Today we’re looking at Teenage Dirtbag from the year 2000.  What an awesome song by wheatus.

This is a fantastic campfire singalong song. It’s a fairly simple rhythmic song but there are a couple of things they’ve sprinkled in there that really give it it’s personality.

We’re looking  at power chord shapes mostly and how they’ve also created the riff using those shapes.

Breaking the song down into 4 parts…

INTRO & VERSES

The chords:

 

 

 

The rhythm: The down strums below play the lowest 3 strings of each chord eg E = EAD strings.  The up strums play the open strings GBe.

The chord sequence E, B5, E, A5  repeats for the Intro and all 3 Verses.

 

PRE-CHORUS

The chords: C#5, A5, B5

 

The rhythm: The rhythm is exactly the same as the Verse rhythm. Use the chords in the sequence below

.

 

CHORUS

The chords: E, Asus2, Bsus4 & Riffs 1 & 2

The riff 1:

RIff 2:

 

The rhythm: plays x3 as below (riff 1)

then x1 below (riff 1 & 2)

THE BREAK

Chords: E Asus2

The rhythm: (riff 1 & 2 in the last bar)

Now repeat all of the above for Verse 2 / Pre-ch 2 / Chorus 2

On the third time round the Verse / Pre-ch are the same. The chorus is quieter and palm muted (lay the side of your strumming hand lightly on the strings next to the bridge for the chuck sound).  Play this chorus all down strums as below.  The format and the number of times you play it is the same as the previous choruses.

This is followed by another BREAK as above.

For detailed video reference to follow through please check out the embedded links below.

Enjoy!

 

FULL VIDEO LESSON

 

TEENAGE DIRTBAG FULL ACOUSTIC COVER