Log In My Account Join Upgrade Premium VIP Beta Tester Free Trial
Menu Search Join VIP Beta Tester Premium
 

Home ❯ Songs ❯

City of New Orleans

by Arlo Guthrie • Lesson #439 • Jun 10, 2022

Hey there, friends! New lesson today teaching you how to play City of New Orleans — originally written/recorded by Steve Goodman (1971) before the hit covers from Arlo Guthrie (1972) and Willie Nelson (1984). You may know this song by its chorus refrain – ”Good morning, America / how are you?”. I’ve gotten many requests for this one over the years… so I’m excited to finally have this lesson for y’all!

I’m modeling my lesson after Arlo Guthrie’s version, and teaching this song in the Key of G. This mostly keeps the chords simple and straightforward… though you will have a B-minor, as well as a brief measure of F, to worry about. Fear not, I’ll show you simplified versions of both of these chords — so you’ll most definitely be able to play it even if barre chords aren’t under your belt. For strumming, I’ll likewise show you a few different options for you to pick from based on your skill level and taste. I hope you enjoy!

Free Video Lesson

Timestamps:

  • 0:00 Demonstration
  • 0:48 Verse
  • 2:28 Pre-Chorus
  • 5:22 Chorus
  • 8:00 Strumming Patterns
  • 13:49 Chorus Walk-Down
  • 17:14 Full Playthrough
  • 22:14 Song Sheet Overview


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.

On the fence? Here's a guide I made showing the purchase & print process, including answers to common questions about my song sheets.

Buy at Musicnotes.com

Save 50% on this song sheet by applying the May 2025 code at Musicnotes checkout: XCSLHBNQ59 (click to copy). Thanks for being a Premium supporter!

Song Notes Premium includes a 50% discount code you can use when buying any of my licensed song sheets. For the current month's code, upgrade to premium or log in.



Capo and Tuning Notes!

My video lesson for this song uses no capo and uses chords in the key of G major. To play along with other popular versions using Key of G, here’s a tuning and capo guide for you. Note, Steve Goodman is using the Key of C… but you can play along with him, using Key of G chords, if you add capo 7.

My Lesson      No capo, standard Tuning
Arlo Guthrie   No capo, tune down 1/2 step
Willie Nelson  Capo 7
Judy Collins   Capo 4
Steve Goodman  Capo 5



Listen to Arlo Guthrie Play This Song

Album Recording

Key of F#! Or, play guitar chords in the key of G (as I show in my lesson) and tune all strings down by 1/2 step. If you need help with that, see my lesson on E-flat tuning.

Live Performance

Key of G, which is the same as my lesson. Arlo plays guitar in this video, which is cool to watch. From Farm Aid 2000.



Additional Lessons To Help With This Song

Here’s instructional lessons I’ve made teaching concepts that are useful in this song.

Playing G major chord with only 2 fingers

★ Instructional PDF

Easier Ways to Play B-minor (No Barring Required)

★ Instructional PDF

F Chord, Made Easy: 7 Alternatives to the Barred Version

★ Instructional PDF

Bass Note Strumming

★ Instructional PDF

Unlock My Secret Stash!

Gain instant access to my library of 271 print-friendly cheat sheets! Also includes my extended video lessons, jam tracks, courses, and more.

Join Song Notes Premium

Have questions? Watch video tour »

Browse Related Lessons

Click any tag below to view other lessons I've made in that category:

Enjoy My Lessons? Show Your Support!

Most of the lessons on my website are 100% free. If you have the means, please show your support with a tip jar contribution. I put many hours into every lesson — but it only takes you a minute to make a donation. You have my thanks!

Donate

Looking for More Song Lessons?

Recently Added
Most Popular
Beginner-Friendly
Browse by Artist
Browse by Song Title
Browse by Song Year

Featured Courses

Strumming & Rhythm

While your left hand is busy learning chords, your right hand has its own job: creating a sense of rhythm with strumming! This can be tricky at first, but there's so much fun-to-be-had once you get over the hump. Here's a guide to get you started.

17 lessons

View

Fingerstyle & Travis Picking

Dive into the basics of fingerstyle guitar, with plenty of examples of riffs, exercises, and songs that put this technique to use. This includes a healthy serving of Travis Picking lessons, which feature an alternating bass note played with your right thumb.

31 lessons

View

Blues Starter Kit

A guide to must-know elements of beginner blues guitar! I'll walk you through the essential topics, showing you fun things to play along the way.

18 lessons

View

Reading Music for Guitarists

Learn to read tabs, chord charts, fretboard diagrams, strumming patterns, and more! This course explains how to understand all of these must-know notation styles.

6 lessons

View

Learning Lead Guitar

A collection of videos teaching you licks, riffs, solos, and other lead guitar techniques! Includes info on scales, CAGED shapes, and other helpful lead guitar concepts.

24 lessons

View

Beginner Chord Guide

A guide to the must-know chords you'll need when getting started with guitar! The quickest way to learn major chords, minor chords, the chords in each key, and more.

22 lessons

View

Practical Music Theory

A general overview of must-know theory concepts. The goal here is practical, easy-to-understand explanations — all of which provide clarity to your everyday guitar playing.

12 lessons

View

Using a Capo

Capos are incredibly helpful if you want to play along with your favorite artist, change a song's key, adjust things to your vocal range, and so on. In this series of videos I explain all this & more!

8 lessons

View

Walk Ups & Walk Downs

A very common trope in rock, country, and folk music involves walking bass lines that "connect" one chord to another. I've used this in many of my song lessons, and I'm happy to share this list of related lessons if you'd like to brush up on this technique.

10 lessons

View

CAGED Essentials

Learn about the repeating pattern of shapes on the fretboard, named after the five open chord shapes (C-A-G-E-D). Each shape can be used to play a chord, arpeggio, pentatonic or diatonic scale in every key... which makes them worth knowing!

6 lessons

View

Fun & Helpful Tools I've Made

Fret Monster

Interactive fretboard map! See the patterns behind every scale in any key.

View

Capo Captain

An easy way to calculate key & chord combinations, for any capo location!

View

Key Master

See and hear the notes, chords, scales used in each of the most common keys.

View

Blank Tabs

Free PDF templates to download, print, and write out your own guitar tabs!

View

Coming soon is Jambox – which shows all the video jam tracks I've made. It's note quite ready for the spotlight, but check it out if you like!

Subscribe to my YouTube channel

Be sure to never miss a lesson by subscribing on YouTube. I put out 2-3 new videos every week. These include full song lessons, as well as covers, practice tips, behind-the-scenes updates. Thanks!

Recent Lessons

Browse All Recent Lessons →

← back to homepage