Let’s Play Let It Be – A four-chord song
About the Song—Written by Paul McCartney at the beginning of the end of The Beatles, Let It Be, was inspired by a dream the singer had of his mother reassuring them that everything would be alright. Recorded in 1970, Let It Be rose up the charts, hitting number 1 in April 1970.
Video—Watch the video of Let it Be in Video Lessons. Listen to the melody, get to know the song, and feel free to sing along. As soon as you are ready, it’s time to learn how to play our fifth song.
Required Chords—This song uses the G chord (blue button), the C chord (green button), the D Chord (red button), and the E-minor chord (yellow button).
Strum—Practice strumming the chords, using the alternating pick strum pattern (without singing).
Sing & Strum Let It Be and change chords using the alternating pick strum.
Let’s Learn the Pop Strum
Up to this point, our strum patterns have been limited to downstrokes and downpicks. With our next strum pattern, the pop strum – a common strum pattern for many pop, rock, and country songs, we will introduce some upstrums.
Remember, in a 4/4-time song, there are four beats and four upbeats in each measure, which we expressed as “one – and – two – and – three – and – four – and.” In the basic strum, pick strum, and alternating pick strum we played only the beats one, two, three, four. In the pop strum, we will drop one of the beats and play three of the upbeats, as illustrated below.
Note: D = downstrum
U = upstrum
(D) = downward motion with no strum
(U) = upward motion with no strum
This pattern is a little tricky at first – mainly, because it is something new. The secret is to keep your strumming hand moving in constant motion, whether you’re strumming the strings or just passing over them. Watch the Video Lesson to make sure you know what it is supposed to sound like and practice this pattern until you have it down enough that you don’t have to think about when to strum and when not to.
Once you have it down, go back and play Let it Be, using the pop strum pattern.
Let’s Play Let It Be – A four-chord song
About the Song—Written by Paul McCartney at the beginning of the end of The Beatles, Let It Be, was inspired by a dream the singer had of his mother reassuring them that everything would be alright. Recorded in 1970, Let It Be rose up the charts, hitting number 1 in April 1970.
Video—Watch the video of Let it Be in Video Lessons. Listen to the melody, get to know the song, and feel free to sing along. As soon as you are ready, it’s time to learn how to play our fifth song.
Required Chords—This song uses the G chord (blue button), the C chord (green button), the D Chord (red button), and the E-minor chord (yellow button).
Strum—Practice strumming the chords, using the alternating pick strum pattern (without singing).
Sing & Strum Let It Be and change chords using the alternating pick strum.
Let’s Learn the Pop Strum
Up to this point, our strum patterns have been limited to downstrokes and downpicks. With our next strum pattern, the pop strum – a common strum pattern for many pop, rock, and country songs, we will introduce some upstrums.
Remember, in a 4/4-time song, there are four beats and four upbeats in each measure, which we expressed as “one – and – two – and – three – and – four – and.” In the basic strum, pick strum, and alternating pick strum we played only the beats one, two, three, four. In the pop strum, we will drop one of the beats and play three of the upbeats, as illustrated below.
Note: D = downstrum
U = upstrum
(D) = downward motion with no strum
(U) = upward motion with no strum
This pattern is a little tricky at first – mainly, because it is something new. The secret is to keep your strumming hand moving in constant motion, whether you’re strumming the strings or just passing over them. Watch the Video Lesson to make sure you know what it is supposed to sound like and practice this pattern until you have it down enough that you don’t have to think about when to strum and when not to.
Once you have it down, go back and play Let it Be, using the pop strum pattern.
Let’s Play Let It Be – A four-chord song
About the Song—Written by Paul McCartney at the beginning of the end of The Beatles, Let It Be, was inspired by a dream the singer had of his mother reassuring them that everything would be alright. Recorded in 1970, Let It Be rose up the charts, hitting number 1 in April 1970.
Video—Watch the video of Let it Be in Video Lessons. Listen to the melody, get to know the song, and feel free to sing along. As soon as you are ready, it’s time to learn how to play our fifth song.
Required Chords—This song uses the G chord (blue button), the C chord (green button), the D Chord (red button), and the E-minor chord (yellow button).
Strum—Practice strumming the chords, using the alternating pick strum pattern (without singing).
Sing & Strum Let It Be and change chords using the alternating pick strum.
Let’s Learn the Pop Strum
Up to this point, our strum patterns have been limited to downstrokes and downpicks. With our next strum pattern, the pop strum – a common strum pattern for many pop, rock, and country songs, we will introduce some upstrums.
Remember, in a 4/4-time song, there are four beats and four upbeats in each measure, which we expressed as “one – and – two – and – three – and – four – and.” In the basic strum, pick strum, and alternating pick strum we played only the beats one, two, three, four. In the pop strum, we will drop one of the beats and play three of the upbeats, as illustrated below.
Note: D = downstrum
U = upstrum
(D) = downward motion with no strum
(U) = upward motion with no strum
This pattern is a little tricky at first – mainly, because it is something new. The secret is to keep your strumming hand moving in constant motion, whether you’re strumming the strings or just passing over them. Watch the Video Lesson to make sure you know what it is supposed to sound like and practice this pattern until you have it down enough that you don’t have to think about when to strum and when not to.
Once you have it down, go back and play Let it Be, using the pop strum pattern.
Let’s Play Let It Be – A four-chord song
About the Song—Written by Paul McCartney at the beginning of the end of The Beatles, Let It Be, was inspired by a dream the singer had of his mother reassuring them that everything would be alright. Recorded in 1970, Let It Be rose up the charts, hitting number 1 in April 1970.
Video—Watch the video of Let it Be in Video Lessons. Listen to the melody, get to know the song, and feel free to sing along. As soon as you are ready, it’s time to learn how to play our fifth song.
Required Chords—This song uses the G chord (blue button), the C chord (green button), the D Chord (red button), and the E-minor chord (yellow button).
Strum—Practice strumming the chords, using the alternating pick strum pattern (without singing).
Sing & Strum Let It Be and change chords using the alternating pick strum.
Let’s Learn the Pop Strum
Up to this point, our strum patterns have been limited to downstrokes and downpicks. With our next strum pattern, the pop strum – a common strum pattern for many pop, rock, and country songs, we will introduce some upstrums.
Remember, in a 4/4-time song, there are four beats and four upbeats in each measure, which we expressed as “one – and – two – and – three – and – four – and.” In the basic strum, pick strum, and alternating pick strum we played only the beats one, two, three, four. In the pop strum, we will drop one of the beats and play three of the upbeats, as illustrated below.
Note: D = downstrum
U = upstrum
(D) = downward motion with no strum
(U) = upward motion with no strum
This pattern is a little tricky at first – mainly, because it is something new. The secret is to keep your strumming hand moving in constant motion, whether you’re strumming the strings or just passing over them. Watch the Video Lesson to make sure you know what it is supposed to sound like and practice this pattern until you have it down enough that you don’t have to think about when to strum and when not to.
Once you have it down, go back and play Let it Be, using the pop strum pattern.