Playing 'Wake Me Up when September Ends' on Guitar

Video Transcript

JOE WILES: We're taking a look at our number 3, which is Green Day's "Wake Me Up When September Ends." Let's take a look. The song kicks off with our ring finger on the 5th fret of the D string. We're going to leave our G string open and use our index finger on the 3rd fret of the B string. Hit those three in a row. That's basically the introduction of the song. Then when he begins to sing, we start to move the lowest note a bit. So the first one. Now take our middle finger and lay it on the 4th fret of the D string. Do those two phrases in a row again. We're going to switch these two. Put our middle finger on the 3rd fret of the B string and our index finger on the 2nd fret of the D string. Hit these three in a row again. Then just lift up our index finger. Okay? Then we're going to play a barred C major chord, which is laying your index finger across the 3rd fret; middle finger, 5th fret of the D string; ring finger, 5th fret of the G string; and pinkie, 5th fret of the high--excuse me, of the B string. We're going to pluck these in order. Now we're going to switch this chord form to our barred finger still on the 3rd fret. Now, our middle finger is on the 4th fret of the B string, ring finger on the 5th fret of the D string and our pinkie on the 5th fret of the G string. This is a C minor chord form. And then we're going to come down to an open G looking pattern. Our middle finger is on the 3rd fret of the low E string. We're going to mute out our A string with our middle finger. Open D, open G, then 3rd fret on the B, 3rd fret on the high E with our ring and pinkie. Now the whole phrase, in sequence, sounds like this. To speed, it sounds like this. We're getting close to number 1. But in our next segment, we're going to take a look at number 2, which is "Master of Puppets" by Metallica. I'll join you there.

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