Summer of ’69 Guitar Tutorial (Chords, Strumming, Picking & Riffs)

Summer of ’69 Guitar Tutorial

Welcome to my Summer of ’69 Guitar Tutorial by Bryan Adams. This is a bit more complicated than your average “strummer” but if you stick with it, you’ll be rewarded with a much more accurate picking hand and maybe a couple new chord shapes!

The verse for this song uses the D and A chords. The strumming pattern is all downstrokes with “beat 1” and the “and of 2” emphasised. It’s actually really simple.

The pre-chorus uses the Bm, A, D and G chords, and has a picking pattern associated with it. This isn’t too bad – just make sure you pay attention to which strings you’re plucking and to THE TIMING. We show you how to count it out during the lesson.

The chorus is definitely the hardest part (by a lot) and contains a really quick “arpeggiated” pattern. You’re basically picking individual strings quickly as you change a basic chord shape. It really helps if you understand the relationship between D, Dsus2, Dsus4 and A, Asus2, Asus4. We briefly show you this in the video, so as long as you take it slow, you can definitely build up to the point where you can play this.

Finally we have the bridge, and it’s really easy – just some powerchords and a strumming pattern. Probably the easiest part of the tune.

All in all, this lesson has beginner elements and some more intermediate elements, so take from it what you can – you can always revisit it later, after working on your picking a bit more.

I hope you enjoy the lesson!

James