Once you can hold your guitar, make a few chords and strum the strings, it\u2019s time to learn a song! And what better song to learn than one just about everyone you know can sing along to? John Denver’s Take Me Home, Country Roads is the perfect song for beginners. We won\u2019t worry about the complicated picking pattern that\u2019s used in the recording, instead, we\u2019re going to focus on supporting the main melody with basic guitar chords and a simplified strumming pattern.<\/p>\n\n\n
Learn to play the songs you love even faster with our interactive practice tool inside the Guitareo members’ area. Start your 7-day free trial today!<\/p>\n
TRY GUITAREO<\/a><\/p>\n <\/center><\/p>\n\n\n\n Level 1: Simplified Chord Shapes<\/strong> Level 2: Full Chord Shapes<\/strong> The Strumming Pattern<\/strong> Level 3: Doubling Up The Strumming Pattern<\/strong> Bonus: The Ultimate Strumming Pattern<\/strong> And that\u2019s it! It\u2019s important to spend time learning the songs you love, and in the age of the internet, it\u2019s pretty easy to type a song name into the search bar and find the chords instantly. If you come across some chords or techniques you don\u2019t know, be sure to join us in the Guitareo members area<\/a> where you can get lessons on every topic imaginable by real teachers (like me!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Want to improve your guitar skills even faster?<\/strong> Unlock our interactive practice tool and learn from the most inspiring teachers inside the Guitareo members\u2019 area. Click the big green button below and start your 7-day free trial today:<\/p>\n\n\n
To kick things off, we\u2019ll play through the main chord progression using simplified, two-finger chords. The chord progression for this song uses a G major chord, D major chord, E minor chord, and C major chord. Thankfully, we can play variations of each of these open chords with just two fingers, making this song quite easy to start playing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once you get the hang of playing the two-finger chord shapes, you can add a couple more fingers to the mix to play the full shapes. These chord shapes are ones you\u2019ll use for the rest of your life and are important to learn at some point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At first, it\u2019s best to use a very straightforward strumming pattern while you learn the chords. So we\u2019ll just strum on every fourth beat. This will give you plenty of time to make the change between each chord nice and smooth!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the third level, we\u2019ll increase the difficulty of the strumming pattern \u2013 but not by much. All you need to do is strum every two beats instead of four. Be sure to listen to the video for an example of how this will sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
popular strumming patterns ever: the down, down, up, up, down, up pattern. This one is going to prove itself difficult to play at full speed, so you might want to start off slow and make sure you\u2019re nailing the chord changes before speeding up.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhat\u2019s next?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n