Johnny B. Goode Guitar Lesson – Chuck Berry
The opening riff and solo to "Johnny B. Goode" by Chuck Berry, is perhaps one of the most famous guitar intros in all of rock history.
This Johnny B. Goode guitar lesson series will teach you the entire intro, all the chords and main guitar solo to this song which was one of the first great rock guitar songs.
The opening riff definitely has it all. We have a bunch of fast double-stops, slides, alternate picked single note lines, palm muting, rapid bends and even a little sweep picking thrown in for good measure.
Now that might sound like a lot but don't worry, this Johnny B Goode intro lesson is still great for any intermediate or above level player to learn. I suggest taking your time and learning the entire intro phrase by phrase like it is taught in the video lesson. That will allow your hands to memorize all of those notes that are flying by so fast.
In the second video lesson I will demonstrate how to play that classic rock chord progression made so famous by Chuck Berry. These chord forms do require a pretty large stretch so make sure your hands are nice and warmed up before practicing them. Also in this video lesson, I will show you the little fills he does in each chorus.
For the third and last video lesson I will demonstrate and note-for-note breakdown of Chuck Berry's killer guitar solo. Just like the intro solo, he uses many different techniques and really raised the bar for rock guitarists at the time it was released.
I hope you guys have as much fun learning as I did teaching it!
Carl...
If these free lessons help you, please donate to keep new ones coming daily. Thanks!! 🙂
Johnny B. Goode Guitar Lesson Pt.1 - Intro
Johnny B. Goode Guitar Lesson Pt.2 - Chords
Johnny B. Goode Guitar Lesson Pt.3 - Solo
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Thanks for this lessons, been wanting to learn this stuff for a lot of time and never rly had the chance or the time, now thanks to you i learnt it in 1 day.
So far I have learned Mason Williams “Classical Gas”, Eric Clapton’s “Tears in Heaven” and Jimmy Hendrix “Voodoo Child”from you. I am a counselor on an inpatient psychiatric unit and I started doing music groups. Everyone loves it. The patients dance, everyone sings, and the psychiatrist who hates everyone actually smiled at me and said, “you did a good job”. “That’s better than any medicine I can prescribe”. I can play by ear, but these songs made me actually able to do more then just barely play well enough that I can sing. Thank you so much. I want to learn “Johnny B. Goode and blow everyone away 😀 You teaching is the reason I feel able good enough to do these groups and our patients are happy, so are the doctor’s and staff. Someone actually stopped me in the elevator and said, “Oh, you are the girl that plays guitar on the 11th floor”. I heard you are really good 🙂 You teach it so detailed that I can actually follow every string and I don’t know the name of the strings. I can’t read music, I have to hear it and follow it, so this is what I needed. You are by FAR the best teacher on here plus you are super cute-that helps a bit too. Thanks again! Holly Marith-counselor St. Joseph Hospital Tacoma Washington
Thanks for the kind message Holly. Great to hear you are getting so much out of my lessons.
If you are playing the songs you mentioned confidently then you are definitely doing well!
And yeah I know my cuteness can be a bit distracting at times, but most people seem to be able to concentrate on the lesson eventually. Haha!!
Carl…
I just thought I would look at your lesson on Johnny B Goode in Bb- 12 bar format ( as the original). This is my target song to master on the guitar. To-date I have taken Guitar lessons for this song and even had it transcribed into A to avoid the B stretch Chord and be able to sing it as well etc. But I have been working on the Bar chords stretch so now getting back to it in Bb again. Your Lessons are so simple to follow and I’m enjoying doing this all over again. For the Chords Pt 2 the 1 chord is Bar Bb the IV Chord is Bar Eb the V chord is Bar F. I guess it take plenty of practice then to play with the song. Looked at your Solo, can’t wait. Is the solo 16 bars..it is quite short..When doing the song in A, I have slowed down the Tempo to make it a more Gutsy song still mucking around with that but MUST learn the song as is first before doing another Cover style. Great lesson Carl and now getting back into it from other songs FTTB. Thanks Michael – Sydney-Australia April 2018.