American Idiot - Green Day Chord Changing

I'm not really a experienced guitarist, but an experienced one told me to just transfer from one chord to an other, like A to D, for a little bit, then D to G, and so on. I hope this helps a little, and good luck!!

Here is the tab for the main riff in american idiot

E ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
B ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
G ------------------------- 6----6-----------------------------6------------------------------
D --- 6-----6----- --------6----6 -------------4----4-------- 6-------6-------4-------------
A --- 6-----6--------------4----4--------------4----4-------- 4-------6-------4-------------
E ----4-----4------0----------- ---------0-----2----2-----------------4-------2-------------

To play it just form the basic chord shape with your left hand and move it to the relevent position. You should also experiment with up and down strokes. I hope this is of some use.

I tried to learn this one (I'm teaching my self) but the tab confused me, so I memorized the chord shapes and played it and was like 'what the, it dosn't sound anything like it...' and then I relized there was a whole bunch of symbols I couldn't (and still don't) understand...But Geek in the Pink has the right way to learn chord changeing,

I's kind of cwl, usually in the back of beginners books people have diagrams for all sorts of chords major minor sus., 7 everything...you can make up your own chord progreesions that way :)

The ones in first postion are a little bassy for me, so I usualy mix it up with a bit of sharper chords like Am for example with E and C and G

Good luck I guess :)

The chords shown in the tab above are G#5 (466xxx), C#5 (x466xx) and F#5 (244xxx).

Now, Green Day usually play with their guitars tuned down a half-step so the true chord shapes they probably use are A5 (577xxx), D5 (x577xx) and G5 (355xxx).

If you have trouble with barre/power chords, you can play the same song using the open A, D and G chords (or G,C and F) although the barre chords are easier to switch fast.

I'm not sure any of the songs on American Idiot are tuned down. You're correct that they do that for most of there older songs, but for some reason didn't on this album. I've got the tab book at home, and I'm sure that the song American Idiot isn't tuned down. The tab book has the following for the main riff:

G#5 (466xxx) G#5 (466xxx) G#5 (466xxx)
C#5 (x466xx) C#5 (x466xx) C#5 (x466xx)
F#5 (244xxx) F#5 (244xxx)
G#5 (466xxx) C#5 (x466xx) F#5 (244xxx)

The last three chord changes are what trips me up every time.

see ya,
Brad
The chords shown in the tab above are G#5 (466xxx), C#5 (x466xx) and F#5 (244xxx).

Now, Green Day usually play with their guitars tuned down a half-step so the true chord shapes they probably use are A5 (577xxx), D5 (x577xx) and G5 (355xxx).

If you have trouble with barre/power chords, you can play the same song using the open A, D and G chords (or G,C and F) although the barre chords are easier to switch fast.

To take this a step further, here's the strumming pattern I use for the main riff:

D U D U U D U U D D D
E----------------------------------------------------------
B----------------------------------------------------------
G--------------6--6--6--------6----------------------------
D-----6--6--6--6--6--6--4--4--6--6--4----------------------
A-----6--6--6--4--4--4--4--4--4--6--4----------------------
E-----4--4--4-----------2--2-----4--2----------------------


Hope that helps.

Listen to the song, and you will hear the basic pattern played twice, but at the end of the second of these, there is a discordant bit in place of the last chord. This is played by simply strumming the 1st, 2nd and 3rd strings open.

So it would go sort of like:

Dum D. D. Dum D. D. Dum D. Dum Dum Dum,
Dum D. D. Dum D. D. Dum D. Dum Dum SCREECH!

Putting this into your rendition will make a huge difference towards making it sound authentic.....trust me!

Listen to the song, and you will hear the basic pattern played twice, but at the end of the second of these, there is a discordant bit in place of the last chord. This is played by simply strumming the 1st, 2nd and 3rd strings open.

I think it's that discordant bit that suggests the guitars are in fact tuned down a step (or perhaps a half step). A friend of mine who really knows what he's talking about made that observation.

To give you an idea of how good this guy is, I'll share this story: I tried to figure out the chords to Jody Girl by Bob Seger. I finally figured out that it was in C#, which means capo on the first fret and play in C. Easy enough. Then I showed my buddy. He listened to me for about three measures, listened to the CD for just about as long, then said, "OK, it's in C#, but you have to tune down the low E 1 1/2 steps to Db, then tune all the other strings down 1/2 step. Then you play a D shape for C#, but you want to drop your index finger on the second fret of the A string every other measure. Make sure you hit that bass string, then go into your strum." He nailed it. Scariest part? He had never heard the song before. Unbelievable.

So when he suggests American Idiot is tuned down, I'm inclined to believe him.