Learn "Take Me Home Country Roads" by John Denver on guitar.

In today's lesson, we'll check out different ways to play Take Me Home Country Roads by John Denver on the acoustic guitar. This is a road-trip essential! There's nothing like belting it out when you've been driving for hours. :) And it’s a wicked guitar song.

The chords are simple, and there are some cool rhythmic possibilities that can take your strumming to the next level.

🚨 Want to accelerate your learning? Learn this song karaoke-style using the JustinGuitar Lessons & Songs app. It's a fantastic tool for beginners to prevent bad rhythm habits, like stopping when the chords change. When playing along with my app, you have no choice but to keep going!

So let's explore everything you need to play this song, along with some tricks to spice things up! Let's start with the basic chords and strumming. :)

Take Me Home Country Roads by John Denver: Intro and Verse Chords

Let's look at the intro of this easy country song. We start with four bars of G. I usually go for the version with fingers 3 and 4 (3X0003), muting string 5 with finger 3. You can also try 320003 with fingers 1, 2, and 3. It doesn’t really matter – choose the grip you like most. :)

Then we have the first verse, which is another simple chord progression. We play two reps of G,G, Em, Em, D, D, C, G, G. Super easy chords, right? :) Just make sure to chop off the final G before you go to the chorus.

The chorus progression changes a little bit. It goes G G D D Em Em C C, then G G D D C C G G. Still pretty easy to remember. :)

Bridge: Guitar Chords

The bridge is a little trickier because there’s no obvious pattern to the chords. It’s a good idea to write it down – or even better, use the app. :) The chord progression is Em, D, G, G; C, G, D, D; Em, F, C, G; D, D, D, D.

Now for the strumming!

Take Me Home Country Roads by John Denver: Basic Strumming For Guitar

You don’t want to pause as you play rhythm guitar. It’s a really, really, really bad habit! To prevent this, let’s start with simple strumming.

Start with one strum for each bar to make sure you get your chord changes fast enough! You have to keep your strumming hand moving so that the rhythm is strong, even if the chords get fluffy.

Once you're hip with one strum per bar, try out the Old Faithful strumming pattern – it works great with this tune! Here’s the pattern:

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

Most people can play this one after a bit of practice. If you add or miss strums, don’t worry. As long as your hand is moving and you stay in time, it’ll sound great.

This strumming pattern works well, but you can make your rhythm sound even fancier. We’re about to look at a couple of more advanced techniques, but first, let’s talk about dynamics.

Change The Dynamics For Wicked Rhythm Guitar

Dynamics bring your playing to life. It’ll probably get a bit boring if you use one pattern, like Old Faithful for the entire song. I suggest you go for sparse strumming for verses and fuller strumming for chrouses. At least try to play the verses a bit quieter and the choruses louder to vary the dynamic range.

💡 Why Vary The Dynamics? Adding dynamic range will also get your audience’s attention – and make it more fun to play! Check out my Strumming Dynamics Course to master dynamics in rhythm guitar.

I suggest you drop the volume right down in the bridge. You can even revert to one strum per bar. This gives you room to build up the volume for the final chorus. :)

Don’t worry too much about dynamics if you’re a complete beginner. But know that the further you progress on guitar, the more attention you'll pay to them.

Let’s look at some trickier options for the rhythm!

Take Me Home Country Roads by John Denver: Nailing The Country Rhythm!

When you're ready for the next level, try picking out the bass note on beats 1 and 3, with D U in between. This is a nice way to change things up between the verses and choruses.

Pick string 6 over G and Em, string 5 over C, and string 4 over D. Here’s the rhythm:

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

You might try the bass-down-up pattern in verses, then go to full strumming for the choruses. You can even vary this basic pattern by adding or removing upstrums. :)

Alternate The Bass Notes

Make your strumming even fancier by alternating the bass note of the chord on beat 3. I do this in the intro over the G chord, adding a hammer-on while I’m at it!

For the hammer on, you’ll need to play the two-finger version of G (3X0003) with fingers 3 and 4. On beat 3, we pick the open A string, then on the “and” of 3, we hammer on finger 2 at 5:2. This works over Em too.

Here’s the rhythm:

1  +  2  +  3  +  4  +
6     D  U  5  5h D    U
6 means string 6; 5 means hammer on string 5

You can simply alternate between strings 6 and 5 on G and Em – hit string 6 on beat 1 and string 5 on beat 3. :) Just make sure to use the three-fingered version of G (320003).

🚨 Remember – if you're going to explore embellishments, make sure you keep a solid, consistent rhythm. Make sure you can play the simple patterns before adding some spice. And always keep that strumming hand moving! :)

For D alternate between string 4 (on beat 1) and 5 (on beat 3). Over C, we alternate between strings 5 and 6, moving finger 3 over to 6:3 (string 6, fret 3) on beat 3. You can even forget the pick and instead use the thumb for bass notes and finger 1 for strums. It gives you a slightly different sound. :)

So I hope you have loads of fun with this one. Remember to keep it simple to begin with – add the trickier techniques when you feel ready for them. :) See you for loads more guitar real soon. Laters!

Want chords, tabs, and lyrics to follow along with my song tutorials? Check out JustinGuitar Tabs!