Don't Look Back In Anger Guitar Lesson

If there's one Oasis song every guitarist should know, it's this one. A true classic with powerful melodies and an unforgettable solo! Let's jump in!

The Intro

On the intro, we’re only going to need two chords, C and F.

The structure of this intro is pretty straightforward, we’re going to play each chord for a whole bar (4 beats):

Now, let’s talk about the rhythm of this intro. We want to keep the strumming hand moving down on each 8th notes.

The strumming pattern will then look like this:

It’s tempting here to just strum the beats that we hear, but I encourage you to keep your strumming hand moving on each 8th notes, just like in the diagram above.

This is important because we'll need that consistent motion later on. So this is the perfect chance to get comfortable with it!

First Verse

Time to dive in the epic first verse of the song! It's a pretty long chord progression, but I'm sure you already know most of the chords we'll be using.

We're going to need C, G, A minor, E and F.

We've seen C and F on the intro, so let's have a look at G, Aminor and E:

The structure of this verse will look like this:

We're gong to play this chord sequence quite a lot throughout the song, so I invite you to spend some time on it.

Take your time to build your confidence with these transitions!

Let's now take a look at the strumming pattern for this verse. I'll show you the one I'd play, but keep in mind that you can (and should!) experiment with it.

As always, keep your strumming hand moving down on every 8th note!

Before you add the chords to this pattern, try playing it with muted strums. Take your time and make sure you're matching each movement that you see on the diagram above.

You can also try singing or humming the pattern, it's the best way to make sure you've internalised what you're about to play! Once you've got the pattern mastered, it's time to add some chords!

Remember that most of the chords in the verse are played for 2 beats, so you’d have to “split” this pattern in half.

That means you’ll transition to a different chord on beat 1, and beat 3.

Now let's focus on the last two chords of the chord progression, A minor and G.

As you can see on the structure above, these two chords are played for just one beat, so we’re going to change the pattern for this part.

At that speed, there's barely enough time to change the chord shape.

It’s a common frustration I see when teaching this kind of chord progression.

The key thing to understand is that it's totally okay to strum open strings (meaning you're not holding any chord shape) while transitioning between chords.

What I mean by that, is that you should keep on playing the pattern and not change it to fit the speed of your transition.

If you end up strumming only open strings during the transition, that’s absolutely fine. In fact, it can add a nice colour to your strumming and chord progression.

The most important thing is to keep your pulse and pattern consistent!

This verse is played twice, so keep this going and let everyone sing along!

Second Verse

Let's carry on and look at the second verse of this song.

We're starting off with a new chord progression, something we could almost think of as a bridge. To play this new section, we're going to need F, F minor and C.

We've already seen two out of the three chords we need on the previous section, so let's have a look at the F minor:

The structure of this little bridge will look like this:

Of course, to transition from F major to F minor, all you have to do is remove your middle finger. Don't rebuild the whole shape!

The strumming pattern on this section is going to be very straightforward. We're only going to strum downstrokes, playing on every 8th note.

The pattern is pretty simple because we want to focus on the dynamics.

Start off strumming quietly, then dig in a bit more towards the end of this "mini bridge" to add some energy. The goal is to build a bit of tension so that everyone feels ready to sing along with we hit the next part of the verse!

Let's carry on with the rest of this second verse, we're now diving into the "Stand up beside the fireplace" part that we all love! We're also going to need a new chord here: the mysterious E/G#.

The structure of this section will look like this:

I'd probably play two different strumming patterns on this section, I'd start with the one below on G and E/G# (the first two bars).

As you can see, we're sticking with downstrokes for this part!

Then, on the rest of that section, I'd play the same pattern we've played on the first verse. That's good news as it means you already know it!

The only difference being that we'd play the full pattern on the last three bars, as we're staying on F for a whole bar (so a full pattern!), and G for two whole bars! Easy!

The Chorus

Let's move on to the chorus! The chorus uses essentially the same chords as the verse, but with a small tweak in the structure.

Let's have a look at that structure, the first part of the chorus is exactly the same as the verse, but the second part is where things change.

Here's the whole structure:

You start with the same chord progression we've played on the verse (on the first line).

You then play the same thing again, but right after the second G, instead of finishing the chord progression like we did just before, we sort of rewind the chord progression and play the main one again!

It's a super clever way to create more movement in a chord progression that only uses 5 unique chords! Rhythm wise, we want to play the same pattern we've seen on the first verse, but strumming a lot harder as this is the chorus of the song! Bring that energy up!

As always, to get confident with it, listen to the song and try to spot what’s happening with the structure!

Careful that on the original recording, everything is a little bit flat, so you can’t play along.

The solo

As we mentioned before, the song is in the key of C major, and solo is played on the C major pentatonic scale.

In order to play that solo, we’re going to need shapes 1, 2, 4 and 5 of the C major pentatonic scale.

On this solo, try and tackle each lick as its own thing. There's so much to learn in terms of shapes and techniques that any little step you're taking is actually massive! Take your time.

If we break it down, licks 1, 2 and 3 are played on shape 1.

Lick number 4 is played over shapes 1 and 5, and is a perfect example of how you can connect these two shapes together.

On lick 5, we start on shape 5, and move all the way up to shape 2. Same thing here, if you're learning this part of the solo, try to really visualise what's going on in terms of shapes. Use the diagram above to see where you are, and what notes of which shapes you're playing.

That way, you'll be able to use the same "path" between these two shapes on your own solos!

Lick number 5 is also a bit of a switch, as we want to bring the intensity of the solo up after playing it. Focus on the dynamics!

Lick number 6 is on shape 2, and is a perfect example of how you don't need to play a whole shape to play something memorable!

And of course, lick number 7 has that very cool unison bend on shape 4 of the pentatonic scale!

Again, this absolutely epic solo is a perfect example of how you can use your pentatonic scale shapes, and how to connect them together. Take your time with it, and remember that since the original song is a bit flat, you can't really practice it along with the song.

The good new is, I'm in tune! So you can practice the solo with me by going back to the video on our Youtube channel!