Month 3, Lesson 1: You Belong With Me – Muted Chords
Source: Guitar Lessons – Muted Guitar Notes
You Belong With Me Muted Rhythm Chords – Text
This is the start of our third month for your lessons and guess what? We are going to explore the song You Belong With Me by Taylor Swift.
This is quite a long song so we are going to break it down into several parts.
About This Lesson:
This month we are going to concentrate on the rhythm chords for this song. The lead will be taken on in next weeks lesson and this will include only the verse. The chorus will be our third lesson
Please note that this version of the song is my interpretation of the song and does note follow it exactly as it is sung – but it is very close and you may not detect any difference.
Learning Points:
Play the Chords With Three Notes Only:
Trying to be true to the original version of this song, I am having you play the rhythm chords as 3 notes only and no more. The chords are all short chop-like strokes and they are eighth notes. So the chords move right along and you will get a tired hand from strumming them.
Play the Chords Muted:
Go to the lesson on How to Play Muted Guitar Strings to see how to play these chords in a muted style. Listen to the original version of this song by Taylor Swift and you will hear several instruments in the background – one of these will be a muted rhythm.
Work on these chords until you have mastered them. There is only 4. The C, G, F and Dm.
Watch your Repeats:
Repeats are used as kind of a shorthand in music. Repeats allow us to play identical passages more than one time, saving a lot of music space and reducing the complexity of the music.
Play With The Capo On The 6th Fret:
This song is written in the Key of F# Major. This is not a very guitar friendly key as it does not allow hardly any open strings and all of the chords would be bar chords as a result of this key.
A common guitarists trick is to use a capo to play a song in a much more guitar-friendly key like C, G, D, A or even E.
If you place a Guitar Capo on the 6th fret and play this song in the key of C, you would actually play it in the “Real” Key of F# Major. We can verify this by counting our half steps from C to F# would be… C C# D D# E F F#. That would be (6) 1/2 steps, which would place the capo 6 frets higher
About the Tab Notes:
These Tab Notes focus on the Rhythm notes mostly – the three note chords in this song. Note that the rhythm bars are written directly below the lead notes of the song and they relate directly to the lead notes.
We also review much of the repeat material in the TAB Notes you can see how this works directly on the musical score.
Articles You Should Read:
How To Play Chords Efficiently: Get acquainted with this technique and learn how to do it.
How to Hold the Guitar Pick: This will be really important with the down up strokes and attaining speed.
How to Mute Guitar Strings: This is the most important part of this lesson as we are focusing on the rhythm portion of this song. The Guitar Pro file allows me to write the rhythm track with Muted Strings. It is called Palm Mute.
Down Up Strokes of the Pick: This is really important for the fill-in notes. Using down ups is the only way to play them fast enough.
Music Theory You Should Know:
Intro
Repeat
TAB
Treble Clef
TAB Staff
Goals:
Play rhythm chords smoothly and evenly with a good mute tone.
Goal #1:
Play the chords as evenly as you can. These are eighth notes so they are played rather quickly with a chop-like stroke of the pick. Just swing the pick from the wrist only and not the whole arm when playing these.
Goal #2:
Reposition you palm on the strings to get the sound of the muted rhythm chords just right. If you listen to the Guitar Pro file of this song, make it sound like this – if you have the RSE module installed that is. Otherwise you will not hear the real guitar sound in the file.
Goal #3:
Memorize these 3 note chords and be able to play them very well. We are only playing the Intro and the first verse this time around. The rest of the song will come in a week.
Goal #4:
Lastly, work a bit on the lead notes. Only do this if you have time and feel comfortable doing this. Follow the song on the Guitar Pro file and slow it down with the Tempo setting.
What You Should Practice This Week:
I have shown you the lead score along with the rhythm score on the same sheet. This will allow you follow along with the music much easier.
The Second Track contains the Rhythm Track and contains all of the Alternating Bass and Chords for the song. Each chord pattern is shown within the notation, right above each measure. Some music will show this and some music will only give you the name of the chord without the diagram.
See our How To Practice article:
If you are having trouble with your practice techniques, or can’t seem to get “in the groove”, review the article on How to Practice and this will help you develop a consistent practice method.
Help Us Out:
Lastly and most importantly, give us feedback, either good or bad. We want to improve this site and we want kids to learn how to play the guitar. If you have suggestions for us, leave a comment. If you appreciate these lessons, leave a comment on that too.
Songs in Downloadable Format:
If you have difficulty reading this score information, we have this score information available free of charge for you with an instant electronic download. Just click on the song title below and you will be taken to our secure server site. You will get a PDF file of the above score complete with the Tab Notes. Be sure to download Adobe Acrobat Reader v6.0 or above. This version will allow you to turn the Tab Layer on or off.
Also you will get the Guitar Pro file. You can download Guitar Pro and get a free trial so you can play along with this song in real time on your computer. If you upgrade to the full version of the song you will have a lot more features available to you, such as the RSE modules which give you realistic guitar files – they sound just like an Acoustic Guitar.
Guitar Pro File
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PDF File
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Tags: free guitar lessons, how to mute a guitar string, Kids Guitar Lessons, you belong with me
