Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) - Green Day
This is a great tune to learn as a beginners song.
- It has easy chords
- The changes are simple
- every body seems to know it
- It sounds good when it's played simply or the original way
You can break this song into 3 different chord progressions
|G |C9 D |
|Em D |C9 G |
|Em G |Em G |Em D |
| G | C9 | D | Em |
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If you know what these chords are, how to strum and how the song sounds then the above information is all you need to know. If you know none of this then read on.
Watch Video on this Song 
- Intro
This method of picking in the intro & Verse 1 is sometimes called cross picking. It's like a confined (small) rhythm. It is a combination of rhythm and single note picking. Don't rest your fingers on the guitar like shown here (Rest Fingers For Support), for this style of picking you'll either place the back end of your picking hand on the bridge or just float it above the strings.
This is a 16th note rhythm! It is also important that you keep an eye on your picking direction. Don't forget this "
"
means to pick down and this "
"
means to pick up. Remember the arrow in in relation to the tab lines. 
Take note of the first two notes strummed (3 on 6th string & 0 on 4th). You may ask "how do I pick both those notes without playing the 5th string in the middle" well the answer is to mute the 5th string with your 1st finger (just touch the 5th string but don't press down) or you could lay your 2nd finger down a little so that it touches the 5th string (your 2nd finger should be pressing down on the 6th string anyway). It is not vitally important to mute the note but it does add to the tone of the chord.
x 2- Verse 1
The beginning of verse 1 is the same a above.
x 2Hopefully by now you have a bit of a feel for the rhythm as the next part and the 1st chorus are the same. The tabs show on this page are not a strict but more of a guideline on how to play this song. You can try to play it note for not but over a period of time this style of rhythm/picking will come naturally.
x 2- Chorus
This next part is the same rhythm pattern as before played over a different chord progression.
- Verse 2
This next part just looks confusing on paper, when really it is a rhythm pattern shown in tab. Run your mouse over the tab below to see how it will look written as a rhythm chart. the rhythm is the same throughout the song so the is only rhythm chart example written for the first two bars.
TAB
RHYTHM
- End
To end, just strum the G chord slowly.
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Comments
Would there be any possibilities of getting the video in different speed options? 1/4 and 1/2 maybe?
I used to take guitar lessons but due to work change had to give them up a few years back, really want to get back into the guitar and your site is helping me a lot. This is the first full song I'm trying to get into because it's 'somewhat' simple, but really struggling to get the picking right... I'm struggling with the intro... particularly the line before Verse 1. It's either a lack of practice or a lack of hand-eye co-ordination!
I believe the C9 chord listed should be a Cadd9.
C9 means it has a 7 and a 9 in it, so it would have a Bb as well as a D, but this chord doesn't have a Bb.
(I usually just call it a C2, but it should be a Cadd9, I think.)
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