The Letter

Lesson Goals:

♦ Review the Am, F, G, D, E and C chords
♦ Become familiar with the chord progression for "The Letter"
♦ Learn strumming pattern for "The Letter"

"The Letter" was released in 1967 by "The Box Tops" and became a number one Billboard Hit. The song has been covered by numerous artists including Joe Cocker's famous funky rendition from 1970. We are going to learn "The Box Tops" version in this lesson.

The song will expand your reach a bit because there are a total of six chords. In this lesson we will work on the verses and in the next we will cover the bridge and put the whole thing together.

The rhythm pattern we will use incorporates successive down and up strokes. There are 4 beats to each measure and each beat will receive 2 strokes. We will place an emphasis on the 2nd and 4th beats as we strum. You could verbalize the strumming pattern like this:

"one and two and three and four and"

 

Let's take a look at the chart below. The progression is for the verses. Try playing it slowly at first then gradually work up speed.