Learn "Back to December" by Taylor Swift

Hey, how you doing? It’s Justin, and today we’ll check out Back to December by Taylor Swift (not Taylor Smith! How embarrassing.) Great pop tune this and written by Taylor herself. She gets my respect.

This song uses 16th notes. Since we don’t cover this in the Beginner’s Course, I’ve written the rhythm using 8th notes in The Beginner’s Songbook. We’ll look at some extra tricks to make the rhythm sound really cool. :) Get your capo on fret 2, and let’s go.

Back to December – Intro

If you have my Beginner’s Songbook, you’ll see the intro for this song isn't written down! Not to worry – the intro is the same as the “Link” section. It’s a full bar of C (X32010), half a bar of Am (X02210), then half a bar of FMaj7 (XX3210).

You have options for FMaj7. If you want to play mini F (the one above), by all means do so. Just make sure you don’t hit the two thickest strings.

🧐 F chord options – let’s check out the many F chord variations. They’re all useful in different contexts, and you want to have them all in your armory.

My favorite F grip uses the mini F with fingers 1, 2, and 3, and the thumb to play the bass note at 6:1 (string 6, fret 1). But using the thumb like this is tricky for beginners and took me years, so don’t fret if you find it impossible.

Another real common way to play FMaj7 is X33210 (technically FMaj7/C). It’s pretty easy to transition to this one from C: move finger 2 from 4:2 to 3:2 and add finger 4 at 4:3. To move back to C, just do the opposite of what I said. 🙂

Back to December – Verse and Pre-Chorus

The verse progression is pretty similar to the intro. We play C for a bar, Am for a bar, F for a bar, C for half a bar, and G for half. For the pre-chorus, it’s Am, G, C, and F, all for half a bar. On the second rep, it’s Am, G, then a full bar of FMaj7.

You definitely want to build the volume on that final bar of F before the chorus. Even if you’re only using simple strumming, building the volume here really adds a lot to the dynamics. People will dig it and start singing!

Back to December by Taylor Swift – Chorus

For the chorus, we go C, Em (022000), FMaj7, then half a bar of Am, followed by half a bar of G. After two reps of that, we go to a full bar of FMaj7 when she sings “and make it all…”. Then it’s half a bar of Am and half a bar of G.

🎸 Song Dynamics – Why vary the dynamics of a song? How do we change them up? When do we need to vary them? Let’s go into song dynamics in depth.

Back to December by Taylor Swift – Bridge and Tag

The bridge goes Am, FMaj7, C, and G, all for half a bar. Repeat that twice. Then we play the same chords, but each for a full bar. On the Am and FMaj7, only play on beat 1, muting the guitar on beat 2.

There’s also a tag section before the final chorus! This goes half a bar of Am, half a bar of G, then a whole bar of F. Repeat this twice.

Back to December by Taylor Swift – Strumming

You can go for four downstrums to the bar here. It sounds cool but doesn’t match the original record. Let’s add some more strums to spice it up!

If you’ve played the song through with four downstrums to the bar, you’ll notice the hand moves pretty slowly. So let’s strum twice as fast and play two bars when before we only played one. We also count twice as fast; count all the new downs as beats: “1, 2, 3, 4.”

💣 Confidence Is Key – Rhythm guitar starts sounding shaky when you aren’t confident. So in real playing, you’re best using patterns you find easy. Then you can sharpen your strumming skills during practice time.

Notice that this new strumming gives us more opportunities to vary the strumming. We can add ups between the downs. Use the pattern 1 3 1 + 2 3 4, keeping your hand moving consistently throughout. :)

This is 16th note strumming; we’re just counting it differently to make it easy to understand. If you can’t do this, stick to the real simple strumming. It’ll sound better, and you can come back later.

Back to December by Taylor Swift – Fancy Stuff

Make sure you have the above pattern solid, then you can experiment. Keep your arm moving the same way, and add more strums when it sounds good. See what you can find. :)

Another element you can add to strummy songs are embellishments. Try adding a Csus2 embellishment to the intro by lifting off finger 2 as you strum on the C. You can also try adding hammer-ons over the Am, as I do in the demo.

💡 Play Along With The Record – keep the capo on fret 2, and you’ll be able to play along with the original tune. It sounds great with Taylor singing it! :)

Have lots of fun with this tune. Like loads of my Beginner songs, this one is a grower. Come back to it as you progress as a guitarist and add in new parts with the techniques you learn. It’ll sound wicked! Take care. :)

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