Hey there, in this lesson you're gonna
learn how to play an easy guitar song. I
just want to be your teddy bear. This is originally sung by Elvis Presley.
Let's do it. Oh baby
I wanna be your teddy bear
Put a chain around my neck
And lead me anywhere
Oh let me be (oh let him be)
Your teddy bear
Hi there I'm Tomas Michaud from Real
Guitar Success. Teddy Bear is a great
song both for students and
experienced guitar players. It's one of
those easy guitar songs that it's fairly
easy to play but it's very recognizable.
We're gonna use just 3 chords and
I'll show you both an easy way and a
little more advanced way then I'll go
ahead and show you a strumming pattern
and we'll put it all together. Let's
start with the chords. The first chord
we're using a folk style C chord. This is
kind of the traditional way of playing a
C chord. I have a few versions but this
is very common. You put your first finger
on the second string first fret, second
finger over here in the fourth string
second fret and finally the third string
on the third fret of the fifth string
that's roughly the bass note. So if you hit
this low E the sixth string it works
fine too. Then we've got an F chord. The F
chord I'm gonna play is this version. Now
if you're just starting out, you may want
to try and play it without a bar and it
sounds pretty good. To do that from the C
chord, you put your pinky down next to
the third finger on the fourth string
third fret, move the second finger over
one string to the third string second
fret and then leave your first finger
here now that's an F chord.
The first thing now is not a part of it
so I'm gonna angle my first finger down
a little bit so it deadens out. Now
I'm actually even slightly touching the
six string with my third finger right
here and that deadens that out too. If
you're up for a little more challenge, a
good way to do this is to make a partial
bar with your first finger and that will
allow you to play the first string as
well
still I'm deadening out that sixth string. And then if you've been playing for a
while and you know your bar chords or at
least can play them and you want to work
on them go ahead. And from this position
bar across the first fret
either is an easy transition from C.
You'll notice from C I just put my
pinky down. Move the second finger over
and I either flatten this out or make a
full bar or if just starting out I'll
leave it there and just angle it down
slightly. And then finally, we have a G
chord and I'm gonna use this version of
G because it's easy for me to change
from this C chord to this G. It does
involved the pinky. And if that's hard
for you, you may want to go and switched
your fingers around and either do a
version like this or I often play the G
chord like this. I used both my 3rd and
pinky and by putting a third finger
there it gives the pinky support. But
for me, to ease of switching from here
to here is worth having the pinky alone
there by itself. Now just a little bit
about the form of a song. This is a
fairly standard song form. It's actually
12 bars that's the same thing as
measures. This 12 bar pattern originally
came from blues but I realized this
doesn't sound like blues that's because
it has a different combination of rhythm
pattern and a chord progression. Let's
just map out the basic chord progression.
We're gonna do 4 bars of C, 3 bars
of F and then 1 bar of C that makes up
8 bars then we'll do 2 bars of G
and 2 bars of C. Don't worry if you
don't remember all that. We're gonna go
through it. Let's just call a bar for now
4  beats, 4 strums and each strum will
be 1 beat. Let's map it out together.
Start with your C chord and try playing
along with me - 1 2 ready, hit it.
1 2 3 4 that's  1 measure
1 2 3 - 2 measures, 1 2 3 4
3 measures and 1 2 3 4 
and 4 measures. Let's do it again but
this time I'm gonna add the words so you
can hear how the words fit with the
chords. Here we go - 1 2 start with C.
Now Baby, let me be -  again
Your lovin teddy bear - last measure - go on to F - Put a chain around my neck
again - And lead me any
C where - just let me
G - be your
teddy - back to C - 1 2 3 4 one more and 1 2 3 4 then that's the
verse it would start over or you go into
the chorus depending on which part of
the song you're at. Now I'm going to go
through the chorus in the same way. I'll
start with the F chord. Here we go - 1 2   ready,  play - I don't want to be a - G - tigers - F - cause tigers play too
G - rough. Back to F - I don't want to be a lion. Back to F - Lions ain't kind - G
Going to C again.
and back to the verse. I just wanna be - and start all over again.
Now for the strum, we'll start off
with a basic strum down, down, up, down, up
down, up. And now I'll show you a little
more advanced version. Go ahead and make
a C chord and let's try it together. I'll
count it out 1 2  ready, hit it - 1 2 3 4 , 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4.
Now that strum will work fine if you're
just learning this song and you're new
to guitar but if you want to add a
little pizzazz to it we can alternate
low strings and high strings to add a
little motion to it. Now just to be clear
you don't have to stick to the exact
same way I'm doing it but you can
experiment and see what sounds good to
you. Also I made a whole video on these
kinds of techniques for strumming and
I'll put a link to that. Here we go  1
2 ready, hit it.
So here's the exact pattern I'm doing.
I'm going low down, high high then low high, high high, low high high high, low high
Now the one other thing I'm doing just
so if you want experiment with it I'm
adding a little accent on beats 2 and
4 that means I'm putting just a
little extra push nothing
exaggerated. If I get have to listen
closely but you can feel it. It gives it
a little drive to it. Listen. Here's the
basic strum.
Now here's what the low and highs in
that accent.
Okay now we're gonna put it all together.
I'm gonna play the song once through
and I encourage you to play along with
me. Now if you want,  you're not ready for
that you can just listen and then go
back and try it afterwards. Also please
use the strum that you're comfortable
with right now whether it's that very
first strum or adding some of the
techniques. You can always add to it but
if you're trying to do too many things
at once it's gonna be hard to actually
follow along with me.  Oh baby let me be
Your lovin teddy bear - going to F -
Put a chain around my neck
And lead me
back to C - anywhere
Oh let me be 
Your teddy bear
Go to the chorus - I don't want to be a tiger
Cause tigers play too rough
I don't want to be a lion
Cause lions ain't the kind
You love enough
Chorus 2 - I just wanna be your teddy bear. Put a chain around my neck
And lead me anywhere.  Oh let me be (oh let him be)
Your teddy bear. Chorus 3  - Baby let me be
Around you every night
going to F - Run your fingers through my hair 
Oh let me be (oh let him be) Your teddy bear. Back to the chorus.  I don't want to be a tiger
Cause tigers play too rough. I don't want to be a lion
Cause lions ain't the kind
You love enough
I just wanna be - back to second verse -I just wanna be
Your teddy bear. Oh let me be (oh let him be)
Your teddy bear. Oh let me be (oh let him be)
Your teddy bear. I just wanna be your teddy bear.
So that's it for today's lesson. Did you
learn something? If you did, go and
subscribe to my YouTube channel right
now. And if you want exclusive lessons
and tips, go over to my website at https://www.tomasmichaud.com/  and subscribe to my
newsletter. It's free. Now I want to turn
it over to you. Which form of the F chord
are you gonna use? Are you gonna try the
F chord that looks a lot like the C
chord? Are you gonna go ahead and use
this mini bar here or the full bar and
how about that strum? Are you gonna go
for the simplest version of the strum or
are you're gonna try and add some of those
techniques the low high and the accents
on two and four? Let me know in the
comments below, right now.
