Chords for "Sundown" by Gordon Lightfoot ** EASY Guitar Lesson ! **

_ _ Here's Sundown by Gordon Lightfoot from 1974.
Easy chords, an opportunity to use your capo
at the second fret, and I'll show you a few different ways to strum your way through this
tune.
So let's get started. _
Let's start with an easy strum pattern.
We'll strum each chord
once and then count two, three, four.
Two, three, four.
Now with the words it's going
to sound like this.
I can see you're lying back in a sad [F#] dress in a room where you do
what you don't do. _
[B] Sundown, you better take care [E] if I find you've been [F#] creeping around
the back stairs. _
Sundown, [B] you better take care [E] if I find you've been creeping [F#] around
the back stairs.
So, very easy for those of you who are just starting off on the guitar.
You'll appreciate the fact that you have some time to change chords, right?
You have those
three beats of silence where you can [N] get to the next chord.
With that in mind, in the
beginning when you're changing from E major to B7, notice my second finger there can stay
right on the fifth string, second [F#] fret.
It's there for the E [B] major and it's there for the
B7.
Now let's move on to a [G#] little fancier stuff.
_ [Gm] Now let's move on to a steady stream
of down up strumming.
A little more interesting to play, a little more interesting to listen
to.
Check it [F#] out.
I can see you're lying back in a sad dress [G#] in a room [F#] _ _ _ _ _
[B] _ _ [E] _ _ [F#] where you do what _
you do.
Sundown, [B] you better take [E] care if I find [F#] you've been creeping around the back
stairs.
_ Sundown, you better take care if I find you've been creeping around the back
stairs.
Looks simple enough, right?
But let me talk you through a couple of details.
A
loose grip on your pick is so important.
You should be holding the pick so loosely that
you're just about to drop it.
That really helps to create this nice, casual, fluid kind
of sound.
Second of [D#] all, the down strokes should tend to [F#] emphasize the heavier bass
strings and the up strokes should emphasize the two or three treble strings so you get
that nice contrast.
Check it out.
_ _ Now whatever you do, don't make a big effort to get all
the strings [D#] on the way down and all the strings on the way up.
It ends up slowing you down
and it can sound a little clumsy too.
Now for extra credit, you could choose to emphasize
a down stroke or an up stroke and listen to the effect you get if you emphasize [F#] certain
strokes. _ _
_ _ Okay?
Nice little [Gm] personality can grow there by adding little emphasis.
Now
that's a choice that you can make on your own.
Okay, some other details include leaving
early.
Now I just did four down ups on my first E chord.
Down, up, down, up, down, up,
and four more down ups on the second E chord.
But on the final up stroke on that E [G] chord
where it's time to go to the B7, I began transitioning my left hand on the up stroke.
Now I know
I can keep my second finger down when I change from E to B7, but my point is on the final
up stroke, you can actually begin to lift [D#] fingers off and get them into position for
the next chord, whatever the next chord happens to be.
I call that leaving early.
If you've
seen [F#] other videos of mine, I talk about this quite a bit.
Having your fretting hand leave
early, even while you're [G] still strumming.
You've got to do it.
Everybody does it.
It's
practically mandatory so that you can get to the next chord in time.
Okay?
So what [Gm] we're
looking at is a series of down ups, four down ups every time you see a chord name.
But on
that final up stroke, you're allowed to leave early to get your next chord in the nick of
time. _
Now for those of you who like a little more detail about playing this song, such
as a fancier way to strum your way through it, consider becoming a member of my website
Songbreak.
You'll find an expanded version of this video at the website, plus dozens
and dozens of great videos you can't find anywhere else.
I hope