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You're watching HowToPlayAnySong.com. My name is Joe Wiles with the Rock and Roll
Conservatory and in this video we\'92re going to take a look at Wake Me Up When September
Ends by Green Day. This song comes from their 2005 American
Idiot release and although it is popularly believed it's a tribute to the 9/11 tragedy.
Billy Joel Armstrong confirms that this song was written about his father a jazz musician
and a minor league baseball player, interesting. In this video we are going to take a look
at the introduction, the chorus as well as the solo in the middle of the song. Lets get
started. \ \
\b Intro\ \
\b0 Now the introduction to this song is done on an acoustic guitar. Later on in the song
it kicks in on an electric. That's the part we're gonna be looking at. Just know that
the acoustic part is very similar to the part I'm about to show you. \
When the electric guitar kicks in, we're on the 5th fret of the D string with our ring
finger and we're on the 3rd fret of the B string with our index finger. We'll hit them
in order like this: D string, G, and B string.\ \pard\pardeftab720\ql\qnatural
\cf0 \ And then we'll do it again.\
\ Lay our index finger down to the 3rd fret
of the high E and then we'll hit that as an answer. Sounds like this.\
\ Let's try that to speed. Here we go. 1, 2,
3, 4...\ \
\pard\tx560\tx1120\tx1680\tx2240\tx2800\tx3360\tx3920\tx4480\tx5040\tx5600\tx6160\tx6720\pardeftab720\ql\qnatural \cf0 Not a lot to it.
\b \ \pard\pardeftab720\ri720\sa200\ql\qnatural
\cf0 \ Verse\
\b0 Now the verse of the song is similar to the introduction. It sounds like this, make
sure you put your fingers in the same spot. Now we do that twice like I just did. \
Then we move down to the 4th fret of the D with our middle finger, we do that twice as
well. We\'92re going to do a quick switch up on our fingers. \
Our index fingers going to go to the 2nd fret of the D and you can put your ring finger
on the 3rd fret of the B where our index finger was. Hit that twice. \
Then just take your index finger off. That riff sounds like this. To speed that sounds
\b0 The chorus of this song, it kind of starts off with that same verse riff but then in
goes into a bunch of major and minor chords. \
The first major chord is a C major, your index finger is going to be on the 3rd fret of the
A, and we\'92re going to lay our ring finger on the 5th fret of the D, G and B. We\'92re
going to hit that eight times.\ We\'92re going to turn that C major chord
to a C minor chord. This is how you do it. Leave our index finger in the same spot on
the 3rd fret of the A, Put your ring finger on the 5th fret of the D, pinky on the 5th
fret of the G. Those are all the same.\ Now we are going to take our middle finger
and put it on the 4th fret of the B. We\'92re going to hit that eight times and then we\'92re
going to end it off with a G-5 power chord. \
That\'92s on the 3rd fret of the low E string with our index finger, 5th fret of the A string
with our ring finger and 5th fret of the D string with our pinky. Hit that eight times
or sixteen times rather. \ Now the whole chorus with the introductory
riff to the chorus sounds like this. Switch to the chorus, down to the G-5 power chord.
Lets try that with a metronome to speed, one, two, three, four. \
\b \ Solo
\b0 \ \
\pard\tx713\tx1434\pardeftab720\ri720\ql\qnatural \cf0 Now we\'92re going to take a look at
the solo for \'93Wake Me Up When September Ends.\'94 It starts out by sliding up to the
Now take your index finger, slide it down to the 11th fret of the G. We\'92re going
to put our middle finger on the 12th fret of the B. Do the same picking order. \
\ We\'92re going to take this same form, slide
it up to the 12 of the G and the 13 of the B. Do the same picking order.\
\ Now take your ring finger, lay it on the 15th
fret of the B string. Hit it, what, four times. \
\ Then slide your index finger down to the 11th
of the G. So the first half of the solo sounds like this. And the second half starts out
the same as the first half like this.\ \
Now we\'92re going to hit that 12 on the G, 15 on the B eight times. Slide our finger
down to the 11 fret of the G. Slide it back up. And slide it back down. And then we\'92ll
start off with the intro section again, but this is the whole solo slowly.\
\ Eight times. Slide it down eight times. Slide
it back up for eight. Slide it back down for eight. And then we\'92d go back to that part.
\ Hey, thanks for watching. I hope you learned
something. Make sure you click on the button and request any song that you want to learn,
and we\'92ll make a video and post it on the website. I\'92ll see you next time.\
}