Intermediate Electric, Rock N Roll & Early Pop, Songbook A-Z

Johnny B. Goode Chords | Chuck Berry Guitar Lesson with TAB + Backing Tracks

In this guitar lesson, you’ll learn how to play Johnny B. Goode by Chuck Berry using chords, TAB, lyrics, chord charts (PDF + iReal Pro), chord progression analysis, and stem separated backing tracks!

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Chords + Lyrics | Johnny B. Goode

Intro

Verse 1

Chorus 1

Verse 2

He used to carry his guitar in a gunny sack, go sit beneath the tree by the railroad track.
All the engineers would see him sitting in the shade, strumming with the rhythm that the drivers made.
The people passing by they would stop and say, “Oh my what that little country boy could play”.

Chorus 2

Solo

||: Bb N.C | Bb N.C | Bb N.C Bb N.C | Bb |
| Eb5 (Eb6) | Eb5 (Eb6) | Bb5 (Bb6) | Bb5 (Bb6) |
1. | F5 (F6) | Eb5 (Eb6) | Bb (Bb6) | Bb5 (Bb6) :||
2. | F5 (F6) | F5 (F6) | Bb (Bb6) | Bb5 (Bb6) |

Verse 3

His mother told him “Someday you will be a man, and you will be the leader of a big old band.
Many people coming from miles around, to hear you play your music when the sun go down.
Maybe someday your name will be in lights, saying: Johnny B. Goode tonight”.

Chorus 3

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Johnny B. Goode Backing Tracks | Chord Analysis

Above, you’ll find backing tracks to use when learning Johnny B. Goode. I’ve used stem separation to extract the guitar while keeping the drums, bass, piano, and vocals intact.

After studying the chords and TAB, use my backing tracks to prepare for playing this tune with a band.

Chord Progressions – What’s Going On?

Built around an iconic honky tonk riff, Johnny B. Goode follows a classic twelve-bar blues progression. The riff can be thought of as moving between the 5 and 6 chords, giving the rhythm its signature bounce.

Verse + Chorus

Here’s the chord progression used for both the verse and chorus:

In the intro, chorus 1 (but not choruses 2 and 3), and solo 1, the F moves down to an Eb, like this:

Although it’s hard to see how most bands would stick rigidly to this, they’d probably include the Eb move in all choruses.

To get TAB for every single section, keep scrolling down this guitar lesson.

Intro + Solo

The variation you absolutely must nail comes in the intro and solo sections, where stops are added for extra punch.

The intro starts like this:

| N.C | N.C | Bb N.C | N.C |

In the solo, the stops are more frequent:

Despite its simplicity, Johnny B. Goode has become a rock ’n’ roll anthem, proving that a great song doesn’t need to be complex.

Interestingly, in most bands I’ve played with, this song is rarely performed in the original key. Instead, A or B tend to be more common. My top tip? Learn it in all three keys — there’s nothing worse than a band launching into different keys on stage.

For the chord chart, I prefer raising the 6 chords rather than putting them in brackets, as it more clearly shows the honky tonk pattern. What do you prefer: chords written above the lyrics, or a standalone chart?

Johnny B. Goode Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro Download

One thing you may have noticed in the chart — and possibly in the chords and lyrics as well — is the IV chord in bar 10 of the intro. This doesn’t appear in the verse or in most choruses.

Normally, I’m a stickler for getting things exactly right, but in the case of Johnny B. Goode, I’d argue that this chord is unnecessary. In fact, I’d go as far as to say it may even be a mistake in the original recording.

Download my chord chart as an iReal Pro file and you can easily change the key (for reasons mentioned earlier). You might even want to remove that intro variation before sending it to your bandmates — who will no doubt start asking why you’re making things more complicated than they need to be!

Johnny B. Goode | TAB

As this is such a classic tune, let’s learn it note-for-note!

Intro

Here’s the legendary intro, note how I’m bending from fret 9 (a semitone up) rather than 8 (a tone up), this makes it sound more like back in the day when the strings where thicker.

Check out T-Bone Walker, Chuck Berry’s greatest influence for the best reference.

Verse

The verse is by far the easiest part. The only thing to watch out for here is to make the last note of each bar short whenever the chord changes. So this so you can switch easier, I’ve indicated this with a little dot over the stem which means “play staccato”.