"Learning to Fly" by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers is a favorite to play on my acoustic guitar.

It might look like a very easy song to play on the surface - but when you dig into it, you'll find many interesting bits going on. And that's why I've chosen this song as today's lesson. :)

💡 Following my Beginner Guitar Courses? Learning to Fly by Tom Petty is a great one for Grade 3+ Students.

Now let's get stuck in and learn how to play Learning to Fly by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers on the acoustic guitar.

How to play Learning To Fly on guitar

You'll only need four easy chords to play Learning to Fly on the guitar. But the first thing I'd mention is that two guitars are playing through the entire song, and they are playing different chords. The first plays F, C, Am, and G, while the second has a capo on its 5th fret and plays C, G, Em, and D.

A few variations are going on with the grips - I'm pretty sure they've played an old-school F Chord (without barre!) in the original recording - so check out the video lesson for more details on the grips. We'll also learn how to make those chord changes as easily as possible! :)

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

Rhythmically, it's very interesting that this song doesn't have many obvious accent passages. Many players have a natural tendency to accent beats 2 and 4 or find a part of the groove to accentuate, but this doesn't happen in Learning to Fly. So, when you're playing both guitar parts, it gets pretty tricky to make it sound consistent - trickier than you'd expect it.

The most important thing to get your strumming pattern right is getting into the song’s groove. Learning to Fly has particularly smooth chord changes, and you'll have to relax into the strumming pattern to be able to reproduce that! Playing along with the original recording, and even practicing with a metronome, are excellent ways of developing your inner sense of rhythm.

Extra Tip: Get the Right Guitar Pick!

When playing an acoustic guitar, my to-go pick is this Dunlop Tortex Orange - excellent for picking out individual notes but flexible enough to sound good when strumming. But sometimes, I'll choose a thinner guitar pick to make the song sounds just right - and that's what I've done to play Learning to Fly on the acoustic. I've chosen my paper-like, super-thin Dunlop Nylon .46 mm. :)

🚨 Struggling to hold a guitar pick? Check out this free guitar lesson.

No matter which pick you decide to go for, the big trick here is experimenting and seeing what works best for you.

Ready for more? Explore other 600 free song tutorials with chords, lyrics, tabs, and effective guitar tricks! :)