Kodachrome (part 1)

 

Lesson Goals:

♦ Review the A7 and D7 chords
♦ Become familiar with chord progression for part 1 of "Kodachrome"
♦ Learn Riff in "Kodachrome"

In this lesson we will begin to learn the song "Kodachrome" by Paul Simon. This song breaks all the rules for "Three Chords and the Truth" by being comprised of a total of eleven chords. Hang on to your hat!

There is a lot going on in this song so we split it into two lessons. First we will work on the verse section and the predominate riff that is played in the song. In the next lesson we will learn the chorus and put the whole song together.

Let's take a look at the chart for the verses.

Become familiar with the chord changes then we can go over them in the video.

Riff: There is a predominate guitar riff that takes place in this song. It comes in at the third measure of the above chart on the G chord and continues through a walk down to the Em chord. We added the TAB for this riff below for your benefit, if you would like to learn it, but it is not necessary if you want to just strum the chord progression.

The riff starts on the 3rd fret of the 6th string which, as you know, is a G note. Then the riff finishes on the last four notes in a walk down to the Em chord. Try it out!