Learn to play "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" by Green Day on guitar!

Boulevard of Broken Dreams is a fantastic song for advancing beginners!

It's great practice for the power chords and open chords we cover in the Beginner's Course. If you're feeling adventurous, you'll also learn other layers to add a special touch to your playing. If you're playing with another guitarist: one could play acoustic while the other plays electric!

💡 Learn faster by getting the chords, lyrics, and tabs for this song lesson! Check out JustinGuitarTABS. :)

Now let's get stuck in and learn how to play Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Green Day on the guitar. For this tutorial, I'm using my acoustic – but feel free to use your electric guitar or, if you have a jam friend, both. :)

Make sure you've got your capo on the first fret of your guitar, especially if you're playing along with the original recording. Of course, if you're ever playing at a party and don't have a capo, you can skip it! Use the same chord grips, and off you go. :)

Boulevard of Broken Dreams: Chord Progressions

You can play Boulevard of Broken Dreams with all open chords except the B Major chord at the end of the verse.

The verse progression is four repetitions of Em, G, D, A. Play each for half a bar. The chorus is a little more complex: C G D Em. Again, each chord lasts half a bar. Repeat this three times, then go C G B.

💡 A Chord Fingering: It seems Billy Joe uses a mini A barre chord instead of a regular open A Chord. If you want to play the A chord using only your first finger, make sure it doesn't press down at fret 2 of the thinnest string. That note sounds very wrong! Check out this mini A chord lesson for extra help.

There are several ways to play a B Major chord. If you're cool with barre chords, I suggest using the A-shape grip: X2444X. If that's too much, try a B power chord: X244XX. It sounds almost identical. Whatever grip you use, strum only to beat 3 on the B: the song pauses until beat 1 of the next bar.

Boulevard of Broken Dreams: Verse Strumming + Performance

The original recording of Boulevard of Broken Dreams has many instrument layers. The acoustic guitar plays a pretty simple strumming pattern, and it's not very obvious. So, if you're covering this Green Day classic on an acoustic, you'll need to spice up that pattern to get a fuller sound!

If you're just starting out with strumming, try this pattern (notice we use all downstrums):

1  +  2    3  +  4
D  D  D    D  D  D

🎸 Greenday are masters at combining many simple guitar parts to get an amazing sound. The guitar parts in Boulevard of Broken Dreams are all pretty straightforward, but together they create an outstanding tune. :)

Once you're comfortable with that, it's time to make it more complex. This one sounds awesome:

1  +  2  + a 3  +  4  + a
D  D  D  D U D  D  D  D U

The secret to making that possible is to keep your strumming hand moving consistently. Once you've nailed this pattern, experiment. Rhythm is about feel and groove, not about sticking to strict formulae. :)

Boulevard of Broken Dreams: Chorus Strumming + Performance

You can play most of the verse chords (C, G, D, Em, and B) as open chords, but using barre chords helps to vary the sound and keep it interesting for the listener. I like to play C: X3555X, G: 355433, D: X5775X, and a regular Em chord.

🚨 Check out my ultimate barre chord guide for the low-down on how to play these grips and avoid all the common pitfalls.

Definitely vary your strumming too. Move to all downstrums to change the feel and make sure the chorus is louder than the verses. Dynamics are crucial for pro guitar performance.

Let's check out those awesome melody parts. If you have a jam buddy, one can play rhythm guitar while the other adds these lines. It'll sound wicked.

Boulevard of Broken Dreams: Lead Guitar Parts

For the famous riff and vocal line between the verse and chorus, you only need four notes (F#, G, A, B). Start with finger 3 on 4:4 (string 4, fret 4, F#). Then finger 4 goes down on 4:5 (G), finger 3 plays 3:4 (B), and finger 4 goes on 3:4 (B). Then it's 4:4, 4:5. Note: these frets are relative to the capo.

The rhythm for this riff is 1 2+3 4+1 2+3 4. If you want to get really clever, try combining this riff with the chords Em, G, D, and A, or move the riff up an octave. :)

The other guitar part uses the same notes but as octaves. It's really similar to the above riff, but it uses octaves instead of individual notes: F# (XX4X7X), G (XX5X8X), A (XX7X10X), and B (XX9X12X). You'll also need an E octave (XX2X5X) at the start.

🎸 Octave Technique – there are a few ingredients that go into playing pro octaves. Check out my guide to playing octave shapes to master them. :)

Here is the rhythm (the letters represent the octave shapes above):

E  E  F# G  G  G  B  A  A  A  F# G  G  G  G  G
1  +  2  +  3  +  4  +  1  +  2  +  3  +  4  +

On the last repetition of this, stay on B until the second beat 3, then mute the strings.

Greenday are a fantastic band, and I definitely encourage you to jam along with their music to absorb the time feel. If you're an electric player, I suggest a clean guitar sound for the rhythm guitar and a distortion pedal for the lead parts. It's a cracking combination! Have loads of fun with Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Greenday, and I'll see you for more real soon. :)

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