Chords for How To Play HAPPY BIRTHDAY On GUITAR! (3 Easy Ways for Beginners!) [Chords & Strumming] + FREE Guide

So you only have a few minutes to learn happy birthday?
[Bb] Well you've come to the right video.
Hi my name is Ellen and today I'm going to be showing you guys [F] three variations of how to play
happy [Gm] birthday on your guitar using only four of the most [Cm] common open chords on the guitar.
[B] So let's [Bb] get started.
Alright guys first of all for chords we have our G chord which looks like
[Dm] this [G] and sounds like this.
_ _ _ _ _ _
_ Next you'll [A] need to know your [Cm] D chord which looks like [Abm] this
and sounds like this.
[D] _ _ _
_ _ _ [B] You'll also need to know your C chord which looks like this
and sounds like [C] this.
_ _ _ _ _
And then lastly you'll [Ab] need to know your A minor chord [N] which looks like this
and sounds like this.
_ [Am] _ _ _
_ _ _ Now if you're [B] somebody who likes spicy and you want to spice it up a little
bit you can also throw in your D7 chord which looks like this and sounds like [Gb] this.
[D] _ _ _ _ _
But of
course if [Cm] you're just used to those open cowboy chords you [B] can always replace your D7 chord with
your regular open D.
Alright guys now that we have the chords out of the way let's talk a little bit
about strumming patterns.
[G] The easiest way to play this would be to [N] do just three simple down
strums for every chord.
So let's go ahead and go through the whole song.
I'm going to list them
here on screen.
You're just going to play each of these chords with three down strums.
[G] So we have
_ G2 [D],3, G2,3, G7,2 [G],3, G2,3.
Stay on G [C] to C [Am] to A minor [G] to G.
Happy birthday, _ [D] _ _
_ _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ _ [C] happy birthday, _ [Am] happy birthday to [G] you. _
There it is super [Em] simple.
For a little [N] bit more of a kick you can definitely up this
strumming pattern to a simple down, down, up, down, up.
So all we're doing is adding an up strum
between these down strums.
So it's going to sound like this [Bb] down, down, up, down, [Eb] up, down, down, up, down, up.
Alright and again [N] you're just going to play that pattern through one time for each of these chords.
So let's give it a try.
[G] We have G down, up, [D] down, up, E, _ G7, _ [G] _ _
stay on G [C] to C to [Am] A minor back [G] to G.
_ _ Happy birthday [D] to you, happy birthday [G] to you, happy birthday, [C] happy birthday, [Am] happy birthday to [G] you.
[E] Awesome!
And then the last way I want to show you guys how to play this if you are a little bit more
adventurous you can definitely use your fingers instead of a pick to finger pick it.
So let's go
ahead and zoom in.
Alright guys for this finger [Ebm] picking pattern we're going to keep it super
simple.
[G] What I want you to do is use your thumb for the bass note so that's going to cover your
sixth, fifth, and [Bm] fourth strings.
[N] And then you're going to assign each of these fingers to your
bottom three strings.
So your pointer is on your G, your middle finger is on your B, and your ring
finger is [Gm] on your high E string.
And they're never going to move from this position.
So what you want
[Abm] to do is on every chord we're going to pick the bass note with our [G] thumb and then pick the top
three strings twice. _
Alright and that's the [D] whole thing.
So for G we [G] have six, for [Eb] D we have [D] four,
_ _ if you want to [Abm] do D7 that's also [D] four, _ back [Cm] to G, [G]
six, _ stay on G, _ to C [C] is five, _ A minor [Am] is five,
back to G.
[G] _
_ _ Alright so the whole thing's like this G, [D] D, _ D7, _ [G] G, G again, [C] C, _ [Am]
A minor, [G] to G.
Happy birthday [D] to you, happy birthday [G] to you, happy birthday, [C] happy birthday, [Am] happy birthday to [G]
you.
[N] Alright guys and one last thing if you are somebody who wants to play that D7 chord I would
suggest also adding it at the end.
So after your A minor chord you would strum that down twice.
[Am] _ _ Happy birthday.
On the word to go to your [D] D7, to, and [G] then end on your G.
Alright it kind of just like [C] ties everything up in a nice little bow it sounds really cool.
[Am] Happy birthday [D]
[G] to you.
[C] Nice.
So the whole thing if you want to put everything all together I would
suggest playing it just [G] like this.
Happy birthday [D] _ _
_ _ _ [G] to you, happy birthday, [C] happy birthday, [Am] happy [D] birthday [G] to you.
Alright [Bm] if you want to use a [N] pick it's going to ring out really loud so if you're doing this at a
party for somebody I think that that's going to sound really great or if it's more of an intimate
gathering and you just want to [Cm] do a really sweet little happy [N] birthday definitely the finger
picking is the route to go I would say or if you're brand new to guitar and just want to learn
this to kind of impress people that you've learned guitar now definitely stick with that simple three
down strum pattern it's going to sound really great fill up the room and you're going to be
the star of the show.
Well besides whoever's birthday it is.
So [A] yeah thanks so much for
watching I [Dm] really hope this helped and happy [Gm] birthday.
[E] Bye!
[Eb] _ [F] _ _ [E] _ _ [Gm] _ _ [Cm] _ [G] _
[Bb] _ [Eb] _ [Gm] _ _ [Fm] _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ [Bb] _ _