Lauren Bateman teaches John Denver's "Country Roads" with four basic chords: G, Em, D, C. The verse and chorus use the same progression, one chord per measure. The bridge shifts key and adds F and D7 to match the original recording.
Hey, guitar enthusiast Lauren Bateman here. In this lesson we're going to go over an easy version for playing John Denver's Take Me Home Country Road. I'm going to show you a simple way to strum through this. So let's get into the video.
So what I'm going to do is I'm going to go through the verse, the chorus and the bridge sections of this song. And what we're going to do over those we'll go through what the chord progressions are and how we're going to strum through. So let's start with our verse section. So in the verse we have basically my four easy chords. So if you've seen my easy two finger lesson video, you can use these chords, but we're going to be doing a G major chord, E minor, D major and C major. Alright, so those are the chords we're going to be using for the verse and for the chorus. So G, E minor, C and D. And what we're going to do is we're going to do a very simplified strumming pattern over these chords. But first let's talk about the order we're going to play them in. Now if you need the chord chart for this video and this lesson, I'll put a link in this description below so that you can go over to my website and download it. So let's talk about the chord progression for this verse. We have two G chords followed by two E minor chords, followed by two D chords, a C chord and then a G chord and that eight chords. Once you get through that, we just go back to the beginning and we repeat it all again. And each chord is just one measure, meaning it's four beats. And we're going to modify a bit of a strumming pattern you might be familiar with to spice it up a little bit for this John Denver song. So the pattern we're going to be playing off of is 1, 2, 3 and 4. And what we're going to do is it's going to be 1, 2, 3 and 4 and down, down, down, up, down, up, down, down, down, up, down, up, 1, 2, 3 and 4. And now you can just go and use that strumming pattern throughout the song. But I think it sounds a little bit better if you add a little bit of a bass note to it. So what we're going to do is instead of strumming all the way down on that first strum, we're just gonna try and hit the low bass note of the chord. Now if you catch A couple notes, that's okay, too. But we're gonna try not to strum the entire chord. So it'll sound like 1, 2, 3, and 4, and 1, 2, 3 and 4, and 1, 2 or 3 and 4, and 1, two, three and four, and 1, 2, 3and 4, and 1, 2, three, and 1, 2, 3, and four. And so that's what it's going to sound like. So I just went through that, that whole progression. So you hear I'm just kind of catching the bass note on the first beat. So give that a try. And if you can't figure it out, don't worry. Don't worry about doing the bass note. Just stick with the full strum. So let's go talk about our chorus. Now, if you guys are enjoying this video, make sure to like and comment below. And don't forget to subscribe as well. Subscribe. So the chord progression for the chorus changes up a little bit, but we're still using the same chords. We still start with two GS, two Ds, and then we have E minor twice and C twice. Now, the chorus doesn't repeat. It actually does another eight chords in a totally different progression. We do G, G, D, D. So that's the same. But then we have double C, double G. So just keep that in mind when you're playing through the chorus. Now, in terms of the strumming pattern, we're not going to do anything different on this chorus section. That's really all you need to know about this section of the song. So let's jump ahead now to the bridge where things change up a little bit. Okay, so in this bridge section, John does something kind of cool. He changes keys. And if you don't know what that means, don't worry about it too much. It just means he kind of changes the sound of the song a little bit to what we would expect to hear. So we're going to see a few different chords. So our bridge, the chord progression is E minor, D, G, G, C, G, D, D. And then right around here, we're going to switch to an E minor. And then we go to an F chord, which we haven't played yet in the song. And if you can't do full bar chords, you can always use the F major 7 chord, which will work just fine for this section. So. So we have E minor, F, C, G. Then we have two Ds, and then we have two D7s, which was not played before in the song. So we have D&D7. Now, could you stay on the D, you could. But to make it sound like. Really sound like the song and give it the essence of what John Denver intended for this bridge, you should learn that D7 chord. So I would definitely recommend that. And in terms of the strumming, once again, we can just stick with the same strum pattern for this. And then you're gonna go right after that. For the D7, I would hold the second one. So we've got. And driving down the road I get a feeling I should have been home yesterday.
Yesterday.
So we're gonna hold that second D7 chord for a little bit of a dramatic pause. And then we're going to jump right back in to the chorus. That's John Denver's Take Me Home, Country Road. I hope you guys really enjoyed the lesson. Like I said, don't forget to like and comment below. And if you haven't subscribed to my channel yet, make sure to do so. And if you want to learn some more easy beginner guitar songs, make sure to check out another video and I'll see you guys in the next lesson. Video.
