Six String Fingerpicking Courses and Lessons

California’ Dreaming by The Mamas & The Papas – Fingerstyle Guitar Tutorial and TAB

The Mamas & The Papas

SONG DETAILS

DIFFICULTY:

6

TUNING:

Standard

CAPO:

4th fret

This is the full fingerstyle guitar lesson for California Dreamin’.

California Dreamin’ was written by John and Michelle Phillips in 1963 and released as a single in 1965. The song appears on The Mamas & The Papas’ album If You Can Believe Your Eyes & Ears.

This was a huge hit for the band and sold millions around the world, remaining very popular even today. In fact, at the time of writing, California Dreamin’ has close to a billion streams on Spotify.

It makes for a great fingerstyle arrangement and if you like the song I’m sure you’re going to love fingerpicking it too. So let’s pick our guitars and learn how to play it!

 

Learn To Play California Dreamin'

 

California Dreamin’ (Performance)

 

As you learn to play this fingerstyle arrangement of California Dreamin’, be sure to frequently return to the performance as a good reference point and guide.

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California Dreamin' Guitar Lesson (Part One)

In this first lesson we learn how to play the intro, the first verse and the chorus. There’s quite a lot of chords to navigate and some fun twists and turns so always just take your time and gradually piece everything together.

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California Dreamin' Guitar Lesson (Part Two)

OK, now let’s learn how to play the rest of the song. Here we’ll cover the second verse, the bridge and the outro. There’s a few small bends going on in the second verse so make sure that your capo is on firmly, or your strings won’t return to there normal position and will become out of tune!

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