Jolene (Dolly Parton) EASY Fingerstyle Guitar Tutorial & Practice Guide

Jolene Guitar Tutorial Video

Jolene (Dolly Parton) EASY Fingerstyle Guitar Tutorial & Practice Guide

This easy guitar tutorial will teach you how to play Jolene, which is a 3 chord song on guitar, using Am, C and G.

We’ll break down an easy-to-learn fingerstyle pattern using the most common Travis picking technique.

How I would practice this song:

First, I would work out the chord changes and strumming. Just strum downstrokes and count… that’s it!

Jolene Chords

a minor chord guitar am
c chord guitar

Practice this many times, over and over:

Be mindful of the timing, as there are 2 beats of some chords, and 4 beats of others. This may seem overly simple, but ensuring you are NAILING the chords is going to make a huge difference once we add the travis picking.

Watch the tutorial (above) and I’ll walk you through it all, as well as display some basic diagrams.

Jolene Fingerpicking Pattern

Next, I would practice the travis picking pattern by itself, on a G chord:

  • T = Thumb
  • I = Index
  • M = Middle

For tips on finger placement, and for everything else on this page, watching the tutorial will guide you through this step-by-step.

Once you’ve nailed the travis picking on the G chord, try it on Am and C, and then try the whole thing!

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