Learn to play guitar with weekly video lessons & print-friendly guides! Learn your favorite songs & techniques with step-by-step tutorials that actually explain how to get from here to there.
Free Fallin' – A Drunken Guitarist's Guide
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LESSON #619 Click to view free video lesson » In today’s lesson I’ll teach you to play Free Fallin’ by Tom Petty, which I consider an all-timer as far as guitar songs go. Whether you're a beginner or much more far along in your journey, this song gives us plenty to have fun with. Here's what I tackle:
On the surface, this song may seem simple: just three chords and a repeating two-measure chord progression that’s used the entire time. But make no mistake, there’s plenty of ways you can level things up. I’ll walk you through the colorful chord voicings Tom Petty uses (in the Key of D and Key of E), as well as several strumming & rhythm tricks to make sure the repeating progression never gets stale. Visit my lesson webpage for all additional resources for this song. A looped practice track (you can hear me using it in my lesson), the lyric sheets I recommend, and my step-by-step practice guide, and more. Watch my Pyramid Strumming Drill Lesson » A few months back, I released this strumming & rhythm tutorial which is perfect for Free Fallin'... especially if you're looking for help with that tricky 16th note rhythm. Give it a watch if you haven't seen it yet! My Dad was a champ about letting me listen to whatever music I wanted, back when he was teaching me to drive. But the one CD I drove into the ground? Tom Petty's Greatest Hits. Once he asked me if we could (please) listen to something else, just to change it up. Fair enough. Anyhow, I'm a big Petty fan! Here's all the other songs I've taught, going back to 2017. Even in those thumbnails, it gives me a kick watch see my haircuts change over time.
And last but not least, from Tom's supergroup days with Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Roy Orbison, etc:
As a final note, I've been making amazing progress with a true step-by-step Travis Picking (fingerstyle) course... which I'll be ready to share a portion of very soon. It feels great to finally have a foot in the door with a properly planned, roadmap-based series of lessons on a single topic. I've recorded & edited 10 lessons, each of which has a few exercise videos. Thanks to all of you who requested early access... keep an eye on your inbox! For anyone else who wants a sneak-peek at this course, reply to this email and let me know. I'll add you to the list. Have a great weekend all! David Browse all my lessons at songnotes.net |
Song Notes by David Pots
Learn to play guitar with weekly video lessons & print-friendly guides! Learn your favorite songs & techniques with step-by-step tutorials that actually explain how to get from here to there.
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LESSON #616Refine Your Rhythm & Never Lose the Beat! Click to watch free video lesson » If you asked me to give you one strumming lesson that’ll make the most difference your playing, it’s this one. It’s an exercise I put together over the years during my own practice – and finally I’ve made a proper lesson showing you how to do it. I’m calling it the pyramid drill – which seems fitting because of the ascend-then-descend structure, similar to what you find in many workout routines. This drill...