? The Gambler • easy guitar lesson w/ no capo (Kenny Rogers)

Notes & tabs for this lesson:

Timestamps:
0:28 Greeting & lesson overview
1:01 Quick capo disclaimer
1:40 Chord shapes needed
3:04 Timing & chord progression
6:17 Strumming patterns
11:25 Adding alternating bass notes
13:05 Changing key in the 2nd half
14:37 Full play-along cover
17:22 Farewell & thanks

My play-along cover of this song:

An improvisation lesson I did using this song’s melody:

Here’s my lesson teaching you how to play “The Gambler”, the classic 3-chord land song made famous by Kenny Rogers (originally written by Don Schlitz). During this lesson, I’ll teach you the chord shapes, explain the verse & chorus chord progressions, and break down the strumming patterns. Together, this should give you all you need to pick up your guitar and play this song. Note, this will be a lesson for a no-capo version of this song (add a capo on the 1st fret to play the song in the same key as Kenny Rogers).

Note that for the 2nd half of the song, I’m modulating (changing key) by one whole step – i.e., moving from the key of D (D/G/A7) to the key of E (E/A/B7). Kenny Rogers only moves up one half-step, so I’m deviating from what he does – but I think my choice is more practical in that it requires no capo.

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