American Idiot (Green Day) Guitar Lesson with Backing Tracks + TAB

In this guitar lesson, we look at TAB for all sections of American Idiot so you can play it with a band - Practise with Backing Tracks!

American Idiot | TAB

Clearly, there is more than one guitar on the recording of American Idiot. I’m also sure one of those is tuned down a semitone so we get open A, D, and G power chords.

However, one of the most important parts here is that open dissonant G chord we hear before the verse repeat. Therefore, as the only guitarist in the band, you must play in standard tuning so that open G chord can be incorporated.

Here are guitar parts for all sections, designed to work for the sole guitarist in the band.

Intro

The intro sets up the main riff as we pivot between a Gb at the end, or the more dissonant open G. This simplicity is disguised by the production values, which are:

Guitar on its own played through what sounds like a transistor radio (Gb)
Full band in, with big guitar sounds and dissonant G
Full band, big guitar sounds and Gb
Full band, big guitar sounds and dissonant G

The other open strings (between Ab and Db) do not have the same effect as the open G. Those open strings are there to make it possible to move from one chord to another without losing momentum.

Verse

The verse is the same as the intro, but with two bars of no chords first. When we loop it, the open G appears only once before the N.C.:

Chorus

The chorus is layered on the recording with some guitars playing power chords and others the full triad. As the sole guitarist, you have to try to blend all this. Here’s what I would do:

Instrumental

The instrumental sections are like the intro and verse, with a few more variations at the end of each cycle. Here’s instrumental 1.

For instrumental 2, we play for twice as long and vary even more. The last chord is an Ab for the first time.

Solo

The solo is played using octaves at first. Make sure you understand the intervals:

Db is: 3rd – 2nd – root
Ab is: 5th – 6th – 5th – 4th – 3rd
Eb (without octave) is: 5th – 6th – b7th – 6th – 5th
Ab starts and comes back to the 5th and then hits: root – 2nd – 3rd – 2nd – root

Being able to see the intervals on the fretboard is great for understanding what you play theoretically, remembering it, and moving what you do to a different area of the neck.