Surely the song “happy birthday” is no stranger to any of us. This song is so popular that anyone in the world has heard this song many times in their life.
“Happy birthday” is also a very simple song consisting of 4 guitar chords in the order G, D, D7 and C. Therefore, when you are learning guitar, this song can be the best choice to help you sharpen your skills.
How To Play Happy Birthday On The Guitar?
The hardest and most challenging part is the last chord switch. You need to quickly switch from D7 to the G, this part requires you to really practice hard to be able to perform smoothly and smoothly.
G D D7 G
C G D7 G
Look like this:
Down, down up, down up
Repeat that strumming pattern.
Learn how to play happy birthday on guitar
The song’s in 3/4 time, meaning we have to count up to three over and over. Our strumming pattern reflects that: We do a downstroke on beat 1, a down-up on beat 2, and a down-up on beat 3.
The chord order is so simple, it’s just eight measures. We work through the song, bit by bit and then glue it all together. Then we do the exact same thing for the key of A (using A, D and E chords) and that’s it!
————G—————–D
Happy BIRthday to YOU,
————D7————–G
Happy BIRthday to YOU,
————C———————–G———–
Happy BIRthday, mister PREsident
———–D7—————G—
Happy BIRthday to YOU!
Some notes when playing happy birthday
- While playing the C chord, leave the first and third strings open while not strumming the sixth string.
The most important thing when learning to play happy birthday is learning to play the happy birthday chords themselves! - When playing the G chord, leave the second, third and fourth strings open. Some people like to play the 3rd fret of the second string as well, in which case you move your ring finger up one fret and cover the third fret of the first string with your pinky.
- While playing the D chord, leave the fourth string open. Only strum the bottom four strings for this chord, muting the fifth and sixth strings.
- While playing the D7 chord, leave the fourth string open and only play the bottom four strings. The fifth and sixth strings should be silent.
Good luck!
