In todays Acoustic Guitar Tutorial we are learning how to play the CLASSIC song by The Troggs, WILD THING.
Wild Thing was written by Chip Taylor and recorded by The Troggs in 1966.
Over the course of time this song has become one of the BEST KNOWN BEGINNER GUITAR SONGS ever. Why?
- Simple format
- Very memorable to sing
- Easy to sing and play guitar to
- The chord changes are the definitive riff
- You know the song immediately
- It’s short
- Only has 3 chords (beginner chords)
- There’s enough space between the chords to change
The chords are: A E D (I IV V in Key of A).
We have a main rhythm to learn and some other easy, spacious bits of rhythm to put around it. I’ve included the foundational rhythm and then embellishments as in the song.
This was the first song I EVER learned to play on guitar. Taught by my friend I had those 3 chords written on a scrappy bit of paper. I was playing a battered nylon string guitar with the highest action…. my guitar beginnings….
THE SONG
The Chords-
The Riff-
I’ll skip the intro and come back to it in a bit. Â We’re going to start with the main riff. This is the Chorus. I’ll refer to this as Section 1.
This is the foundation of the rhythm. Â We’re in 4/4 and this is a 2 bar sequence. Play the last beat (4+) as an up-strum on the open strings.
If you’d like to develop the rhythm to add the embellishment that is in the recording we add a 16th note just before beat 3+ as below.
Play the 2 bar chord sequence 4 times for section 1.
On the 4th time round play the following instead of the last E – D chord change.
*The G is actually the 3 open strings (D, G & B) played before you fret the open A chord.Â
The 2 bars above are the segue into Section 2. Â The rest of Section 2 plays the following 2 bars 4 times.
Intro – (as below)
Break – (this comes before the final repeated chorus/section 1 to fade)
Song Structure –
The ending repeats Section 1 to fade.
Have fun.
This song is known as a beginner guitar song, Really it’s for everyone. 🎸
FULL VIDEO LESSON
FULL PLAY-THROUGH
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