bit faster. So again, like I said, make sure to pause and build up that speed with a metronome on your own. But once you can get it at full tempo, we can apply this for all of the pre-choruses and all of the choruses. I hope you settle down. I hope you marry [singing] rich. >> [music] >> I hope you're scared of all >> [singing] >> the ordinary All [music] right, good. And like I said, you can do that for the pre-choruses as well. It's the same chords and strumming and everything. >> [singing and music] >> You know I think about you all the time and my deepest [music] understanding of your life. All right. Now two things I wanted to talk about here for strumming before we move on that are going to be really important in this song are dynamics and accents. So if you've never heard before, dynamics is basically what just refers to how loudly or softly you're playing your guitar. If you watch Noah Kahan perform this live, you'll see that he does a lot of differences with his dynamics. So for an example, in verse one, we're going to be kind of more of a quiet strum versus when you get into that chorus, we're going to play it a lot louder and just make it sound a little more intense, okay? So just be aware of how dynamics plays a role in this strumming cuz it will make it sound kind of different based on how softly or loudly you're playing it. And the second thing is accents. So an accent basically is whenever you want to highlight a different beat from the surrounding beats. So right now I'm going to go ahead and turn the second down arrow green and this represents where I want you to accent that strum. So basically when you do an accent, you want to make sure you strum all the strings and you want to give your like pick hand just a little bit of extra oomph compared to the strums around it. So let me go ahead and show you an example. With my C major 7 chord on, we would go down down up up down up [music] up down up. So my pick is a lot lighter in my fingers and I'm kind of concentrating on just playing more of the bottom strings for all the non-accented beats, okay? So again, that's one-e [music] and-a two-e and-a three-e and-a four-e and-a. And you want to do that for [music] every measure. So again, G. Down down up down up up down up up down up. B minor. >> [music] >> To C major 7 again. >> [music] >> Now it might sound really subtle while you're doing it, but I promise once you speed up the song and put those accents in there as well as those dynamics, it'll really make a difference in your cover. Now let's go ahead and talk about some of these verses here. Now in this verse, we are going to have some split measures. So basically on the guide that's on my Patreon page, if you see these little like dash marks that you see next to some of these chords, that's just my way of telling you that we are going to split a measure. So what that does to our strumming pattern is I'm going to put a little vertical line in the middle, so that's going to represent where I want you to change chords in the middle of the measure. And then also, I'm going to take the first half or the left half of this strumming pattern and we're going to repeat it on the right half, okay? So now that strumming pattern's going to look like this. On our G for example, where we're starting the verses, you're going to play just the first half. Down [music] down up Remember that accent is still there. So we've got one-e >> [singing] >> and-a two-e and-a. >> [music] >> All right? And then you want to play your A minor 7 on the right half and it's the same pattern again. Again, now we have another accent, so we have three e and a four [singing and music] e and a. All right. So, that full measure there from G to A minor 7 goes like this. We've got one e and a two e and a three [music] e and a four e and a. All right. Again, those accents are optional, but if you can add them in, I think it sounds a lot better. So, that is an example of a split measure, and we're going to see that over and over again throughout the verses. So, now the trickier part if you're new to rhythm and things like that is we're going to have to go back and forth between our split measures and our full measures. So, let's go ahead and take a look at that first line as an example. We're starting here on G. We're going to do split one e >> [music] >> and a two e and a to A minor 7, three e and a four e [singing] and a to C major 7 and back [music] to that full strumming pattern. One e [singing] and a two e and a three e and a four e and a. >> [music] >> All right. It can get a little confusing, especially if you're struggling with the coordination and everything already. So, again, make sure to pause and take your time with this. Um however, how we played that is going to be all of the verses. So, we've got G, A minor 7, to C major [singing and music] for a full measure. We've got our accents on all of the chords. [music] And you're going to go back and forth between the split measures and the full measures. So, let's go ahead and play all of that together, speed it up a bit to hear what that verse would sound like. We've got one, two, ready, go. G, A minor 7, C major 7, >> [music] >> G, C. I can't recall the last time that we >> [music] >> talked about anything but looking at our phones. >> [music] >> All right. So, again, it can be really confusing, especially if you're new to rhythm guitar and things like that. However, all of the verses are going to follow that G A minor C pattern and the way that we just split it up. So, that's the first way we're going to split up the measure. Now, I need to go ahead and talk about the second way that we will split up the measure, which is why rhythm-wise this song can be a little bit more difficult if you're new to playing guitar. So, the last place we're going to see split patterns is going to be in those like intro instrumental kind of sections, okay? So, that's where we've got this E minor D over F sharp G kind of uh chord progression that we're going to build up here. So, now you can see all of these have two dashes. So, what that represents is we're going to further split up this measure into even more parts, okay? So, instead of splitting it just in half and having two different chords in a measure, we're going to actually split it into four parts. So, we're going to play four different chords within a measure, okay? So, again, I'm going to add more little vertical lines here. Again, this represents where we want to change chords. What we're going to do here is we're switching the pattern up almost entirely. On our first chord E minor, you're going to go one e and a. So, we've got down, down up. [music] Same thing on our D over F sharp, we've got two e and a, [music] okay? Down, up. To your G major, and again, the same thing. We've got three e and a, >> [music and singing] >> okay? Down, down up. You can see there the first three chords all have the same pattern. We've got down, down [singing] up, down, [music] down up, down, down up. And then when you get to your C major 7, this is where it's going to be a little bit different because now for the fourth beat of this four-part pattern, we're going to take beat four and it's going to link back into the next measure, okay? So, let me explain that there. On C major 7, we're going to go four [music] e and a. So, we have down, down. Then we're going to go into the next measure, [music] one e [singing] and a, okay? So, C major 7 gets four e and [music and singing] a one e and a into the next measure. We're starting here on our E minor on beat one. We've got one e [singing and music] and a, switch to D over F sharp, two e and a, switch to G major, [singing] three e and a, and then you're going [music] to C major 7, four e [singing] and a. Hold that into the next measure. E and a, okay? And then we're going to just do e and a's for the rest of the measure. E and a, So, that C major 7 that goes across measures is going to sound like this. We've got four [music] and e and a, e and a, So, I know it sounds really confusing. Let's go ahead and put all of it together so you can hear how it all comes together. On E minor, we've got down, down up, down, down up, down, down up, down up, up, down up, E minor, D over F sharp, G, C major [music and singing] 7. Next measure. >> [music] >> All right. I promise this is the most confusing part of this song um to understand musically and how it's all split up and everything. Again, if you have a great ear and you can just kind of hear it and pick it up, that's awesome. You don't have to worry about any of this like more theory stuff. I just want to break it down for those of you who think more mathematically the way I do. Um so, again, starting at the beginning, we've got E minor, one e and a two e and a three e and a [singing and music] four e and a one e and a two e and a three e and a. One e and a two e and a three [singing and music] e and a four e and a one e and a two e and a three e and a. So, that's how you're going to play the intro and all of the little instrumental sections throughout this song. So, now let me go ahead and play through the entire intro section into the first verse so you can hear how the four-part split, the two-part split, and the full measures all come together to make this song, okay? We've got one, two, ready, go. >> [music] >> I can't [singing] recall the last time that [music] we talked about anything [singing] but looking at our phones. >> [music] >> All right. So, that's an example of all the different ways to strum this song. We've just put it all together to kind of go through it. And other than that, I will leave you with one more piece of advice. The strumming pattern that I've presented in this video today, this is just a loose suggestion. This is kind of the basic rhythm that you can see Noah Kahan playing. However, if you get to the point where you can be a little bit more adventurous, take this as a loose guide of how you can start strumming, but totally feel free to make the song your own by adding in some extra strums or, you know, doing anything like that. I think that's what's going to make your cover of this song super unique. All right, guys. So, again, go ahead and pause the video. I know we just covered a lot of different rhythms and things like that, a little bit of music theory here in this section of the strumming. So, again, pause the video, take as much time as you need to really look over these strumming patterns, [music] get them internalized, and build up that muscle memory where you can kind of play through it without counting it in your head anymore. That's the only way that you'll be able to then put singing on top of it. And again, this is a skill that takes quite a while to build up. So, make sure to just give yourself lots of patience and consistency with your practice. I promise that you can get there. But once you're comfortable with this, we can go ahead and put everything we've learned in this tutorial today together to play through the song. One and two and three and four and [music] >> [music] >> I can't recall the last time that we >> [music] >> talked about anything but >> [singing] >> looking at our phones. >> [music] >> Got to want to have fun jamming out to the rest of the song with me? So, make sure to check out my Patreon page where you can unlock access to this as well as all my other fast track and play along [music] guitar tutorials. I'll make sure to leave a link for it 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, see you over there. Bye.