Wagon Wheel

How to play Wagon Wheel by Darius Rucker on guitar

These are the sounding chords. With a capo on fret 2 you play G, D, Em, C, the shapes the player above shows.

Wagon Wheel is a great beginner song because it stays upbeat, familiar, and easy to loop once you get the feel of it. You get a steady, driving groove that sounds good fast or relaxed, so it is a strong one for building confidence.

You can keep most of it on open shapes with A, E, and D, while F#m is the harder barre shape to prepare for. The main change to watch is moving cleanly from the open chords into F#m and back again without breaking the rhythm.

Start by practicing the opening progression slowly: A, E, F#m, D. Then loop it until the switches feel smooth, and only after that bring the tempo up in small steps. Once your hands know the cycle, the whole song becomes much easier to keep moving.

Use the play-along above to follow each chord change in time with the music, or learn the shapes first with the chord diagrams below.