Time Of Your Life | Chords + Lyrics
Intro (0:00)
| G5 N.C | G5 N.C |
F*ck.
||: G5 | Cadd9 D5 :||
Verse 1 (0:18)
| G5 | Cadd9 D5 |
Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road.
| G5 | Cadd9 D5 |
Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go.
Bridge 1 (0:28)
| Em D5 | C G5 |
So make the best of this test, and don’t ask why.
| Em D5 | C G5 |
It’s not a question, but a lesson learned in time.
Chorus 1 (0:38)
| Em G5 | Em G5 |
It’s something unpredictable, but in the end, it’s right.
| Em D5 |
I hope you had the time of your life.
Instrumental 1 (0:46)
||: G5 | Cadd9 D5 :||
Verse 2 (0:56)
| G5 | Cadd9 D5 |
So take the photographs, and still frames in your mind.
| G5 | Cadd9 D5 |
Hang it on a shelf in good health and good time.
Bridge 2 (1:06)
| Em D5 | C G5 |
Tattoos of memories and dead skin on trial,
| Em D5 | C G5 |
for what it’s worth it was worth all the while.
Chorus 2 (1:16)
| Em G5 | Em G5 |
It’s something unpredictable, but in the end, it’s right.
| Em D5 |
I hope you had the time of your life.
Solo (1:24)
||: G5 | Cadd9 D5 :|| x4
||: Em D5 | C G5 :||
Chorus 3 (1:54)
| Em G5 | Em G5 |
It’s something unpredictable, but in the end, it’s right.
| Em D5 |
I hope you had the time of your life.
Instrumental 2 (2:02)
||: G5 | Cadd9 D5 :||
Chorus 4 (2:12)
| Em G5 | Em G5 |
It’s something unpredictable, but in the end, it’s right.
| Em D5 |
I hope you had the time of your life.
End (2:20)
||: G5 | Cadd9 D5 :|| G |
You can learn how to play Time Of Your Life!
In the guitar lessons you find below, we learn Time Of Your Life exactly as Billie Joe plays it.
Apart from the fast picking and strumming for guitar 1, if you take the course, you’ll discover how the most challenging part of learning how to play Time Of Your Life, is to play the violin solo, note-for-note!
We also change the key, apply a capo and create a 2nd guitar part. Once you’ve learned the 2nd guitar part, you, me, and the singer can play this song together, as if we are a band.
Creating 2nd guitar parts is a great step in the direction of playing with other musicians.
Below, you’ll find some of the guitar lessons taken from my beginner acoustic guitar course. In the course, there are 8 steps working on how to play Time Of Your Life, but also on how to improve your sweeping technique.
Time Of Your Life guitar lesson | Verse chords and strumming
Let’s start learning how to play Time Of Your Life’s chords. Check the TAB below, watch the video and start practicing this repetitive pattern.
As the pattern is pretty fast, take your time. It’s much better if you can play it well at a slow speed than fast but not accurately.
Here’s the TAB for the verse. Let’s call this example 1.
This song employs a more intricate and quicker picking pattern compared with other beginner songs.
This most likely means that you need to practice the pattern slowly at first, so start at 76 BPM, and use the TAB loop in the playlist above.
Here’s a slightly simpler strummed version of the verse, let’s call this example 2.
Again, start by playing this along with the TAB loop at 76 BPM.
Here’s the final example, this is still strumming but now using the exact same rhythm as the picking pattern.
Just like with the two previous examples, practice along with the TAB loop at 76 BPM until you can do it.
Once all three patterns are OK, here’s what you need to do to up the tempo:
- Play example 1 at 76 BPM for 25 seconds
- Wait 5 seconds, and increase BPM with 2
- Play again for 25 seconds
- Repeat this process until you reach 94 BPM
- Play along with the TAB loop at 94 BPM
- Repeat this process with example 2, followed by example 3
If you struggle, come back and practice all this again tomorrow.
In the next step, we work on the bridge.
Time Of Your Life guitar lesson | Bridge chords and strumming
It’s time to look at the bridge chords for Time Of Your Life. Slightly more difficult than the verse, although much is the same.
Here’s the picked pattern, or as I like to call it, example 1.
To play this well, you must start slowly. Practice along with the TAB loop at 76 BPM. When you can do this, move on to example 2, now we’re strumming.
Again, use the TAB loop to ensure you’re getting this right. when you are, move on to the final example, which goes by the number 3.
Just like the verse, this is the same rhythm as the first example, just strummed.
Remember to aim for perfection when it comes to accuracy, not speed. At first, the slower, the better, it means you have control.
When you can play all examples at 76 BPM, you are ready to start pushing the BPM.
Here’s how you do that:
- Play example 1 to a click at 76 BPM for 25 seconds
- Rest for 5 seconds, and increase the BPM with 2
- Play example 1 for 25 more seconds
- Rest for 5 seconds, and increase the BPM with 2
- Repeat this process until you reach 94 BPM
- Start at 76 BPM again, now with example 2, followed by example 3
Should you not be able to reach 94 BPM with all examples, start slow again, but instead of 76, perhaps begin the process at 78.
Should this still not work, come back and try again tomorrow.
Time Of Your Life guitar lesson | Chorus chords and complete song TAB
Let’s practice Time Of Your Life’s chorus chords using the same methodology as when you practiced the verse and bridge. Since you can play those two sections already, this is going to be easy!
This is what the chorus looks like in TAB when you pick it.
And here’s the easier, strummed version, here named example 2. Play this along with the TAB loop at 76 BPM.
Lastly, example 3.
You know the drill by now, the same concept as when you practice the verse and the bridge.
- Start at 76 BPM – play all three examples for 15 seconds each
- Increase BPM with 2
- Repeat until you reach 96 BPM
- Play along with all three TAB loops at 94 BPM
When you can do this, let’s have a crack at the complete song! You find it in the playlist above.
Here’s a TAB chart for the complete song.
Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) TAB
In the next step, we’ll construct a 2nd guitar part so we can play Time Of Your Life together. This includes all sections using a capo so you’ll have to think of Time Of Your Life’s chords in a different key.
We also play that violin solo, note for note! For the complete experience, sign up here.
Time of Your Life was written already at the time of recording Dookie
Time of your life was originally entitled Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) but has also been called Time Of Your Life (Good Riddance) as well as just Good Riddance!
Initially, Billie Joe Armstrong wrote the song for the breakthrough album Dookie, but it was held back three years for the follow-up album Nimrod which was released in 1997.
As a single from Nimrod, Time Of Your Life did very well and was the only crossover single with worldwide success from the album.
Some might even say Time Of Your Life kept Green Day in the limelight between Dookie and American Idiot.
According to bassist Mike Dirnt, Time Of Your Life was, in comparison to the rest of the material on Nimrod, “The most punk we could go”.
Time Of Your Life chords | Related pages
Time Of Your Life – 8 guitar lessons
The biggest hurdle to overcome here is to pick fast in a sweeping motion. To get better, we practice a sweeping exercise and each section of the song using loops.
Once you can play the complete song, the final challenge lies in playing a 2nd guitar part, including a note-for-note version of the violin solo.
Time Of Your Life – 8 guitar lessons.
Beginner Acoustic Songs
This collection of songs will teach you how to arrange a song to play on your own, as well as how to create a supporting part.
Playing songs will help you with switching between open-position chords and give you the context you need in order to understand how music works theoretically.
Time Of Your Life – 5 similar tunes
Green Day
Green Day’s third album, Dookie (94), took the band to superstardom. With fifteen million copies sold, they became everyone’s favorite punk trio.
After a few more albums, Green Day released American Idiot (04). This firmly established them as one of the best-known bands in the world.
Green Day on the web
