"The Sound of Silence" by Simon & Garfunkel is one of the most beautiful songs ever written!

And in today's lesson, we'll learn how to play it on the acoustic guitar. We'll explore its chord progression and a fingerstyle pattern that will sound great if you want to play it on your own on the guitar. The original recording has quite different guitar layers, so we'll learn how to sound good when playing by ourselves, rather than learning a layer that won't sound great on its own. ;)

💡 Want chords, tabs, and lyrics to follow along with this song tutorial? Check out JustinGuitar Tabs!

Now let's get stuck in and learn how to play Sound of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel on the acoustic guitar.

The Sound of Silence - Guitar Capo

If you'd like to play along with the original recording, you'll need to use your guitar capo on the 6th fret. Sometimes, Simon & Garfunkel will play Sound of Silence live with their capo on the 7th fret.

💡 You can adjust the capo position on this song to best fit your voice! Sound of Silence is not particularly hard to sing, but you might want to explore the capo position - I did! Don't move the capo too far away unless you're intended to play it super low, but definelitly explore it. Check out this lesson to learn how to use a capo to best fit your voice!

For this guitar lesson, we're playing Sound of Silence with our capo on the 6th fret.

The Sound of Silence - Chords

The chord progression is different for all the verses after the second verse! So, verses 1 & 2 are exactly the same. The other ones will add more chords and get a bit longer. It's a pretty interesting chord progression to have it, and when you're learning how to play it, you're better off feeling it than trying to make sense of it! The chord progression fits perfectly with the lyrics, and that should help you out. :) The video lesson will teach you where the changes on the bars are, so check it out if you'd like to understand it better.

Sound of Silence starts with an Asus2 - it's where the sound of its famous introduction comes from! Then, you'll need the G, F, and C chords. Check out the video tutorial to learn how to play it.

Before looking at the fingerstyle, I recommend you take the time to nail the chord changes and get the vibe of the song. To do that, start by strumming the chord progression. When you're hip with it, move on the learn the fingerstyle pattern.

Ready? Let's go!

The Sound of Silence - Finger Style

In this video lesson, we'll learn the fingerstyle pattern for the entire song. We'll explore my suggested fingering, but don't hesitate to look out for the fingering option that works the best for you. As always, I recommend you break the song down into small chunks, and learn the patterns bit by bit.

When learning a new fingerstyle pattern, your goal should be to automate your movements as much as possible. A great way to do that is by multi-tasking while playing the pattern: try to get to the point where you can play the pattern uninterruptedly while you think about dinner, or talk on the phone!

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