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Home ❯ Songs ❯ John Denver ❯

Rocky Mountain High

by John Denver • Lesson #160 • Jul 17, 2018

Licensed Song Sheet 3 pages

Follow along with my print-friendly guide for this song! It’s available for purchase at Musicnotes.com, the web’s leading provider of licensed sheet music.

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About This Lesson

In this lesson I’ll show you how to play “Rocky Mountain High” by John Denver. I’ll explain the chords needed, how to tune your guitar to Drop-D, playing the main riff (with tabs), and how to strum the verse & chorus section. This is a fun song to play, whether you want to get advanced with it or keep it simple.

  • 0:00 Playthrough & greeting
  • 2:07 Tuning & capo
  • 2:51 How to play the main riff
  • 10:45 Chords shapes needed
  • 11:58 Verse w/ strumming
  • 13:27 Chorus

Here’s a few of the other lessons I’ve made that will help with this song! The big topics to keep in mind are Drop D tuning, which lets you get that low D bass note on the thickest string. I also made a lesson with some advice on getting your fretting hand’s pinky to stretch to that 4th fret note (3rd and/or 4th string), which is necessary to nail the main riff in this song.

How to Tune to Drop-D By Ear (Without a Tuner)

Playing around in Drop-D tuning

How to stretch your pinky on D major

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