Wagon Wheel

from: Beginning Guitar with Adrianne Serna

This lesson is part of the course Beginning Guitar with Adrianne Serna.

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About This Course

Learn to play guitar from scratch and sing some of your favorite songs with simple but powerful chords and strum patterns. Includes 24 great songs to play, with chord and lyric sheets.

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Orphan Girl

Gillian Welch’s song “Orphan Girl” was first recorded by Emmylou Harris on her classic Wrecking Ball album, and Welch recorded the song, which has become a bluegrass jam session favorite, on her debut recording, Revival. You can play “Orphan Girl” with just three chords—G, C, and D—and the bass down-up strum, with or without an alternating bass, whichever you choose. Adrianne shows you which bass strings to alternate for each chord and how to accent the second and fourth beats of each measure.

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The Beginning Guitar Subscription Includes:

24 complete songs to play
Chord tutorials for 11 essential guitar chords
New strum patterns (with variations) introduced in each lesson
Advice on tuning your guitar, changing keys, using a capo, and more
Chord-and-lyric sheets with recommended strum patterns for all songs
High-quality video with multiple camera angles so you can see closeups of both hands in action.

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Wagon Wheel

Old Crow Medicine Show’s hit song “Wagon Wheel” was originally started by Bob Dylan, who recorded a sketch of the song in 1973, and then finished by Old Crow’s Ketch Secor. It appeared on Old Crow Medicine Show’s debut album in 2004 and has become a popular song on radio and at campfire singalongs and jams around the world. “Wagon Wheel” has four chords (G, D, Em, and C), and Adrianne plays it with a capo at the second fret. She explains how to put the capo on and then demonstrates a couple of different strum pattern options, including down down, _ up down-up; bass down, _up down-up; and bass down, down-up down-up.

"Wagon Wheel" (Available to subscribers)