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Ear training is one of those things where you don’t necessarily see or notice your improvement immediately. Beautiful, but they also help us check our hand position to ensure that we aren’t muting any necessary strings. It can be disorientating for guitarists to understand which scales work with which keys.
‘Sweet Home Alabama’ by Lynyrd Skynyrd is a classic that still has millions of listeners all over the world. To, your surprise, it is one of the easiest songs to play on the guitar. Practicing new chords in this way helps us determine which chords sound good with other chords, and which chords don’t. It’s also develops your chord vocabulary which makes you more articulate as a musician.
Chords for ‘Sweet Home Alabama’
We can make great use of our picking hand to pick through all of the Sweet Home Alabama chords to carry the rhythm and melody of the song all at once. D C G Big wheels keep on turning,D C G carry me home to see my kinD C G singing songs about the southland.D C G I miss ole bamy once again and I think it's a sin. Each chord is accompanied by a riff of some kind by the lead guitarist that accentuates what is already happening in the song.
The Sweet Home Alabama chords loop around for most of the song. The advantage that we have in this song is that all of these chords can be played with minimal alterations in hand position. As you will go through the chords below, you will encounter a ‘F chord’ that appears just once in the second verse of the song. The chords for ‘Sweer Home Alabama’ are D major, C major and G major.
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As you can see the strumming pattern of ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ goes as ‘Down-Down-Down–UP‘. The great thing is all these are open chords and requires minimal finger movements. We always recommend experimenting with a song in as many different ways as possible in order to really get it into your head. Take the time to give your ears the training they need to keep up with your hands.
If you really want to rock out with this track, you can use power chords to beef up this song and forego the riff altogether. Ear training is powerful, but it is one of the most overlooked pieces of musical training by most guitarists. As you progress along your guitar journey, come back to these Sweet Home Alabama chords and see what new things you pick out.
‘Sweet Home Alabama’ Chords – How To Play – Lynyrd Skynyrd
This song revolves around three primary chords – D major, Cadd9 and G major. If you want more fun, relaxation and creativity in your life, you'll enjoy our guitar courses. This is great practice for mastering the sound of a song in different ways. Learn how everything fits together quickly, easily and effectively. We share ninja tips (for instant fun!) but also timeless fundamentals that will deepen your understanding.

This is my Sweet Home Alabama chord chart by Lynard Skynyrd. Not the version with all the cool riffs and licks in it. I do who you some riffs in the video lesson below. PICK UP THE GUITAR is the home to guitar lessons, tutorials, articles on how to improve your guitar playing, exercises, chords, tabs, scales, tips, and much more. You can avoid it by playing the ‘C chord’ two times but it won’t sound good.
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We do not distribute printable chord and lyrics charts. These charts are here only to support online learning. We highly recommend buying music from Hal Leonard or a reputable online sheet music store. ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ is one of those songs that is a guitar workout by itself as it is consists of cool licks, riffs and techniques. The great thing is they are all beginner friendly. Below is the tutorial video by Marty Music where you will find step by step walk through of the intro, the main riff and the guitar licks used in this song.

For one fleeting moment, we have to contend with a chord that isn’t as easy as the other Sweet Home Alabama chords on this list. But Lynyrd Skynyrd compensates for this seemingly static chord progression by providing lots of musical movement through the lead guitar sections . Some songs are created with three or more different musical sections, chock-full of different chords that are all theoretically woven together.
This ‘F chord’ serves as a transition to the ‘C chord’, which then transit to ‘D Chord’. We'll send you a series of lessons that will move you to the next level of your guitar journey. This F chord serves as a transition back to the C chord, which then transitions us back to D major. Start by strumming the lowest note in each of the chords below to bring out the bass element. Start out by practicing these Sweet Home Alabama chords individually before you put it all together.

The melody of the song out loud, and that’s different than just playing chords on a guitar. One of the things that makes up for the simplicity in these Sweet Home Alabama chords is the riff that is played over top of those chords. Rather than tackling the full F chord, we can instead play just the A, D and G strings of the chord. This will help us transition to C major more easily, then back to D major. Instead, we are more or less locked into this pattern of D major – Cadd9 – G major for the entirety of the song!
Click on a chord to learn how to play the chord on a particular instrument. There is once verse where an F chord is played once. With this version, you can at least play along and have fun until you develop your skills enough to graduate more advanced lead guitar playing.

So, I recommend to refer the video mentioned above where Erich, from ‘Your Guitar Sage’ teaches an easy way to play this part. If you’re an absolute beginner and this is one of the first songs you’re learning, we’ve stripped down the chords for you to make it easier. The main riff is based directly around the chords themselves, so it’s super easy to play.
Sweet Home Alabama Chords (& Bonus Tips For Playing This Classic Song)
A great way to practice letting strings ring out is to play arpeggios. Once you’ve gotten comfortable with this section of the song, let’s move on to some riffs. Practice your arpeggios if you really want to harness the melodic elements of the Sweet Home Alabama chords as they’re presented on the original recording. Here is the chords for Sweet Home Alabama Chords with Lyrics.

You want to make sure that you pick each of these strings separately, but allow them to ring out altogether. For how briefly this chord pops up, it almost seems like it doesn’t make sense to play it – but it totally does. Some songs stick to two distinct sections to make the song stand out. This is our most popular guide and it will improve your chord ability quickly.