https://guitarnoise.forum/easy-songs/father-and-son-with-simple-intro-cat-stevens/ Guitar Noise Discussion Board en-US Thu, 04 Jun 2026 10:28:37 +0000 wpForo 60 https://guitarnoise.forum/easy-songs/father-and-son-with-simple-intro-cat-stevens/paged/2/#post-192993 Fri, 11 Aug 2006 00:32:14 +0000 and Matteo, those 16th note strums are harder...I typically use the top and down motion of my strumming hand to keep rthyme...but when I speed up and slow down on it, the rhythm gets harder to keep...but I'll keep working on it

thank you!]]> Easy Songs lineagecreed https://guitarnoise.forum/easy-songs/father-and-son-with-simple-intro-cat-stevens/paged/2/#post-192993 https://guitarnoise.forum/easy-songs/father-and-son-with-simple-intro-cat-stevens/paged/2/#post-192445 Mon, 07 Aug 2006 12:31:11 +0000 i have a small question on this, as strum pattern has always been hard for me (bad rthyme). you mentioned the strum for father and son should be " try Down (pause)downupdown"

does that mean, the first Down stroke gets 2 beats? the "downup" gets 1 beat and the last down gets 1 beat?

thank you Hi mate

this is a typical sixteen notes strummin pattern. The pattern Matt suggested is by the way the original Cat Stevens uses. it is in term of beats

1: D
2: Ddu
3: D
4: Ddu

So you basically play a downstrum in beat 1 then in beat 2 things go a bit speedier playing Ddu The shift between quarter and eight notes is a bit tricky so I use to play a simplier pattern like this

1 = dd
2 = ddu

Also don't forget to mute the first two downstrums. It is a pattern widely used by Neil Young (i.e. in Heart of gold verse or in Old Man) or by Cat Stevens in Wild World

Cheers

Matteo]]> Easy Songs matteo https://guitarnoise.forum/easy-songs/father-and-son-with-simple-intro-cat-stevens/paged/2/#post-192445 https://guitarnoise.forum/easy-songs/father-and-son-with-simple-intro-cat-stevens/paged/2/#post-192386 Mon, 07 Aug 2006 01:49:50 +0000
does that mean, the first Down stroke gets 2 beats? the "downup" gets 1 beat and the last down gets 1 beat? Hey mate, hope I can help you with this. I play this as D dduD dduD dduD ...

The first "D" (in bold) comes in on the word "time" in the first verse of "It's not time to make a change".

Then it's a basic dduD through the rest of the song where the capital "D" represents an emphasized downstroke. It would probably be written differently to what I've shown above, but this helps me understand it better. Note that after the emphasized downstroke there is a one beat rest (represented by a space).

If you have the recording anywhere you'll be able to hear this pattern pretty easily.

Hope this helps. :)]]> Easy Songs Bennett https://guitarnoise.forum/easy-songs/father-and-son-with-simple-intro-cat-stevens/paged/2/#post-192386 https://guitarnoise.forum/easy-songs/father-and-son-with-simple-intro-cat-stevens/paged/2/#post-192188 Sat, 05 Aug 2006 04:48:12 +0000 thank you for this great post! I want you to know that I just spend half an hour searching through your posts looking for your easy-song posts :) so far, i've found this song, high, you're beautiful, all i want is you, behind blue eyes and half the world away. i'm helping to learn all of them! so thank you for those posts as well...

i have a small question on this, as strum pattern has always been hard for me (bad rthyme). you mentioned the strum for father and son should be " try Down (pause)downupdown"

does that mean, the first Down stroke gets 2 beats? the "downup" gets 1 beat and the last down gets 1 beat?

thank you]]> Easy Songs lineagecreed https://guitarnoise.forum/easy-songs/father-and-son-with-simple-intro-cat-stevens/paged/2/#post-192188 https://guitarnoise.forum/easy-songs/father-and-son-with-simple-intro-cat-stevens/paged/2/#post-157957 Thu, 09 Feb 2006 18:37:34 +0000
Nah...........time DURING !!!!

:lol:

All the best

Matt]]> Easy Songs mattguitar https://guitarnoise.forum/easy-songs/father-and-son-with-simple-intro-cat-stevens/paged/2/#post-157957 https://guitarnoise.forum/easy-songs/father-and-son-with-simple-intro-cat-stevens/paged/2/#post-157956 Thu, 09 Feb 2006 18:35:57 +0000 Easy Songs gazwoz https://guitarnoise.forum/easy-songs/father-and-son-with-simple-intro-cat-stevens/paged/2/#post-157956 https://guitarnoise.forum/easy-songs/father-and-son-with-simple-intro-cat-stevens/paged/2/#post-157955 Thu, 09 Feb 2006 18:24:11 +0000
Great name by the way.

all the best

Matt]]> Easy Songs mattguitar https://guitarnoise.forum/easy-songs/father-and-son-with-simple-intro-cat-stevens/paged/2/#post-157955 https://guitarnoise.forum/easy-songs/father-and-son-with-simple-intro-cat-stevens/paged/2/#post-157954 Thu, 09 Feb 2006 18:23:10 +0000 Easy Songs gazwoz https://guitarnoise.forum/easy-songs/father-and-son-with-simple-intro-cat-stevens/paged/2/#post-157954 https://guitarnoise.forum/easy-songs/father-and-son-with-simple-intro-cat-stevens/#post-155657 Tue, 31 Jan 2006 13:59:06 +0000
Just trying it tonight I've been slowly improving with the intro riff - though I do need to improve the crispness of the hammer-on.

I do have a couple of questions though:

1. And please forgive my lack of theoretical knowledge on this point, but given that Stevens sings some of the verses in a different key (I think that's the correct term - well in any case, an octave higher than the other verses) to characterize the son's vs the Father's lines, are these parts therefore played in a different key on the guitar?

2. With respect to the solo provided by Maritimer (and formatted by Slydog :)), would one normally play the notes around the 12th-15th frets using a barre at the 12th? I suppose this is personal preference, but my lack of finger dexterity seemed to prevent me from achieving success when trying to play it without a barre ... not that I had success with the barre either but that could be improved if I knew that was the generally accepted way of performing the solo.

Anyhoo, thanks Matt for a great lesson! 8)]]> Easy Songs Bennett https://guitarnoise.forum/easy-songs/father-and-son-with-simple-intro-cat-stevens/#post-155657 https://guitarnoise.forum/easy-songs/father-and-son-with-simple-intro-cat-stevens/#post-155460 Mon, 30 Jan 2006 16:42:04 +0000
Matteo]]> Easy Songs matteo https://guitarnoise.forum/easy-songs/father-and-son-with-simple-intro-cat-stevens/#post-155460