Dust in the Wind is an exquisite love song that will surely touch and charm your beloved one. Play it easily using only two chords and an uncomplicated strumming pattern!
This song is one of the top acoustic guitar songs for beginners, perfect for impressing special someones on special nights.
Key of C
C is an easy key to learn; once you are familiar with A, D, and G chords you won’t require anything new besides two extra chords to perform this song.
As Dm and F chords are not particularly challenging to play, learning this song should be relatively straightforward with enough practice. Simply make sure that you feel confident fretting (or barrering) two strings simultaneously with just one finger.
Notice how the chord on beat 2 1/2 is not struck again — this is called tying, and causes it to feel as though it is being “accented,” creating irregularities in rhythm that you might otherwise expect – adding flair and creating calluses on your left hand!
Chords
At its core, chords involve simultaneously sounding three notes at once. From there, guitarists can move onto intermediate chords that include seventh chords – adding jazziness or other sounds into your repertoire.
Seventh chords are typically built using intervals composed of ascending thirds (3 or more). While this typically works, there can be exceptions (such as when creating a b9 chord which spans 13 half steps and requires more complex chord structures to play it.)
On the Internet you can find many different chords; some with detailed diagrams and others simply as numbers that represent which fingers should go where on each fret. Typically, an index finger, middle finger, ring finger and pinky are represented by numbers 1 through 4, making it easy to read guitar chord charts and know which fingers belong where.
Melody
Dust in the Wind by Kansas is an evergreen favorite among guitarists. While its straightforward melody may make it ideal for beginner pickers, some finger picking skill is required when playing this song – though with practice this can become second nature!
First step to learning this song: mastering its chords. These include D, G and Em; you can arrange them however you like – though most commonly they appear D-G-Em. To assist with playing these chords more smoothly you could add a capo at third fret to make playing easier.
Next comes adding the melody. A melody consists of three notes D, F and A which should be finger picked alternatingly from second string back onto first string then onto open string until all strings have been played through this pattern. To play it correctly use index finger and thumb together on different strings as follows.
Techniques
This song begins with an easy chord progression in D, G and Am before shifting into an instrumental interlude before returning for two final measures of chorus singing.
This chord progression is easy to play; the only tricky bit lies within its introduction, where an occasional finger shift is necessary in order to switch from an Amaj7 chord to Cmaj7 chord – something most will find very natural and simple to accomplish.
For the verse of this song, the chord changes to G/B which can be played simply by leaving your index and ring fingers on the A string while moving your pinky finger to the third fret of B string – this change makes the sound differ slightly from how its original version sounds – this can make your playing more of an original experience!