John Denver - Annie's Song - Guitar Lesson

About Annie's Song

Open A tuning gives "Annie's Song" its ringing, resonant quality, and getting comfortable in that tuning before you touch the chord shapes will save you a lot of frustration. The song sits in D major, and the fingerpicked arpeggio pattern that carries the whole piece is the real thing to nail: it needs to flow evenly and without hesitation, because at 120 BPM any stumble in the picking hand is immediately obvious. The left hand has to hold open chord voicings cleanly while the right hand walks through the arpeggio, and coordinating those two things smoothly is where most players get stuck. Use the Practice Toolbar to loop that pattern at a reduced speed until the motion feels automatic, then nudge the tempo back up gradually. John Denver wrote the piece on a ski lift, and that lyrical, unbroken melodic line is exactly what your picking hand needs to recreate in this Folk Rock setting.

• The song is played in Open A tuning, so retuning carefully before you start is essential to get the characteristic ringing chord voicings right.
• The core technique is a continuous fingerpicked arpeggio pattern in D major that must stay even and relaxed across all six strings throughout the song.
• Practising the picking pattern in isolation, looping it slowed down, is the most effective way to build the muscle memory before adding chord changes.