Welcome to my “Pancho and Lefty” Guitar Lesson + Tutorial, by Townes Van Zandt. This 4 chord song on guitar uses the most common chord progression in the key of C and an essential country strumming pattern. The order of the chords is a little different, but if you follow the lyrics it makes a lot of sense. Great for “late” stage beginners or anyone looking to add another amazing (underrated) song to their repertoire.

I believe this is the best country song ever recorded. If you don’t agree with me, let me know what you think can compete with this legendary tune in the comments down below! Maybe you think it’s Jolene, Walk The Line, Crazy, Wichita Lineman? (Those would be my other picks, haha!)

“Pancho and Lefty” CHORDS: C, G, F, Am

“Pancho and Lefty” STRUMMING PATTERN: R D -uDu

“Pancho and Lefty” TAB can be found in the video lesson, scrolling along at the top of the screen.

“Pancho and Lefty” TABLE OF CONTENTS

• 0:00 – INTRO
• 3:08 – CHORDS+SWITCHING TIPS
• 4:55 – SWITCHING PRACTICE
• 5:48 – STRUMMING PATTERN
• 7:48 – VERSE PLAY-ALONG
• 8:41 – EXTRA CHORDS
• 11:09 – THE INTRO
• 11:50 – FINAL PLAY-ALONG
• 13:55 – SONG FORM
• 14:21 – RESOURCES

The lesson begins with the chord shapes. It’s the most common chord progression in the key of C. We work out the switching and we play the progression using downstrokes only.

Next we add the strumming pattern. This one uses a very common strumming pattern found in countless folk, country and acoustic music. We work out the strokes and then we add it to our progression.

Finally, we learn the chorus which involves some chord shots and time signature switch, but that is a lot simpler than it sounds. We work our way through it, figure out how to strum it just like before, and then we play it together.

The intro is a little bit different super duper easy, just two chords. We figure that out and then we discuss how to put the entire song together.

#panchoandlefty #townesvanzandt #GuitarTutorial