"Country Roads" Easy Guitar Lesson for Beginners | John Denver

Welcome to my "Country Roads" Guitar Lesson + Tutorial, by John Denver. This is one of the easiest songs on guitar, using 4 basic chords and a beginner strumming pattern. Learn how to play Country Roads on the guitar in the simplest way possible with this easy strumming version for acoustic guitar!

"Country Roads" CHORDS: G, C, D, Em

"Country Roads" STRUMMING PATTERN: D D -uDu

► "Country Roads" FULL SONG PLAY-THROUGH (play along with me, from start-to-finish) available on my Patreon page:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/67741779/

► Grab your copy of my FREE E-BOOK!
https://goodguitarist.com/learn-rhythm-guitar/

► Need help with the basic chords and strumming? My BEGINNER GUITAR COURSE will help you build a solid foundation one step at a time:
https://goodguitarist.com/beginner-guitar-course/

► Ready to take strumming to the next level? STRUMMING MADE SIMPLE (from Beginner To Advanced) will teach you how to play + sing at the same time, make your own patterns and more:
https://goodguitarist.com/strumming-made-simple/

"Country Roads" TABLE OF CONTENTS

0:00 - INTRO
1:24 - CHORDS + SWITCHING TIPS
2:36 - SWITCHING PRACTICE
3:43 - STRUMMING PATTERN
6:00 - CHORUS PLAY-ALONG
7 :55 - THE VERSE
8:06 - VERSE PLAY-ALONG
9:01 - THE BRIDGE
10:58 - SONG FORM
11:47 - TIPS + RESOURCES

The lesson begins with the chord shapes needed to play this song: G, D, Em, C. There are two tricks that I'd like to show you. When switching from G to D, we can leave our ring finger down, pivot off of that finger and it'll make the switch so much smoother and easier. When switching from E minor to C, we can do the same thing but pivoting off our middle finger this time. With those tips in mind, we strum through the chord shapes using downstrokes only, keeping the rhythm as simple as possible, counting along and playing through the chorus.

After becoming familiar with the chord shapes, we take a look at the strumming pattern. I've chosen a pattern that is very simple, but fits the feeling of the song perfectly. We go through it, breaking it down, counting it out, learning to feel the rhythm and then putting it all together with our chord progression. We play the chorus together, slowly, to give you a chance to feel what it's like to play along with another guitarist.

We apply the same concept to the verse and the bridge. The verse has an extra measure. We learn how to count it and adjust our strumming pattern accordingly. The bridge has an extra chord. It's an F chord that we play one time and it's very similar to C. I have an easy version of it that's totally possible for even a beginner to play (instead of that dreaded F barre chord!). After learning each part of the song, we learn how the whole thing goes together.

If you'd like to practice the entire song with me, there's a full playthrough available on my Patreon page, where I play through the entire song, start to finish. More information on that here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/67741779/

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https://goodguitarist.com/country-roads-john-denver/
https://www.patreon.com/goodguitarist/

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