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.
🎸 Simon & Garfunkel's "America" — plus 5 other Paul Simon Classics
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LESSON #603 Click to watch free video lesson My friends – new lesson today where I’ll teach you to play America by Simon and Garfunkel, from their 1968 album Bookends. This is an amazingly fun song to play, though it is quite a lot to chew on when it comes to the chord shapes & progressions needed. In my tutorial, I’ll walk you through everything — showing the easiest way to make your way through the song, along with several tips for adding flair & flourish throughout.
Don't miss all my additional practice materials for this lesson — step by step notes, a vocal melody deep-dive, a zoomed playthrough, a link to a recommended lyric sheet, and more. Get all this on my America lesson page » Techniques Used in This Song For additional help with the tips & techniques used in this song, here's a quick list of the tutorials to help you along the way:
Looking for More Simon & Garfunkel? If you're hungry for more lessons teaching Paul Simon (or Simon & Garfunkel), here's the tutorials I've made:
Sunday Fun at Formula 1 Yesterday I had an absolute blast at the United States GP here in Austin, TX. I've been a bit obsessed with F1 the last few years, and seeing these cars sweep through these corners in person was a true delight. In that spirit, I'll share this lead guitar lesson teaching the main riff heard in the F1 theme song: And this lesson from Turnpike Troubadours, who played just after the race. This is the #1 band I've wanted to see the past few years – so this was a cherry on top of an amazing day. Thanks to a good friend I got to sit dead center, which was a huge relief considering I'd walked over 18,000 steps when they hit the stage. Thanks & Enjoy! Hard to believe October is almost halfway over! I'm cooking up a few lessons at the moment, as always – and can't wait to share them with you all soon. Until then ✌️ 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.
HAPPY OPENING DAY!Learn the Iconic "Centerfield" Intro Riff Click to watch free video lesson To all the baseball fans out there... I wanted to re-share this lesson I made last spring, in case you missed it. I break down the opening riff to Centerfield by John Fogerty, with my usual step-by-step guidance. I also have a sing & strum lesson available for this song, if you want to learn to play the full song, from start to finish. Such a fun song! Step-by-step practice notes, audio practice...
Must-Know Guitarist Tech Tip! Click to watch free video lesson Happy Monday, my friends — brand new lesson today featuring an incredibly helpful tip: adjusting the key of any YouTube video. Specifically, I’ll show you how to use the free Chrome plugin Transpose – which lets you easily transpose any video to a different key (as well as fine tune the pitch, adjust the speed down, create loops, etc). This started with a question I received from Song Notes member Randy, who asked: I have been...
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...