Everlong Guitar Lesson

Whether you're in a band or want to jam along to the recording, Everlong is a great improver level track. It will certainly push your rhythm chops and hopefully give you some new ideas to play with when it comes to chords! Let's dive in with the video:

This song, from 'The Colour and the Shape' is a fantastic example of how a unique rhythm pattern played across differing chords can drive a song. It's played in Drop D Tuning, so, before we go any further we need to know what that is, and tune our guitars accordingly!

Drop D tuning

Drop D (or Dropped D) tuning simply means taking your low E string (the thickest string) and dropping it down two semitones (frets) so it plays a D note. You can do this by playing your D string and then loosening the low E until they ring out together as a D note, or, to be on the safe side you can just use a tuner.

What this gives you, aside from a lower note, is the ability to play power chords with one finger. Simply barre the low 2 or 3 strings and you'll be playing the root on the D string(s) and the 5th on the A string. This is really useful for playing chord progressions that jump up and down the neck, as we'll see in the chorus! Dave Grohl uses the low D in other ways too, as we'll see in the verse riff.

Intro and verse riff chords

The intro and verse of this song revolve around some really interesting chord voicings powered by a driving, all down strokes rhythm pattern. We take the rhythm pattern and apply it to each chord in turn. If you're new to this song it's highly possible that you won't have seen these chords anywhere else, so before we dive into the rhythm pattern let's have a look at the chord progression and the specific fingerings we're using for these chords. First off, here's the chord progression:

You may notice that this is an uncommon seven bar progression! Don't worry about that for now, once we have the strumming pattern down it all makes sense! If you're feeling a little intimidated by these expensive looking chord names fear not! These are simply the chords we get by playing a couple of simple shapes and moving them around the fretboard! Even if you know how to play these chords it's worth having a look at the diagrams since they are very specific to this song. Here are the shapes:

As you can see we are taking our trusty power chord shape and making some adjustments, giving us a new moveable shape! (The note on the G string is optional and simply doubles the note on the A string). Don't forget, we're in Drop D tuning so our root notes on the low string aren't where they usually are! They're 2 frets higher. For the sus2 shape try barring the low D and A strings with one finger. Your root note is on the low D string. Once you have this under your fingers and are able to move it around you'll have a really nice chord that can fill out a guitar part without affecting the major/minor tonality of the chord. Definitely a shape for your library!

Intro and verse riff rhythm

Once you have the chords memorised we need to tackle the driving rhythm part of this song. Dave Grohl takes the above shapes and masterfully splits them into 'low' and 'high' sounds to create a really distinctive pattern where we're truly playing a riff without needing to move our fretting hand! Generally we have a two bar strumming pattern (but that can change). Let's break it down.

Low and High

If we were to look at just the rhythm for this song it would simply be a string of eight 8th notes, which doesn't give us the musical variety we know and love from this classic riff. The secret is splitting the chords into low and high voicings by strumming either the lower strings or the higher strings. Keep your fingers in position though. If you're comfortable with releasing the pressure on the strings you don't want ringing out you can do that, otherwise simply targeting a low or high area of the chord will allow the rhythm to come out. Another key point to note in this pattern is that we're using all downstrokes throughout. Have a look at this strumming pattern:

This two bar pattern is applied to the Dmaj7 chord, then to the Bsus2 chord, then we change slightly for the Gsus2 chord since that's a single bar, but the feel is very much the same, continuing to use this idea of splitting the chord into low and high parts. Here's the pattern for the Gsus2:

After that we're back to our Bsus2 on the 9th fret and we round off the loop with another slight variation on the pattern. We're back to a two bar strumming pattern now:

Dynamics

The chord progression and strumming pattern doesn't really change from the intro to the verse, but the dynamics change drastically! We start off with a very light, gentle strum and gradually build in intensity (and overdrive!) as the intro continues. Once the drums kick in we're really going for it! Then you need to remember to step back a bit in the verse to let the vocals come through. Things like this may have to come a little later if you're concentrating on nailing the chord shapes and strumming patterns, but they can really make a huge difference to your performance of a tune!

Double stop hook

There's a beautiful lead guitar hook that appears throughout the song too. In fact, it's so catchy, and so much a part of the song, that Dave Grohl sings it when he's playing it solo on acoustic guitar - we'll learn how to play it on guitar like the record though! There will be no tab of the exact parts of the song. Use your ears, use the skills you are developing via our courses and pathways, and use the video to loop sections as many times as you like! In this post, we'll talk about the shapes and offer practical tips to help you improve!

With that disclaimer out of the way, let's look at the hook. We're closely following the underlying chord shapes for this one. It's a very simple but very effective hook! The shape stays the same over the first two chords, and then drops to follow the chord change to the Gsus2. Here are those parts on the fretboard:

The green and blue dots on the diagram show the alternating notes to play to get that great hook down! Try to visualise the chords underneath and listen to the rhythm on the track or the video to know when to alternate the notes on the G string! This is a really nice hook to have under your fingers so don't skip this part!

Pre chorus

We're now onto the awesome build up before the chorus. Once again we're using some interesting rhythmic ideas with chords that cleverly use the low D string. The pre chorus uses an ascending D major scale run that's bulked out using the low open D and an octave shape.

This run up is simply a D major scale starting on the 7th, played up the neck on the A string. We then use our octave shape to double it up, and allow the low D string to ring out underneath. Here are the notes of the D major scale on the fretboard.

Memorise those positions, then use an octave shape to double up the note and play the low D underneath. Here's the first chord, based around that major 7th octave rooted on the 4th fret of the A string as an example. For the others you simply shift the shape up to line up with the next scale degree:

The progression runs up this scale playing each degree 3 times, all as straight 8th notes (not triplets!) giving a slightly off balance feel, but when you get to the final chord everything falls into place! We're back to a two bar pattern, finishing on a pushed A power chord. If you get the 3 note grouping first the push will come naturally. We'll show you the grouping here but remember to listen to the demo in the video to get a feel for it.

The last thing we need before jumping into the chorus is that A5 power chord. Remember, we're in drop D tuning, so all we need to do is Barre the 7th fret on the low three strings! Here's how it looks on a chord chart:

We've got another odd number of bars, and an odd number of repeats too, but the magic just works!

Chorus

The last section to learn before putting the pieces together is the chorus. We're now into full power chord goodness, with the drop D tuning giving us access to an enormous sounding D5 voicing. Here's that chord chart:

Here are the chord shapes we'll be using:

Once you've learned where the chords are on the neck you can put them together with the strumming pattern. This is a rough idea of a pattern, as we're in full high overdrive mode here, with fast drums and big vocals going on, so the pattern is free to be flexible. It's key to get the pushes in here though, as they help drive the chorus along, and lock in with the incredible drum part. As we saw in the previous section a push is where we play the chord just before the '1' of the bar. In this case we're playing our chord on the '+ of 4'. We don't show this in the chord chart, as that would become very cluttered, just remember if the chord is showing at the start of the bar you need to play it on the '+' just before. Here's the strumming pattern:

Putting it together

Once you've learned the sections individually you'll need to put the track together yourself. This is a key part of developing your skill as a guitar player. Listen to it lots of times around and play along with it as much as you can. If you need to you can write out a structure chart too, otherwise try using the lyrics to help you navigate the structure. Playing a song through from beginning to end is hugely important so don't neglect it!