Ode to Joy is a lovely melody for guitar. Check out the video for a guide as to how to play it. It uses mainly the thinnest (floor) strings E and B. The tab tells you which frets to use. The first video shows you the first two lines. The next video shows you the third and fourth lines.

Follow along without playing first so you can follow the numbers on the tab. Remember to use finger 1 – index finger – and finger 3 – ring finger on your left hand to fret the first and third frets. Just pause the video when you’re trying each section out if you need a bit more time. Try the bars one by one the way I explain in the video and then try the whole line.

Here is the first line:

Here is the second line:

Here’s a short video that shows you how to play lines three and four.

Here is the third line:

Here is the fourth line:

Here is the whole piece. You can download it as a pdf also.

There are two audio tracks here. You can hear the whole piece with a backing track, and there’s a slow version and a faster version.

Once you’ve played the melody a few times, try following along with the slower one.

Ode to Joy backing track slow

Ode to Joy backing track full speed