Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison

ok, more rubbish newguy Qs :oops:
I can play the chords in the pattern mentioned but it sometimes seems too amny strums to fit the words. Is there any chance of a bit more explanation of the strumming,please? Especially line 5 of the verse, thanks

hi biker I play the song with a D/du/u/du pattern (each beat is divided by a slash) which, by the way, is one of the most used in folk-rock music

The key to play this pattern is to skip 3rd beat downstrum. To learn to play it try before the following pattern

d/du/du/du (it is the same used by Nirvana in "About a girl" verse)

when you are playing it confidently, just skip the 3rd beat downstrum

To understand how it should sound, check this link http://guitar.about.com/library/weekly/aa082300e.htm

Good luck

Matteo

thanks both of you, I think I have the strumming down, but as mentioned, in some of the lines I can't do a full pattern on each chord, where do you change?
tkn_dk, that's partially it for me but seems to miss some of the changes.

I'm sorry but this is the bit I really struggle with as I can't hear the guitar sometimes once the singing starts

I tried this last night and I can make it sound pretty good and it's fun to play. Thanks! The only problem is that it's difficult to play the intro that far up the neck with my dreadnought. Can someone suggest an alternative intro that doesn't require playing past, say the 14th fret?

Dnukom - try this - it's the same intro, but an octave lower....


G C G D

E------------|------------|------------|---------|
B-0-h1-3-1-0-|-5-h6-8-6-5-|-0-h1-3-1-0-|---------|
G-0-h2-4-2-0-|-5-h7-9-7-5-|-0-h2-4-2-0-|-2---0-2-|
D------------|------------|------------|-0-4-0-0-|
A------------|------------|------------|---5-----|
E------------|------------|------------|---------|

Twelve months ago, when I didn't have an acoustic with a cutaway, I'd have probably worked it out this way in the first place....

:D :D :D

Vic

thanks both of you, I think I have the strumming down, but as mentioned, in some of the lines I can't do a full pattern on each chord, where do you change?
tkn_dk, that's partially it for me but seems to miss some of the changes.

I'm sorry but this is the bit I really struggle with as I can't hear the guitar sometimes once the singing starts

hi biker

the pattern end with an upstrum on beat 4, and the chords change each measure, so the change is always with the first beat downstrum, like this

G
d du u du

C
d du u du

To make it sound smoothier, just lift your fingers after the fourth downstrum and play the last upstrum of the measure with open strings only. This way you have a bit of extra-time to change the chord...

Matteo

I play it this way to keep the treble going.


e|-3-5--7--5-3-|-8-10--12--10-8-|-3-5--7--5-3-|--5---2—-3-5-|
B|-------------|----------------|-------------|--7---3--5-7-|
G|-4-5--7--5-4-|-9-10--12--10-8-|-4-5--7--5-4-|-------------|
D|-------------|----------------|-------------|-------------|
A|-------------|----------------|-------------|-------------|
E|-------------|----------------|-------------|-------------|


Get it just right in notepad (or anything with a monospace font like courier), then surround it with '

' and '

', exactly like this:

  e|-3-5--7--5-3-|-8-10--12--10-8-|-3-5--7--5-3-|--5---2—-3-5-|-R-| 
  B|-------------|----------------|-------------|--7---3--5-7-|-E-| 
  G|-4-5--5--5-4-|-9-10--12--10-8-|-4-5--7--5-4-|-------------|-P-| 
  D|-------------|----------------|-------------|-------------|-E-|  
  A|-------------|----------------|-------------|-------------|-A-|
  E|-------------|----------------|-------------|-------------|-T-| 

...et viola! it comes out like this:

e|-3-5--7--5-3-|-8-10--12--10-8-|-3-5--7--5-3-|--5---2—-3-5-|-R-|
B|-------------|----------------|-------------|--7---3--5-7-|-E-|
G|-4-5--5--5-4-|-9-10--12--10-8-|-4-5--7--5-4-|-------------|-P-|
D|-------------|----------------|-------------|-------------|-E-|
A|-------------|----------------|-------------|-------------|-A-|
E|-------------|----------------|-------------|-------------|-T-|


Here is a demo of slightly different strumming pattern involving two string slaps per measure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgFvQi4Qyag

Im trying to tighten up the intro to this and was wondering for the first 3 bars played on guitar if I should be playing on 1, and, 2, 3, 4. Its just so I can try and speed it up gradually with the metronome.

Try one, two and, and four. Should sound closer to what you want.

Hope this helps.

Peace