Chords for Learn to Play "Wagon Wheel" by Darius Rucker (Guitar Lesson)

[B] _ Hey everybody Steve Stein here again, I'm just gonna teach you how to play wagon wheel by Darius Rucker
This was a request I had a really easy song and really fun to play
It's an old song by a band called old crow medicine show that was redone by Darius Rucker
What we're gonna be doing is we're gonna be putting the capo on the second fret
Okay, and we're gonna be [A] using G [E] D _
[Gbm] E minor [D] and C _
Now there's [B] really only a couple parts to this
So let me play you the bulk of the song and then let's talk about it
So [Bb] we're gonna be [A] doing something like this
Now, _ [E] _ _
_ [Gbm] _ _ _ [D] _ _
_ [A] _ _ _ [E] _ _
_ [Gbm] _ _ _ [D] _ _
_ [A] _ _ [Db] let me break down [B] the chord idea for you and then let's talk about the strumming a little bit
So the first thing is is at the very beginning of the song before the band comes in you play G
And again, it doesn't matter if you play easy G or three finger or four finger, whatever is comfortable for you
But you're gonna play G D
_ E minor
_ C _
Okay, so G D E minor C in whatever fashion you play them easy G easy C C add 9 it doesn't matter again
Always remember the goal is just to have some fun with these songs.
So we have G D E minor and C
[N]
Now once you're done with those four chords those four measures
Then the drums kick in and we're actually in the rest of the song and we do the same thing for the rest of the tune _
So what we're gonna be doing then is we're gonna play it's eight measures long.
It's gonna go G D [Bb] E
Minor C again, but then the second time around it's just G D [A] C C
[N] Okay, so the first four measures G D E minor C the second four measures G D C C
So you're just skipping that E minor.
[B] So let me play that eight measure sequence for you and it [A] looks like this
_ _ [E] _
_ [Gbm] _ _ _ _ [D] _
_ [A] _ _ _ _ [E] _
_ [D] _ _ _ _ _
_ [A] _ _ _ _ [E] _
_ [Gbm] _ _ _ _ [D] _
_ [A] _ _ _ _ [E] _
_ [D] _ _ _ _ _
_ [A] _ [Bm] Okay, so really easy really straightforward now
Let's again break [Eb] down the strumming aspects of this to help from a very beginning level to a more advanced [G] level
So the very [Bbm] beginning what you would do is if [G] you're if you're just getting comfortable with your chords and everything
As usual just strum very little try and make [Bb] the changes with your chords
So you might just drum once per chord and then take [Ab] off right away and get ready on the next course
You might do something [A] like this G 2 3 [E] 4 E 2 [A] 3 4
3 4 C [Gm] and the reason you only strumming [N] once is you're using the other three beats of that measure to get to the next chord
Okay, once you get comfortable with that and you can make the chord changes then maybe you strum a little bit more
Maybe you strum half [A] notes _ _
_ [E] Okay, _ [Gbm] _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ _
[Bb] once you can do that, maybe you do quarter notes you're gonna strum [A] all four of them
_ _ [E] _ _ _
_ [Gbm] _ _ _ [D] _ _
[Eb] Just keep building as you go.
Remember if you [N] can't make the chords, you can't play the song
So the bottom line is you got to make be able to make these chords
In whatever fashion you need to at this [Fm] point and then you start building up the strumming
The truth is the strumming is really the sales point of every [B] song.
It's the it's the part that makes the song sound real
Or for a lack of a better term professional, I guess
And so what I want to do is show you some things that you could do with the strumming for this song
Now the first thing to understand [Bb] is that the the accent? _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _
[B] You're kind of accenting on two and four
_ _ _ _ _ _
So if you scratch and you just start off trying to do something kind of country like we're gonna do like a one two
Four so we're emphasizing two and four.
Okay, so one _
_ [Bb] _ _ _ _ _
[N] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ Three
Now the thing to remember when you're doing this kind of strumming is you're not
Obligated to strum all the strings all the time
The misconception a lot of players have is when you're playing a G chord
You're supposed to strum all six strings all the time.
You don't have to you don't have to strum them
At all if you don't want to you could strum just a few strings
The truth of the matter is with all chords and please remember this for the rest of your life
When you're playing G or D or E minor or C?
The most important strings are actually these thin ones because they're the ones that really make the melody when [A] you're playing _ _
[E] _ _ _ [Gbm] _ _ _
_ [D] _ A lot of [A] times what happens is people just strum up here
You [E] _ _
_ [Gb] [B] get all this really ugly [Eb] thick stuff up there, and you don't want that okay?
Well, you can't separate them, but let's just start by thinking about this strum
So we're gonna go down down down up down [B] up.
It's just create a pattern
So by scratching I'm going down down down up down up
_ _ [Bb] _ _
_ [N] _ _ _ _ [B] _
_ _ _ And
Remember I'm accenting on two and four _ _ _ _
_ _ Now I want to give it a bit of a country or southern rock feel
By by changing up the rhythm into a bit of what I'm going to refer to as a heartbeat [E] rhythm, which is
_ so [C] _
instead of going
_ I'm gonna go
[Bb] like _ a horse trot
so _ _
_ _ [B] I've got Wow
_ [Bb] _ _ _ _ _
[Eb] So I've really got three things happening I've got my accents on two and four I've got my strumming pattern at this point
I can change up the strumming pattern however.
I want and then I've got [B] that that that shuffle that
_ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Eb] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _
So remember whenever you're learning songs one thing you always want to work on is scratching to the song to develop the rhythm
Before you start trying to implement [Em] it into your chord changes unless you're ready for that
Because a lot of players once they start making their chord changes.
They can't really do a lot over here
So remember accent more on these bottom strings or emphasize
I should say more on these thin [B] strings than the thick strings
Now what [Bb] I'd like to do is I'll start off [Abm] by playing the thick strings, and then I'll head to the thin [A] strings
_ [E] So _
_ [Gbm] _ _ _ _ [D] _
_ _ [A] _ _ _ _
[E] _ _ _ [Gbm] _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ [A] _ _ _
[E] _ that's really [B] the hardest part of the song is trying to develop that rhythm and then be able to make those changes
Always be in control of what you're [A] strumming.
Don't just strum everything _
[E] _ [Gb] Don't do [B] that okay _
Back off okay, it's okay.
Even if you don't strum these top strings at all don't feel guilty about it
[Eb] Just stay down here and kind of strum [A] small
_ _ [E] _
So [Gbm] _ _ _ [D] _ _
_ [A] _ _ _ [E] _ _
_ [D] _ _ _ _ _
_ [A] _ _ [Em] [Eb] really kind of exploring those two elements, [N] but that's wagon wheel
Summarized pretty straightforward and a lot of fun, so let me know if you have any other requests and keep practicing _