Learn to play Happy Birthday on the guitar - Finger Style! 🎂

In this easy guitar lesson for beginners, we'll learn how to play a finger style arrangement of Happy Birthday on the guitar! This tutorial is part of my free Beginner Guitar Course - Grade 2 and introduces finger style guitar to my students. :)

🥳 I can assume most people know Happy Birthday by heart; it's pretty universal and you might sing it in many different languages. The melody dates all the way back to 1893! How crazy is that?

When you learn how to play Happy Birthday, you can make your friends and family's birthdays extra special! People will appreciate it even if you're fumbling through it on the guitar. :)

In this lesson, we'll be working on a chord-melody concept, meaning that your thumb will play the chords' root notes, and your fingers will play the melody line. Ready? Let's get stuck in.

Happy Birthday: Guitar Chord & Melody

To play Happy Birthday on the guitar, you'll need the C to the G chord, simple chords, but also an F Chord.

💡 Happy Birthday is a great song to learn this idea of a chord melody. A chord melody is when you're playing a melody line and a bass note simultaneously, and it's often done in classical guitar. You'll learn more details later on in your guitar journey. :)

For this lesson, the chords aren't the main focus; we'll focus on coordinating your fingers. Focus on using your first finger and your thumb, or try it out with your second finger in your thumb. Use the finger combinations that feel best for you!

Finger Style Tips For Beginners

When starting off with fingerstyle, take it slow! The fingers on your strumming hand aren't used to this movement yet, so they might struggle with their dexterity and finger independence. Give them time to get used to doing what you're asking them to.

When you're learning a fingerstyle pattern, learning it in chunks is useful. To do this, learn the first few notes, practice them up, and get confident playing each bit. The finger style pattern should feel smooth under your fingers!

Ideally, you'll do it from memory because the more memorization you do, the better you'll be able to concentrate on the important stuff. Rather than being stuck in a particular guitar tab, memorizing patterns will help you:

Get your guitar tone nice and clear;
Make sure your fingers aren't grabbing and pulling strings;
Get your hand in the correct position.

At your beginner stage, focus on keeping your fingerstyle simple. Don't overcomplicate things, and do what feels most comfortable to you!

Happy Birthday: Free Guitar Tab

Follow this free guitar tab to learn how to play Happy Birthday:

If you need extra help, you'll find a free PDF file and a Guitar Pro file in the Resources tab. Fancier possibilities will come as your advance; this fingerstyle is a little taste of what's to come! For now, keep it simple and have loads of fun learning how to play Happy Birthday!

👏 Module 11 is almost complete! Next, let's check out new song recommendations to consolidate your new skills.