How to Play Fortunate Son

If you’re a beginner looking for an easy guitar song to learn, learning how to play Fortunate Son by Creedence Clearwater has got to make your list. This is a 4 chord song and the intro and solo riffs are simple and easy to learn. Plus, if you’re a bit more advanced, the verses and chorus have a couple of bluesy licks that are really cool and will turn some heads at your next gig.

This is one of the first songs I ever played in my first band, though at the time, I had learned the song in standard tuning. Since then, I’ve learned much more about chords. I’ve learned more licks and tricks, and I’ve learned more about different tunings. I’m going to save you the trouble that I experienced and teach you how to play Fortunate Son the way John Fogerty plays it on the record. Keep reading to find out how!

First, we’re going to start out with learning the intro lick, and then we will dive into the guitar solo. After that, I’ll walk you through the chord diagrams and we’ll dissect some of the filling licks in the verses and chorus. Please also watch our Youtube video below! It maps out the song too, and once you read this post, you can go straight to the video to practice!

The Main Riff

The main riff to this song may be one of the most famous guitar licks ever! Why? Because so many Vietnam war movies (and other movies) use this guitar lick!! It’s so cool to be able to play something you heard on the big screen! But before we start, we need to talk about tuning your guitar.

D Standard Tuning

A fun fact about Fortunate Son is that it is NOT played in the E standard tuning. “What?! Are all the other guitar videos and lessons out there in E Standard tuning wrong?!” Well, not necessarily. I’m not a big believer in a right and wrong way to play the guitar. I would much rather people abandon the notion of right and wrong, and start thinking about guitar as something that should be musical. If what you play sounds musical, then it’s OK.

But! I know that there’s is a huge demand for lessons that teach you “how it was played on the record.” With that said, the guitars on this recording are tuned down a whole step. So instead of E standard tuning, Fortunate Son is played in D standard tuning. Note, if you tune to D standard tuning and you play along to the record, your guitar is still going to sound a bit “off.”

That’s because the band is actually tuned just a little bit flat. That’s right! They are not pitch-perfect! Back in the old days, I guess if no one had a tuner, you just didn’t worry about it. Or maybe they had been playing for a few hours already, and the instruments just went a little flat. What I’m trying to say is, you may need to tune your guitar to the record if you want to play along with the recording. In our Youtube video though, I’m tuned to D Standard to make things easy for you.

Back to The Main Riff!

This riff is very simple and is perfect if you’re a beginner. The fingering stays the same through most of the riff, and it won’t take long before your hand knows where to go instinctually. The band is going to vamp on a G chord for a couple of measures, and then you come in with that awesome guitar lick. I feel like I’m in ‘Nam already. In the words of Robert Duvall’s character in Apocalypse Now, “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.” Check out the tab below!

The Guitar Solo

The guitar solo to Fortunate Son sounds similar to the intro, and if you’re a beginner, you may jump to the conclusion that it’s nearly the same. That’s OK to repeat the main guitar riff. However, the solo is different and has a simple bluesy-ness to it. It gets me thinking about swamp rock. The solo is repeated twice. Check out the tab below, and learn these licks. Once you have these down, play it a second time, and you’ve put the entire solo together.

Like the song’s introduction, the band will vamp on a G chord when you take this solo!

Chord Diagrams

The song’s structure has two parts. The first structure is the verse. The chord progression during the verses is 1-7-4 in the key of G. In the G major scale, your 1st, 4th, and 7th notes are G, C, and F. Therefore to play the verse, you’ll need to play a 1-7-4 chord progression or the G, F, and C chords. Remember that this song is in D standard tuning. The chord shapes will look familiar to our open chords in E standard tuning, but they will have a different name in D standard tuning.

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The chorus’ structure is the 1-5-4 chord progression. This progression is going to keep coming back again and again as you continue to learn guitar, so remember the 1-5-4 progression or any other variation of these numbers. In the G major scale, the 5th note is the D. So, therefore, you need to add a D chord to the 1 and 4 chords you learned above.

The Strumming Pattern

The strumming pattern is straight forward throughout the whole song. You have (2) options. You can either slightly mute the strings and play 8th notes the entire time, using downstrokes. To count this, you just say 1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and. You play a downstroke on each number and on each “and.”

There’s a second pattern on this song too. This is to play the chord on the 1, and then play the “and” just before the 3rd and 4th beats. In the next sentence, I will show the beats in bold and underlined so you can visually see where to play. To play the second pattern, you say 1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and-1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and. Then continue on from there.

Lyrics & Chords!

Now let’s bring it all together with some lyrics and chords so you can get a feel for how to play Fortunate Son! After this, I’ll show you the tabs to some of the fill licks in the verses and choruses. Then you can add these in too!!

G…………………………….F………………………………

Some folks are born made to wave the flag

C……………………………………….G

Ooh, they’re red, white and blue

G……………………………………..F………………………..

And when the band plays “Hail To The Chief”

C……………………………………………G

Ooh, they point the cannon at you, Lord

G…………….D…………….C………………………………………..

It ain’t me, it ain’t me, I ain’t no senator’s son, son

G…………….D…………….C………………………………………..

It ain’t me, it ain’t me; I ain’t no fortunate one, no

G…………………………….F……………………………

Some folks are born silver spoon in hand

C………………………………………G

Lord, don’t they help themselves, oh

G……………………………….F………………………..

But when the taxman comes to the door

C……………………………………………………….G

Lord, the house looks like a rummage sale, yes

G…………….D…………….C………………………………………..

It ain’t me, it ain’t me, I ain’t no millionaire’s son, no, no

G…………….D…………….C………………………………………..

It ain’t me, it ain’t me; I ain’t no fortunate one, no

G…………………………F…………………………

Some folks inherit star spangled eyes

C………………………………………..G

Ooh, they send you down to war, Lord

G……………………………………F………………………………………..

And when you ask them, “How much should we give?”

C…………………………………..G………………………………..

Ooh, they only answer, “More! More! More!” Yo

G…………….D…………….C………………………………………..

It ain’t me, it ain’t me, I ain’t no military son, son

G…………….D…………….C………………………………………..

It ain’t me, it ain’t me; I ain’t no fortunate one, one

G…………….D…………….C………………………………………..

It ain’t me, it ain’t me, I ain’t no fortunate one, no no no

G…………….D…………….C………………………………………..

It ain’t me, it ain’t me, I ain’t no fortunate son, no no no

Verse Fill Licks

There are some really cool bluesy fills that get played during the verse. They can be a bit hard to hear on the record, but this is how to play them. Remember these licks, because they come back in other tunes like ZZ Top’s La Grange. Both licks are very similar but slightly different. If you’re feeling adventurous, see if you can use these notes to build a little “blue’s scale” based on this “D” chord shape (it’s a D chord shape in E standard tuning, but a C Chord in the D standard tuning below). If you can build a little scale, you’ll be able to use these licks for all sorts of tunes!

Chorus Fill Lick

Finally, there’s a little fill riff that gets played in the chorus too. This is also very bluesy and is a good way to lift a song up or elevate it. It will give the song’s chorus a high point and quickly brings this high back down so the vocal can come in. Try to remember these notes and add them to the “blue’s scale” you built above off the “D” chord shape!

That’s It!

You’ve got all the tools you need! Now that you know how to play Fortunate Son, you need to get practicing! The more you practice, the better you get. Becoming a proficient guitar player is built on hours of practice. This is such a fun song to play, and I hope it brings you hours of fun!

If you liked the guitars in the video, check out our reviews! We’ve reviewed both the Classic Player Baja 60s Telecaster and the Gibson SG 61 Reissue! They’re awesome guitars and I highly recommend both.

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And if you struggled with any part of this lesson, reach out and let me know! I’d be happy to help you work through one part of the song or another!