As a beginner guitarist, it is wise to begin your musical journey with songs that are simple to play – for instance the popular birthday tune Happy Birthday can serve as an excellent starting point.
With practice and patience, this song utilizes only three open chords and uses a straightforward strumming pattern – all you need is three basic open chords! Once learned with ease and confidence.
Basic Chords
Chord progressions form the harmonic basis for songs. Though essential to playing tunes, mastering chord progressions may prove challenging for beginners; especially if your chosen tune uses 3/4 time (three beats to each measure).
Start playing Happy Birthday chords quickly with this lesson on simple strumming pattern. All downstrokes, with an initial gap between strummings, should provide you with an engaging rhythm for singing along at the same time.
Add some flair and make things a bit more engaging: we will also introduce the basic seventh chord. This type of chord builds off of the seventh note in your scale (you can count backwards from C to locate it). Playing it adds extra jazziness, as well as being great fun!
Alternate Chords
This song uses only open major chords and a straightforward melody, making it one of the easiest songs for beginning players to master. However, its 3/4 beat and vocal pickup notes may make it challenging for some newcomers to simultaneously sing and play simultaneously.
Add extra flair to this timeless song by experimenting with seventh chords – which are similar to standard chords but include an additional fourth note for a jazzier sound.
Use of a capo to raise the pitch of your guitar can provide another variation and still enable you to utilize chord structures easily, but will make playing easier for singers.
Finally, try playing your song in different keys. Most people tend to stick with G as it’s easier for most singers. Here are chords in D and F which also sound good – though D may require using a capo due to its higher pitch voicing.
Melody
The tune to “Happy Birthday” consists of several pitches arranged in succession; most people should find learning it straightforward.
To play the melody, employ a strumming pattern which creates rhythm within your chord progression – for instance, fast foxtrot rhythm is easy for beginners to master.
Start off the first measure with two G pickup notes to represent “Hap” and “py”. Next, play a C major open chord for the remainder of this measure.
Repeat this pattern for the second and third measures, then, in the fourth measure, strumming an F major chord on beats that correspond with “day” and “to” syllables of each verse will complete it. Feel free to experiment with various strumming patterns until finding one that works for you best; practicing with a metronome ensures accurate rhythm while slowly building speed until mastery of this song can be reached.
Verse
As its name implies, this song is commonly played during birthday celebrations. Its straightforward chord progression matches up perfectly with its lyrics for easy learning on guitar – even beginners may enjoy learning it! It even uses only three chords: open G, D and C chords!
When playing the chords to Happy Birthday, it is crucial to match them to its lyrics. The first measure begins with two pickup eighth notes to help singers find the proper pitch; thereafter, harmonies follow a pattern of “birth-day-to” where C is used on birth syllables while G represents to.
The final measure features a quick chord change from B7 to E major. If this transition feels uncomfortable for you, consider holding out the last “you” note longer in order to create a fermata effect – with practice, you will soon be singing and playing this song without ever looking down!
Few English-speakers have never heard or sung the Happy Birthday song – one of the world’s most widely recognized tunes!
Matching melody to chords can be challenging, but with practice it becomes easier. This version of Happy Birthday uses simple I, IV and V chords; add seventh chords for an added twist!
G Major
G Major chord is an easy chord for beginner guitarists to learn, as its key can be played either with left or right hand and contains seven notes: G, A, C, D, E F# B. When learning any scale it’s best to start slow and gradually increase speed until each note is cleanly fretted with proper finger placement.
Practice chord inversions when learning a new key, to help reduce distances between chords and make for smoother switching between them.
This chord’s soothing sound evokes feelings of tranquility and happiness. Used in 44% of tracks analyzed by Hook Theory, you’ll find this key across everything from ballads to tearout Drum n Bass, Trap, and Dance Music tracks – perfect for beginners as well as advanced players! This key can make an excellent introduction into music for newcomers or advanced players alike.
D Major
D Major is a diatonic key with two sharps; its relative minor is B Minor. Its chords can evoke feelings of happiness and hope as well as sorrow and death; think Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Bad Moon Rising or Bryan Adams’ Summer of 69 for examples.
As with other keys, D Major features its own distinct pattern of intervals and scale degrees that help you understand chord progressions and voicings – the building blocks for developing your musical vocabulary. By studying this key’s intervals and scale degrees in detail, it will become much easier for you to build chord progressions that span its range and voicings with confidence.
As a beginner, focus on getting your hand into the appropriate position to play this finger style pattern. Once advanced, more intricate possibilities may come your way. Experiment by playing this fingerstyle pattern in different keys until it sounds right for you and practice until your timing remains consistent across songs – this technique reduces distance between chords known as ‘minimizing leap”. Playing guitar requires this essential skill that allows rhythm and timing consistency no matter which songs are being played!
C Major
C Major chord is one of the first ones novice guitarists should learn as it’s straightforward and does not involve extra sharps or flats (though these can still be added for different tones and voicing).
This chord can also be heard in songs like John Lennon’s “She Loves Me” and many of Bach’s preludes, adding either hope or fearfulness depending on its placement in a song.
As part of your quest to learn a chord, it can be useful to consider scale degrees and intervals when learning it. This helps you understand their relationships between each other as well as their meaning – for instance the distance (or interval) between C and E is equivalent to two whole steps while D and A is one half step – this distinction becomes important as chord names will change when switching scale/key combinations.
E Major
E Major is one of the initial keys you should learn, and once it becomes second nature you can use it to build chords in other positions. Additionally, practicing scales in various positions helps expand your knowledge of fretboard while strengthening picking hand.
Consider that when playing chords, it’s essential to count both whole steps and half steps accurately. A sharp (#) is one whole step higher from its counterpart flat (b), while naturals (n) provide one full step down from it.
E Major is one of the most frequently chosen root chords for rock, pop and folk music in Hook Theory database – making it an extremely popular choice across genres. E Major makes an excellent chord to build momentum for an adrenaline-packed banger or add some emotion to a melancholy ballad; you might also encounter this key in famous guitar riffs like “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”, as well as early pieces such as Greensleeves that dates back centuries!
Happy Birthday is a timeless classic and is very straightforward to learn, using basic chords that are simple and a simple strumming pattern.
Make this song jazzier by including seventh chords – which are simply triads arranged to produce different sounds – into your performance.
G Major
As a beginner guitarist, G Major chord will likely be one of your first experiences with. Easy to play and one of the first beginner chords most people learn.
This key is often utilized in many songs because it provides a comfortable range of notes that work well with most vocal styles and has only one sharp note (F Sharp), making it simpler for beginners to play.
Happy Birthday’s melodic theme starts off on two B pickup notes on both strings (A second fret and open B string). Finding harmony between this melody and its chord progression takes practice, but once achieved this song virtually sings itself!
Practice the fingerstyle pattern on this page until you feel comfortable using it. Be sure to fret each chord cleanly and use proper finger placement, particularly when strumming chords. As your skills advance, the speed of this pattern can increase accordingly.
D Major
At this early stage of learning the piano, it’s essential to have several chords that serve as anchor fingers as you switch among different ones. Therefore, learning the D major chord would be a good choice; its open voicing omitting its first string uses the third finger for barred chords across its D, G and B strings – an anchor finger indeed!
D major is an ideal four-note chord to learn as it produces a bright sounding chord, perfect for beginners and experienced guitarists alike. Try practicing D major chord in drop D tuning to increase its versatility as you develop as a guitarist or try adding some hammer-ons and pull-offs into its structure for even further creative opportunities.
Matching the melody you sing to the chords you play can be an intricate art form, but can lead to heartfelt renditions of Happy Birthday. Simply remember to strum your chords 3/4 time when strumming Happy Birthday lyrics! You’re well on your way!
E Major
E major chords may be more challenging than C and G major ones, yet use the same finger pattern on both hands. You could also play this song in F major if neither key above fits with your vocal range; its lower chords might make singing easier for some singers.
Happy Birthday begins its first measure with two pickup eighth notes played prior to the first beat in order to set its rhythm and tempo. The initial chord in this measure is an open C major chord; its last beat contains two beats of C and one of G.
To play this song, strum down-up for each quarter note (three beats per measure). Practice this strumming pattern with a shuffle feel until it becomes second nature – this should create a delightful and swingy sound!
B7
Few English-speakers will have not encountered or been exposed to this song at some point in their life. As it’s one of the world’s most well-known pieces, it makes an excellent way to commemorate special occasions with friends or family by playing and singing along!
Note: Within some chords you will see either “maj” or “7”. When seeing “maj”, this indicates it is a major chord while when seeing “7”, this indicates it is a dominant seventh chord – for example C7 is built upon the fifth scale degree in F major scale and thus falls into this category of major chords.
This version of Happy Birthday utilizes three basic chords – G, C and D with quarter note downstrum patterns – for easy guitar playing on either an acoustic or electric instrument. There is also another version in key of F which may suit more experienced guitarists or suit your voice better.