"Centerfield" Intro Riff, Step-by-Step

I’m happy to share two new lessons teaching you how to play John Fogerty’s 1985 classic Centerfield. First, I’ll walk you through the intro riff, where I’ll teach you the 6 exercises I used to get up-to-speed with this full 20 measure sequence. Then, I’ll show you a strum & sing lesson, walking you through the chord shapes and a few strumming options to sing the full song. Have fun with this one, and good luck!

Part 1 - Intro Riff

0:00 Lesson Overview
1:14 Exercise 1: C Walk-Up
3:17 Exercise 2: C to D Arpeggios
5:14 Exercise 3: D to G Arpeggios
7:04 Exercise 4: C-D-G (Simple Timing)
8:03 Exercise 5: C-D-G (Actual Timing)
8:54 Exercise 6: Adding the Walk-Up
9:47 Loose Ends
14:16 Playthrough, with tabs
15:16 Farewell & Final Tips

Part 2 - Strum & Sing

0:00 Lesson Overview
0:27 Chord Shapes
1:42 Verse
3:37 Chorus
4:27 Strumming (Basic)
7:29 Strumming (Intermediate)
8:31 G/B or B minor?
9:36 Full Playthrough

Practice Notes 4 pages

Lesson Discussion

Intro Riff Practice Exercises

Here’s a few extra videos, made in thanks to those supporting me with Premium membership here on my Song Notes website. To those showing your support, you have my true thanks and appreciation — and I hope you find these additional videos helpful!

Exercise 1: G to C Walk-Up

Exercise 2: C to D Arpeggios

Exercise 3: D to G Arpeggios

Exercise 4: Connecting C-D-G, with Simple Timing

Exercise 5: Connecting C-D-G, with Actual Timing

Exercise 6: Connecting C-D-G, with Walk-up Added

Exercise 7: Full Intro Riff, Slow Playthrough (110bpm)

Audio Practice Tracks

If you’d like to practice the intro riff to a steady beat which imitates the clapping percussion on Fogerty’s album, you’re in luck! These tracks will loop through the percussion of the first 20 measures for approximately 4-5 minutes each, allowing you to play the intro over and over — with a nice two-measure reset to let you catch your breath before starting again.

Each practice track has a 2 measure count-in, and then the clapping percussion begins. Follow my practice notes (page 1) to understand when you should start playing. Specifically, once the clapping starts — you should start playing at the very end of the 4th full measure.

There are five practice tracks in total, which vary in speed. The fastest (142bpm) matches Fogerty’s album recording, which I find to be very fast even after two weeks of daily practice. The slowest track is 110bpm, which is still somewhat fast when you’re first learning the riff. The other three tracks are at incremental steps between 110bpm and 142bpm, allowing you to build up to full speed.

A final note of advice… I would only attempt to use these when you’re familiar with the entire intro riff! I would actually recommend practicing with a metronome (between 70-110bpm) first, and use these tracks after you’re able to consistently play the intro at a very slow tempo. Good luck, and remember to be patient! What feels impossible today will become doable, if you put in the steady practice.