Chords for How To Play The Best of My Love - Guitar Lesson

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[F] _ _ You will be hard-pressed to find a better American rock [C] band than the Eagles.
In this guitar lesson for their classic ballad, Best of My Love,
I [F] show you how to play it and why it's such a great song to learn. _ _ _
[C] _ [Em] Hi, I'm Kevin from Relax and Learn Guitar, where I [F] teach music lovers over 40 how to play the guitar
so they can become the guitar players they've always [G] wanted to be.
In this [C#] lesson, I'm going to show you how to play a great rock ballad by [G#] the Eagles, Best of My Love.
I was looking for a kind of a ballad to play that wouldn't be, you know, too far out there as far as difficulty
and that folks would know and enjoy, and I think [C] this is a good one.
Oftentimes, we kind of choose to try and play songs or learn songs that might be a little difficult at first,
so this is a good one to start with.
Can't go wrong with the Eagles.
So _ _ one of the first reasons it's a great song to learn is just this opening, not really riff, just kind of a theme.
So you need to play a C chord, and to do that you have your index finger on the second string, first fret,
your middle finger on the fourth string, second fret, and your ring finger on the fifth string, third fret.
It's a C chord, and we're going to do a little hammer-on.
This is reason number one I like this so much, because it just sounds great.
[G] So for the C chord, if you lift up your index [C#] finger, it becomes actually a [C] C major seventh chord.
You're going to lift up your index finger off of that second string, first fret, and hammer back down onto it.
So you have this. _ _ _ _ _ _
You can just do that, let it ring out.
You can also strum back up. _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[F] Then you also repeat the same thing with an F major seven [F] chord, cool [D#] sounding chord,
and [E] very much similar to that C chord.
So for the F seven chord, you just basically move your index and your, I mean, sorry, your [A] ring finger and your middle finger down.
So now your ring finger is playing the fourth string, third fret.
Your middle finger is [F#] playing the third string, second fret,
and your index finger stays there on the [F] second string, first fret.
That's an F major seven chord.
Same [D#m] idea, same concept.
Lift up your index finger for some hammer-ons here.
[F] So you [C] have C, _ _ _ _ _ _ [F] F major seven, _ _ _ _ _ _ [D] strum pattern is [C] down, up, down, up, up, down, up, down, up, up, down, [E] up.
_ _ [F] And what's cool is that _ hammer-on gives you a nice little change there.
He does that pretty [D] much throughout most of the entire song.
So when I'm [C] saying Cs [Am] and F major sevens during this [F] lesson, that's kind of what he's [C] doing.
Reason number two is great is because you've got one strumming pattern to memorize to [G] use for the whole [Am] song.
This [E] starts there on the first verse.
[C] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [F] _ _
_ _ You get [C#] two of the patterns per chord.
[C] Repeats again with the C.
All the things that we said, [F]
coming apart at the seams.
Then we [D] have our first [D#] change of chords here.
You've got [Em] an E minor.
_ _ That E minor [Bm] chord is index finger on the fifth string, second fret, and your middle finger on the fourth string, second [Em] fret.
Playing all six [C] strings, same [Em] pattern.
_ Try to [Dm] talk it over.
Next chord is a D minor.
That is index finger on the first string, first fret, [G] middle finger on the third string, second fret, and ring finger on the second string, third [Dm] fret.
_ _ _ So [Em] it goes E minor, _ [Dm] D minor, _ [Em] E minor, _ [F] F major seventh, one strum.
And then back [C] into _ _ the, I guess you'd call this the chorus part.
_ _ It [Dm] gives me the best of my love.
Then _ _ _ [D] a cool little lick here.
You can play a G chord there if you want to.
A G is index finger on the second string, I mean sorry, fifth string, second fret, middle finger on the sixth string, third fret, and your ring finger on the first string, [G] third fret. _
But I like this little_
[D] _ _ So to do that, you're going to play, just worry about the [D#m] top three strings.
[G] Strings three, two, and one, the thinnest strings.
You're going to [F] start here with your ring finger on the first string, third [G] fret.
Strum down twice on those three strings.
Move your index finger down to the first fret of the first string, two to strum down again.
Then you're going to have [C#] the rest play here on the second string.
You're [Em] going to use your ring finger on the second string, fifth fret.
_ Again, just play those three strings.
[D] _ And with your index finger on the second string, third fret twice.
So you _ [Em] have_
_ [D] _ You can fit that in as a good little transition.
_ _ _ _ Then it starts over with the [C] same thing, C twice, _ F major seven [F] twice. _ _ _ _ _ _
That all repeats back in that E minor, [D#] D minor.
One thing he does at the end of this, [G] that second kind of verse, he plays when they [Em] have the E minor.
Oh, it was like [Dm] a D minor dark cloud that we could never rise [F] above.
He does that F major seventh with one strum pattern.
Then he plays [G] the G like this. _ _
Fancy word there is arpeggio.
You're going to play the G chord. _
You just kind of pick out the strings individually.
One, two, three, four, five.
Then in [C] two.
But here in my heart, I [Dm] give you the best [C] of my heart.
And that lick again.
[G] _ _ [D] _
_ And then kind of, ooh, sweet darling, Cs and Fs.
And that's it except for the bridge.
And for this [Fm] bridge, you are going to have to play an F minor bar chord.
_ [E] To do that, you've got your index finger over [F] all six strings on this first fret.
[F#] Your index finger bars all six strings on the first fret.
And your ring and your pinky are basically playing an E minor shape.
Think of it that way.
You're going to have your ring finger on the fifth string third [Fm] fret and your pinky on the fourth string third fret.
It's a G, I mean, sorry, F minor bar chord.
Now if you're not ready to tackle bar chords yet, you can just lift up that index finger
and _ just worry about barring these three strings.
Strings one, two, and three on the first fret with your index.
And play those ring and pinky fingers on the fifth and fourth strings.
And don't worry about that sixth string. _
He does that twice.
_ I'm going back in [C] time.
It's a C, a dream.
F minor again [Fm] twice.
It's a quiet night.
It could be alright if [E] I could
[Dm] One strum down D minor, [G] one strum down G.
[C] Back to the C. _ _ _ _
[F] _ Great little tune.
_ _ [Em] _ _
[C] Great [E] one to learn.
You got mostly those open chords, that really cool little riff there with the hammer on.
Strum patterns throughout [N] and everyone knows it.
Because of all those reasons, I've been able to learn this song, add it to my playlist,
and now I have a good one to go to when you need a cool rock love [C] ballad that everybody knows
that [D] you can feel confident playing.
[F#] To learn your next Great Eagles song, click on the video above to learn a little peaceful, easy feeling,
another Great Eagles tune.
Check out that lesson and have fun with it, and I'll see you for the [C] next one. _ _ _ _