The first song Dave Grohl always plays when he picks up a guitar

Even if you don’t consider yourself a lead player, all the basics of a great rhythm guitarist are on display every time John Lennon plays. The perfect example is Beatles for sale. While it’s far from the group’s best album of all time or anything, it’s a textbook example of what every kid who wants to be a great musician should study first, with most of the songs featuring open chords to strum along to.

Looking at the way Grohl plays guitar, he seems to have taken that kind of rhythm playing to heart as well. There’s nothing left to lose and the Foo Fighters’ debut were dominated by him playing all the guitar parts, but since he now has two guitarists alongside him, he feels much more comfortable playing the rhythm straight down the middle and letting Chris Shiflett or Pat Smear fly . .

However, when Grohl feels like playing, his heart goes out to Paul McCartney before joining Lennon or Harrison. Compared to the strummed tunes, Grohl always had a special affinity for “Blackbird,” if only for the gentle pulse and strumming pattern that every guitarist tries to master when he has pieces like “Stairway to Heaven” under his belt.

Grohl may still have been a punk in every fiber of his being, but he couldn’t deny that “Blackbird” was a must hear every time he picked up an acoustic guitar, saying, “If I ever sit down with an acoustic guitar, it’s one of the first things I do. I really consider Paul McCartney to be one of the most important people in the world.”

But Grohl’s love for the song perhaps says much more about how he works as a musician. Since the whole thing is based on a delicate finger picking pattern, anyone playing the tune is inadvertently playing the drums on the guitar, as each finger plays a different rhythm while skipping different strings.

It’s a bit tricky to make every note sound perfect, but challenge aside, “Blackbird” has earned the distinction alongside “Here Comes the Sun” for being one of the quintessential acoustic songs in rock history. It may be overplayed by fans around the world, but this is one of the few cases where the massive fame is completely justified.

Related topics