Six String Fingerpicking Courses and Lessons

Take Me Home, Country Roads by John Denver Easy Guitar Lesson (Fingerstyle)

John Denver

SONG DETAILS

DIFFICULTY:

2

TUNING:

Standard

TEMPO:

81 BPM

KEY:

C major

In this fingerstyle guitar lesson we’re learning a reasonably easy arrangement of the classic country song Take Me Home, Country Roads – Number 2 on my Top 10 Country Songs for Fingerstyle Guitar list.

Take Me Home, Country Roads was written by John Denver, Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert. The song was released in 1971 and has gone on to be one of John Denver’s most successful and loved songs. In this lesson, we’re learning a fingerstyle arrangement of this classic singalong tune.

I’ve already created a more advanced arrangement lesson for Country Roads, so if you find this one a little too basic for you then I’m sure that this version will keep you on your toes.

OK, let’s start learning this fun arrangement of Take Me Home, Country Roads!

Learn To Play Take Me Home, Country Roads

Take Me Home, Country Roads (Performance)

As you learn to play this fingerstyle arrangement of Take Me Home, Country Roads, be sure to frequently return to the performance as a good reference point and guide.

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Take Me Home, Country Roads (Intro Lesson)

To begin with we’re going to learn a short intro of Take Me Home, Country Roads. This is just a few bars long and is all over a C major chord. You could skip over this section and start directly with the verse but it’s not too hard to play and it sounds great so I reckon it’s well worth including

How to Play the Verse of Country Roads

Into the verse and there’s a lot more going here. It’s worth knowing before you really get going with this arrangement that the bass notes are alternating for the majority of the time throughout the song. So if your thumb independence needs a little work, you may want to isolate just the bass and practise it on its own.

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How to Play the Chorus

You may find the F chord hard to play if you’ve not used the grip I teach you in this arrangement as it’s a little awkward. Having said that, it’s certainly a shape you want to get comfortable with as it’s used fairly regularly in fingerstyle arrangements.

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Bridge Lesson for Country Roads

Just the bridge left to learn now and if you’ve come this far you likely won’t struggle too much with this section.

Song structure: Intro (verse), Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Chorus

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