How to Play Amazing Grace on Guitar

Video Transcript

"With our new notes on the D string, we can now play a new melody (a hymnal called "Amazing Grace". So, with this in mind we want to consider that the songs we've played before have been in common time, or 4/4. "Mary Had a Little Lamb". 1,2,3,4, etc. It was in 4. So was "Yankee Doodle". 1,2,3,4, etc.. That's how the measures are broken up. "Amazing Grace" is a song that's in 3/4 time (3 beats per measure). So we count 1,2,3, 1,2,3, etc.. and we start on a pickup note. We actually start on the third beat. So you would count (1,2,3,1,2) D, G, 2. B, B,2. A,G,2. D, D, 2. Notice that? Okay, our first three notes are open. It's D and G. D is a quarter note as a pickup. Our downbeat on one then, is G. We hold that for two beats. G, 2. Then on the third beat we play B. So. . 1,2,3,1,2 (Sings out the notes). Let's stop right there for a second. Let's think about that. Our strings seem to be ringing a lot. We can use our fingers to barely touch the string, to mute it between. So, D, G,2, B, B,2,A,G, etc. Notice how I use my finger to barely touch the string to mute it (sings out the notes)."