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Simple Guitar Songs – “Happy Birthday To You” Guitar Tabs

By Mike Hayes | July 19, 2010

One event in my guitar playing career that sticks in my mind was
when a young boy around the age of five approached the bandstand
at a function were I was performing.

Over the years I had gained quite a reputation as a versatile
guitarist who could play many styles of music authentically;
little did I know that this little boy was about to give my
reputation a bit of a serious battering.

While our band was playing the young lad walked onstage and asked
me if I could play “Happy Birthday”; I was busy playing and said
O.K. hoping that he would soon forget about it and the evening
could proceed without any more requests from the little guy; this
was not going to be the case!

During the next bracket out of the corner of my eye I could see
the young boy heading for the bandstand and sure enough he asked
me again when we were going to play “Happy Birthday”; I replied
’soon’ thinking he’ll soon tire of asking.

As the night progressed this little fellow made several trips to
the bandstand each time I tried to avoid the inevitable;
eventually he brought reinforcements with him (his little sister)
“can you play “Happy Birthday” for my little sister?” he asked
politely. At that moment one of the band members recognized the
little girl as the daughter of the people who had booked us.

Now I knew we were in trouble … no “Happy Birthday” no pay!

You may be wondering why I had gone to so much trouble trying to
avoid playing this simple song; the reason was I didn’t know how
to play it!

Yes, here was this guitarist who could play chicken’ pickin’
licks for country; rock solos and dance music but couldn’t play a
simple melody.

I eventually ended up being cornered by the whole family; with
mum, dad, and three children all listening intently I totally
mangled “Happy Birthday”, boy, was it embarrassing, not even the
composer would have recognized his own song based on my
rendition!

As I walked off stage to the sound of my own feet and packed up,
red faced with my reputation in tatters, wishing I could crawl
inside my guitar case I was determined to never let this happen
again. It sometimes takes an incident like this to REALLY learn
what you should be learning.

It’s simple isn’t it? People want to hear tunes not scales or
arpeggios; sure guitar players will be impressed with your
ability to ’sweep pick’ but when it’s someone’s birthday they
couldn’t care less it you can play all of Van Halen’s Eruption
solo they just want to hear Happy Birthday.

So you don’t come face-to-face with the same type of embarrassing
situation here’s Happy Birthday.

I’ve broken the tune into small easy to remember sections, learn
each section and then link all the parts together and very soon
you will be playing the entire song.

Happy Birthday

part 1
—————-
—————-
—————-
—————-
-3–3–5–3–
—————-

part 2
————-
————-
————-
–3–2—–
————-
————-

part 3
—————-
—————-
—————-
—————-
-3–3–5–3–
—————-

part 4
————-
————-
————-
–5–3—–
————-
————-

part 5
————-
————-
————-
————-
–3–3—–
————-

part 6
—————
—————
–5—-2——
————3–
—————
—————

part 7
————
————
————
–2———
——-5—-
————

part 8
————-
————-
–3—-3—-
————-
————-
————-

part 9
————-
————-
–2———-
——-3—–
————-
————-

part 10
————–
————–
————–
—5—-3—
————–
————–

Happy Birthday may not be your favorite song, but it is top of
the charts once a year for everyone, it’s also important to play
songs in the key (pitch) that people are familiar with otherwise
they will have trouble singing along with the song; I’ve
presented Happy Birthday in the key of ‘F’ which is the most
popular key for that song.

Topics: Beginner Guitar Lesson, Guitar Fretboard, Guitar Tips | No Comments »

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