Complete Beginner-to-Pro Guide: How to Play 'Wake Me up When September Ends' Guitar Tabs
As the rhythm section enters, the song expands from deliberate arpeggios into a rolling acoustic strumming pattern. The verse keeps the same descending chord progression but fills out the space.
When the chorus arrives ("Like my father's come to pass / Seven years has gone so fast"), the song abandons the chromatic descent and moves to classic open rock chords:
- Em (0-2-2-0-0-0)
- Bm (x-2-4-4-3-2)
- C (x-3-2-0-1-0)
- G (3-2-0-0-3-3)
- D (x-x-0-2-3-2)
The primary strumming rhythm runs in 4/4 time using an energetic, syncopated pattern:
Down — Down — Up — Up — Down — Up (D — D — U — U — D — U)
Accentuate the downbeats on beats 1 and 3 to anchor the groove. Keep your picking wrist loose. Tight wrists kill dynamics, especially when moving between the quiet acoustic verses and the soaring acoustic bridge and chorus tabs.
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