Play Knockin' on Heaven's Door on Three Strings First

The whole song on three strings

Forget the low strings for a few minutes. You are only going to strum the three thinnest: G, B and high E. Rest your hand so it does not reach any further.

G: third finger on the 3rd fret of the high E string. Nothing else.

D: the usual shape. First finger on the 2nd fret of the G string, third on the 3rd fret of the B string, second on the 2nd fret of the high E string.

Am: first finger on the 1st fret of the B string, third on the 2nd fret of the G string.

C: same as Am, with your third finger lifted. One finger.

Now count two beats of G, two of D, four of Am. Then two of G, two of D, four of C. That is Knockin' on Heaven's Door, and those two lines keep going round for the whole song.

It will sound small, and you should still recognise the song. One chord takes three fingers, one takes two, and two take one.

Listen to the top string, then the G string

Play one round and pick only the high E string on each chord. Over G it is the 3rd fret, over D the 2nd, over Am open: G, F#, E, walking down. Over C it lands on that same open E. So both lines fall to the same note, whichever chord is underneath.

Go between Am and C on these three strings. The B and high E strings do not change at all. Only the G string moves: it plays A with your finger down and drops to G when you lift it.

That one note is all that separates the two endings up here. Stop on Am and let it ring. It sounds unfinished and a bit sad. Stop on C. It still wants to go back to G, but the same high E now sounds lighter. Dylan wrote the song for the film Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, where it plays over a sheriff dying. Slow down and play both stops again with that in your head.

Now make it a band

Three strings are enough to sing over at home, but the full chords give the song its weight, and you already have part of each shape down.

Am gains one finger: your second on the 2nd fret of the D string. Your first and third stay where they were. Strum from the A string.

C keeps those first two fingers too: first on the B string, second on the D string. Your third finger goes to the 3rd fret of the A string. Strum from the A string again. So your third finger moving from the G string to the A string is the whole change from Am to C, though the song always goes through G and D to get there.

D stays as it is. Strum from the open D string.

The G in the diagram works, but another one is more useful here. Second finger on the 3rd fret of the low E string, first on the 2nd fret of the A string, third on the 3rd fret of the B string, fourth on the 3rd fret of the high E string. Your third finger is now on the same fret and string as in D, so it can stay pressed for every G to D change, and your other fingers move around it. If you add one full chord at a time and go back to three strings for the rest, the song keeps moving while your hand catches up.

Getting it up to speed

Start with the metronome above at 52, one down strum on each click. Our chart has the song at 70, so 52 is about what the player gives you at 0.75x. Move up to 60 when the changes stop catching you out, then to 70, then add an up strum between clicks.

The changes that take longest are usually D to Am and D to C. On D to Am your first and third fingers swap strings: first from the G string to the B string, third from the B string to the G string. Take each change alone, four beats on each chord, with your strumming hand going all the time.

Reading our chart

Our chart comes from the audio, and it starts at the first sung line, about 29 seconds in. Before that the band is already playing the same loop, so use the intro to find your place. Each line lasts one round, and a chord at the start of a line is sometimes just the last chord of the line before, still ringing: a line reading Am G D C holds that Am over from the end of the line above. Keep your hand on two, two, four and let the lyric line tell you whether this round ends on Am or C. They take turns.

Open the song, find Key, capo and speed, and set it to 0.75x. Play the whole thing on three strings first, then with the full chords. Then try the Am lines quietly and the C lines a little louder, and keep that if you like it.