The correct way to play Whatās Up is with no capo and the chords are A, Bm and D, Justin teaches it with a capo on the 2nd fret using the chord shapes of G, Am and C to avoid the Bm barre chord but staying in the key of A
If the chords on the app are G, Am and C with no capo then the song has been transposed to the key of G.
This is confusing especially as the Beginners Songbook shows this with the strumming pattern over two bars, as noted by CliffM above. Iām assuming that the Songbook is wrong.
Yup, I watched the video lesson and read the book section several times and determined the book is, indeed, wrong.
I have to say that when you add the fancy strumming pattern the song sounds WAY COOL!
Justin says at about 8:48 in the lesson that the count is indeed 16th notes, but that beginners havenāt yet learned 16th note counting (not introduced until grade 3). So in the book, heās ātranslatedā the 16th note pattern into two 8th note bars. He does this in the lesson for One by U2 as well - itās worth taking a look at the Strumming Pattern section at 05:27. Iāve tried counting 16th notes, and am awful at it at this point in my journey. I have other fish to fry just now, so Iāll use the two-bar 8th note trick!
Yeah, I remember him saying something about that, BUT, to me, that means half of the strumming pattern would be played for the first 4 beats and the other half of the pattern for the next for beats which is a different chord. I havenāt listened to the original song lately, but on the App, itās definitely using the entire pattern for each 4 beat chord change.
Oh, I see. I interpreted it to mean playing each bar as if they were two. That is, play the entire two-bar strumming pattern in each bar, so it matches with the song. Itās just counted differently. And to be honest, I just realized that I donāt really count it, but rather my mind is thinking ādown/down-up/downā and so on. That might be a bad habit - thanks for leading me to that realization!
If you split a 16th note strumming pattern into two 8th note strumming patterns the the first two beats of the bar is the first 8th note pattern and the last beats of the bar is the 2nd 8th note strumming pattern. So the first 1&2&3&4& is the 1e&a2e&a and the 2nd 1&2&3&4& is the 3e&a4e&a.
Indeed it does!
Unfortunately, when I tried singing today everything went wrong. 
So, no singing with the new pattern quite yet.
Singing!! Oh no, not for me. Itās raining bad enough as it is.
The singing part I didnāt find too bad, it was when Linda hums that I found really difficult and it took me ages to get that.
Thereās humming? I suppose I ought to listen to the original. But I suspect you donāt have to hum if you donāt want to.
Yes, the humming comes between the pre-chorus and the chorus but give the original a listen. Of course not, remember youāre making it your own.
Rebecca its more woohoo ooing than humming but its certainly not words. Definitely worth a listen to the original, not only for that but the whole vibe of the song.
Edit for the live official vid. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NXnxTNIWkc
The music video is very helpful because if you watch carefully you can see she is not using an A barre cord at the 5th fret as Justin surmised, but is instead using more of a hybrid traditional/power A chord on the 2nd fret with her thumb wrapped over the top to mute the low E string. But Justinās video description of how she is letting the open strings ring out in the chord transitions seems bang on. What an awesome song!
Hi David welcome to the forum and glad the video helped. Always good to put things into persepective.
Why not pop over HERE and introduce yourself.
A great tune and another excellent lesson by Justin. I am now playing in a band and this song is in our set. I am currently trying to learn the lead line on my electric guitar.
The challenge for me with this is I tend to lose the strumming pattern after the first chorus or so, although I seem to play it okay by feel. Also, the singerās voice goes up super high from the verse to the pre-chorus, which I find challenging, because i canāt get those higher notes. So I have to start lower.
No capo on the app version, so itās one step down from the actual key of the song, which makes it easier to sing!
Yeah but then I gotta do the dreaded barr chord(s) 