Play Your First Song
Everything so far - chords, strumming, changes - comes together here. You are going to play a complete song structure using just Em and G, the same chord pair behind countless real hits.
The song map
Play this repeating pattern. Each "bar" is one count of four:
- Verse: Em for 4 bars, then G for 4 bars.
- Chorus: G for 2 bars, Em for 2 bars, G for 2 bars, Em for 2 bars.
- Go back to the verse. Repeat the whole cycle three times, then end on one long Em strum.
How to play it
- Use the strumming pattern from Lesson 5: Down, Down-Up, Down, Down-Up, once per bar.
- Change chords on the "1" of each new bar. If your fingers are late, keep strumming - a late chord in time sounds better than a perfect chord that stops the song.
- Play the whole cycle without stopping, even when a change goes wrong. Recover and continue; that recovery skill IS playing songs.
Make it musical
Once the cycle feels steady, try strumming the verse quietly and the chorus louder. That loud-quiet contrast is called dynamics, and it is the difference between practicing and performing.
Tip: Record yourself on your phone. It feels awkward, but hearing one recording teaches you more than an hour of guessing - you will immediately hear whether your timing is steady.
Practice for this lesson
Play the full song three times through, daily. When you can do it without stopping at 80 BPM, congratulations - you are a guitar player. The same two-chord approach unlocks dozens of real songs whenever you are ready.