Hotel California by The Eagles is their best-known song and its extensive guitar solo is often considered one of the greatest ever played. Perfect for learning rhythm or lead parts on either 6 or 12 string guitar, Hotel California makes an excellent opportunity to hone your craft.
Desi Serna provides this lesson on chord progression using pentatonic, major, and harmonic minor guitar scales to simplify their understanding. Appropriate for intermediate to advanced-level players.
Verse 1: G C D E
Hotel California by the Eagles from 1976 remains one of the most beloved guitar songs, not only because it’s fun to play but also as an impressive example of songcraft. From its easily memorizable chord progression and simple melody, Hotel California serves as an invaluable lesson on writing music.
This song can be a challenge for beginners due to its complex chord progression, however if you have already learned some standard beginner songs you should find this song relatively straightforward. This video shows how to play it both with and without a capo using an easy strumming pattern and also includes an optional bass run in verse section – enjoy! This piece was written by Don Felder!
Verse 2: G C D E
Hotel California, one of the Eagles’s signature songs, can be an impressive feat of songcraft for beginners. While its intricate chord progression can pose difficulties at first, with practice it becomes accessible and achievable.
Play it either with whole notes if that suits your playing style, or try arpeggiating like on the recording. Either way, this song offers beginners an ideal challenge to help expand their guitar knowledge and discover new patterns.
The verse chord progression can be complex but rewarding once mastered. While most diatonic scales work, there are some exceptions; B minor works well over V7 chords but B dorian or harmonic minor works better over IV chords (and especially F#7s).
Verse 3: G C D E
Hotel California is one of those songs that is both challenging and enjoyable to play, yet can be daunting for beginners due to the number of barre chords needed for its original recording. The unique sound created by its combination of guitars layered together includes one with 12 strings which gives this iconic melody its signature sound. To play like the original recording you will need a capo at the 7th fret as well as experience playing fifth and sixth string root barre chords.
This song from The Eagles is an ideal way to develop barre chord techniques and finger strength, practice strumming patterns and understand dynamic shifts within verse and chorus sections of song. A timeless classic!
Verse 4: G C D E
Hotel California by The Eagles stands the test of time as a timeless classic. Not recommended for beginners, if you have some experience playing barre chords it should be possible for you to tackle it successfully. Just remember not every note needs to be played perfectly in order to convey its meaning – rather just understanding its basic chord progression and strumming pattern will do just as well!
For fans of the Eagles, this tune should be on your repertoire. While a bit challenging at first, as it requires using a capo at the 7th fret and using B minor as its root chord progression can make things simpler; additionally, be able to finger G major chords is essential.
Verse 5: G C D E
This final verse employs an unfamiliar chord progression that may prove challenging for novice guitarists. Starting at Bm and moving through F#, G and A it eventually returns back down to Bm where chords aren’t diatonic – however you could use either minor/aeolian or harmonic minor scale improvise over it!
Hotel California by The Eagles is a classic song. Learning it will demonstrate how simple chords and strumming patterns can create an entire song; an invaluable lesson that you can apply to all of your music! Additionally, learning Hotel California shows that you don’t need to recreate every detail from its original recording; simple song structure and chord progressions will be enough for communicating to an audience.