Learn to play "Wake Me Up When September Ends" by Green Day on Guitar

Learn how to play Wake Me Up When September Ends by Green Day on the acoustic and electric guitar! This song is great for Intermediate guitar players.

To play this Green Day classic, you'll need some barre chords, picking patterns, and strumming dynamics. First, we'll learn how to play the acoustic guitar parts. Then, we'll play the electric guitar part, which includes Power Chords and that awesome solo. :)

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Let's start with the classic picking part in the intro.

Wake Me Up When September Ends by Green Day – Intro and Verse

We start with a G chord (XX503X). Finger 3 goes down on 4:5 (string 4, fret 5), and finger 1 plays 2:3 (string 2, fret 3). We pick the following strings one by one: 4 3 2 4 3 2. Here's the rhythm for this pattern:

Beat:   1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
String: 4 3 2 4 3 2

Let's call this Pattern 1. The intro is simply four bars of this picking on the G chord. :)

We also play Pattern 1 for the first four bars of the verse, which starts with one bar of G (XX503X). For the next bar, we lift off finger 3 and add finger 2 to 4:4, dropping the bass note by one semitone to get D/F# (XX403X).

Then we switch to an Em7 (XX203X) and change the fingering. Finger 1 plays 4:2, and finger 3 goes down on 2:3. Now, we switch to G/D (XX003X). Just lift off finger 1 to reveal the open D string.

🧐 Spot the patterns: Though we change fingering and shift the bass note from G (4:5) to F# (4:4) to E (4:2) to D (4:0), we stick with the same picking (Pattern 1) and hit 3:0 and 2:3 in each bar. :)

After the first four bars, we switched to C played as an A-shape barre chord (X3555X), making sure to mute string 6 with finger 1. The picking pattern changes too. We'll call this Pattern 2 because it often comes up in the song. :)

Here's Pattern 2:

Beat:    1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
Strings: 5 4 3 4 5 3   4 
             2     2

3 means strings 3 and 2 together.
2

We play Pattern 2 on C (X3555X), Cm (X35543), then G (3X003X) for two bars. On the G, hit string 6 on beat 1 instead of string 5. :)

Wake Me Up When September Ends by Green Day – Chorus

We lead into the chorus by changing the final bar of G in the verse. We switch to D/F# (2X023X) on beat 3 and lift off finger 3 to reveal open string 2 on the "and" of 4. You could use the thumb to play 6:2, but I prefer finger 1.

The chorus begins with Em, Bm, C, G; Em, Bm, C, D. Use Pattern 2, changing the bass notes to suit the chord. I tend to play Em (022000), Bm (X24432), C (X3555X), and D (X5777X).

Add the eight-bar verse progression, and you've played the entire chorus. :)

🚨 Most of these fine details don’t really matter! We go into a lot of depth here, but don’t worry about this unless you want to be really precise. As long as you get the chords right and have solid rhythm, it’ll sound fine. No big deal if you use the wrong picking or hit an extra string or two.

Wake Me Up When September Ends by Green Day – Picking

So when do we use up-picks and down picks in the patterns? Let's look at how I suspect Billy Joel picks the notes. Then we'll cover what works best for me. I encourage you to experiment and find what works best for you. :)

For pattern 2, I tend to do the following picking:

1  +  2  +  3  +  4  +
D  U  D  U  D  U     U

I usually play down picks on beats and up-picks on off-beats. That's what works best for me. :)

But I'm sure he plays the notes on beat 2 with an up-pick. The pattern that best fits around this is:

1  +  2  +  3  +  4  +
D  D  U  U  D  U     U

Ultimately, it doesn't matter which one you choose, so long as the notes are right. Notice that we don't play on beat 4. :)

Electric Guitar Parts

We've covered the two main sections, but you'll hear many more guitar parts than this. Let's look at them. :) These are electric parts, so use an electric guitar if you want an authentic sound.

🔥 Green Day are masters of dynamics. They love using quiet acoustic parts in verses before switching to heavy, distorted guitar for choruses. This song is like a lesson on how to produce music!

In verse 2, an electric guitar comes in and plays Pattern 1 to double the acoustic part. As soon as that starts, the mood changes. You know it's going to get crunchy!

Later in the same verse, heavy, distorted chords come in. Go for all-down eighth notes here:

1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
D D D D D D D D

Try the C5 chord (X355XX) instead of the C Major in this distorted section. The note at 2:5 tends to sound a bit sour with distortion. But you can play string 2 over the Cm chord (X3554X) – it sounds cool. Then switch to a standard G5 chord (355XXX).

To transition into the chorus, slide finger 1 back one fret to get G5/F# (255XXX). In the chorus, go for standard power chords.

Now that you have all the rhythm parts, your task is to figure out where they all go! The original arrangement is quite complex. It's not just quiet-loud-quiet-loud. There are drops, instrument changes, and lots of builds. :)

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It's time to learn how to play the incredible Wake Me Up When September Ends solo.

Wake Me Up When September Ends – Solo

This solo adds a lot to the song. It outlines the chords well, sounds great, and isn't difficult to learn.

We start with finger 2 at 2:8 and finger 1 at 1:7 (XXXX87). Keep these fingers down and play strings 2 2 1 2 2 1 2 1 with the rhythm 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +. Make sure you remember this pattern – we'll use it throughout the solo. :)

💣 Jamming Tips: The chord progression underneath this solo is the same as the chorus progression. If you have a guitarist friend, they can play rhythm while you rip out this solo! It’ll sound wicked. :)

Now we barre strings 1 and 2 at fret 7 with finger 1 (XXXX77) and pick the same pattern. On the next bar, move finger 1 up one fret (XXXX88) and repeat.

In bar 4, we strum mini chords. On beat 1, go to XXXX87 before moving to XXXX 10 10 on beat 3, using finger 4 as a mini-barre.

In the next section of the solo, we repeat bars 1-3. Then in bar 8, we grab XXX 12 10 10, with finger 3 on 3:12 and finger 1 barring fret 10. Play 8th-Note down strums for one bar. Now lift off finger 3 and add finger 2 to 3:11 (XXX 11 10 10). Strum this for an entire bar. Now repeat those two final bars, and you've nailed the solo. :)

We have all the pieces – let's discuss performance.

Performance

Wake Me Up When September Ends is a great song for analyzing dynamics. You need to pay attention to them when you play this one alone. Think about which sections should be loud and quiet and how you can create that sound with your guitar. :)

🚨 Does your strumming sound flat or boring? My Strumming Dynamics Course will be a game-changer for you and add a pro touch to your rhythm guitar. :) This course is Grade 2 of my Strumming SOS series!

Guitarists who play alone often don't pay enough attention to dynamics, meaning their playing sounds monotonous when they play in front of others. Don't be that person! :) Try to distill the whole production into one guitar part. You'll need to take all these pieces in a band situation and figure out how they fit.

Have loads of fun with this tune, and head to the Songs section for many more Green Day songs.

🎵 Get verified chords, tabs, and lyrics to follow with this Wake Me Up When September Ends tutorial with JustinGuitar Tabs!