Hey guys, what’s up? It’s Aaron. This song I want to teach you is a new one by Brad Paisley. It’s called “Then”. It’s a really great love song. He never ceases to amaze me with the songwriting that he does. So I’m going to teach this song, and hopefully these chords are right. It sounds right to me when I play them and I’m doing a little work with this, I’ve asked some other people to help me out. But I’m going to go ahead and give it to you.

So the chords that we’re going to use for the verse are A minor, F to C to G. Okay, and we’re going to do that twice. One thing you can do in this song, if you hate that F bar chord, I strongly recommend that you practice until you can do it because it’s an important chord. I use it a lot. But if you don’t like that, do this for me. [Demonstration] Okay, take your bar off, so this ring and pinkie are still on the 5 and 4 strings, your A and D on the third fret, middle finger is still on your G string 2nd fret, but instead of barring across to the pointer, just either cover the bottom two strings. If you can do that, you kind of just bar across the 1 and 2, 1st fret. Or if you don’t like that either, you can just put it on just the 2 string 1st fret and this will be your F.

[Demonstration]

Okay? If you can put it across the bottom two like this, that sounds better and best yet. This is the bar chord.

So you can play that bar chord. If you do, here’s what it sounds like. A minor with the bar, C to G. Alright, the other way, A minor, [Demonstration] that’s just this way. We’re just holding them down, this with the pointer, so take your pick.

So you go through that twice. The strum pattern is A, so an A minor chord down, up, down, up, down.

[Demonstration]

That last down, you’re switching to your F. Down, up, down, up, switch to your F, down, up, down, up, down, down, up, switch to your C chord, down, up, down, up, switch to your G chord, down, up, down, up, down, down, up. So down, up, down, up and before the last down, you switch to the F and you play down, up, down, up, down, down, up, switch to your C down, up, down, up, switch to your G, down, up, down, up, down, down, up.

[Demonstration]

Once you do that twice, you’re going to do that chord progression. Actually, I’m taking that back. You’re going to do that chord progression three times. As you finish the third time, it’s going to be “taking 45 minutes to kiss good night, I hadn’t told you yet but I thought I loved you then”, that’s just an A minor [Demonstration] down to F “I thought I loved you then.” So that’s that.

I guess I can try and sing it. It’s probably a little high for my, but I’ll try to keep the strumming pattern [Demonstration]. Okay, that’s the verse, it’s the same for all three, just change the lyrics.

The chorus, now that’s way too off for me to sing but I’ll teach you how to strum it. So that is basically a C chord, go to G and to A minor. And now, when it gets to the part “I just can’t believe the way I feel about you, girl” it goes [Demonstration], kind of a quicker strum pattern.

So what I want you to do is [Demonstration]. So for the C “and now you’re my whole life” just play it down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, down, up, switch to the G [Demonstration] to your A minor. And then A minor [Demonstration] so for the A minor, down, down, up, switch to the G, down, down, up, switching to F, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, down, up, and that gets to the line “feel about you girl, like the river meets the sea, stronger than it’s ever been. We’ve come so far since that day and I thought I loved you then.”

Okay. Whatever, we’ll give it a shot. It’s going to be way too high. I’ll just try and sing it.

[Demonstration]

The bridge, “I could just see you with a baby on the way, I could just see you when your hair is turning gray,” that is two measures of G, one measure of F, and one of C. So it’s like this.

[Demonstration]

So that’s high for me, but there you go.

“What I can’t see” A minor, “is how I’m ever going to love you more”. So for the first two chords, the A minor to the F to the G, just do [Demonstration]. Down, down, up, down, up, F, down, down, up, down, up, G, down, down, up, down, up, and “going to love you more” switch your F down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, down, up but offset that before G. You go back to the chorus.

The very last chorus, he does something kind of cool and he actually picks it for like the first half of the chorus. So “Now you’re my whole life, now you’re my whole word,” he picks that, so just—I guess that’s C—it’s just C to G and G to A minor. That’s all it is. He’s just picking within those chords. I have a video on picking within chords because I don’t have a pedal. You can start in a C chord and just pick down and up, switch to the G, A minor, anything you want, but just make these chords. You can strum it if you don’t like picking. But if you want to add some picking in there, you can do anything you want. [Demonstration] I’m just picking up and down the strings. There’s no special trick I’m doing.

So good luck with this one guys, I hope this lesson helped. I apologize for my singing. I hope your ears aren’t bleeding. So check out freeandeasyguitar.com and have a good week.