Für Elise Guitar Lesson – Beethoven

Genre:

Difficulty:
Length: 11:16

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Wikipedia page
Artist website
Music video

• arpeggios
• chord changes
• chords

Für Elise is one of Ludwig van Beethoven's most popular compositions. It was written for solo piano and is played in the key of A minor. The original "title" of the song is actually Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor. Bagatelle is a form of music, a short piece of music, and usually of a light, mellow nature. The word Bagatelle actually means a "trifle". Bagatelles are usually written for the piano.

This is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful songs ever written, and best of all, it sounds great on guitar as well.

Für Elise consists of 3 themes (movements). Our Für Elise guitar lesson will teach you only the 1st theme, since the 2nd and 3rd are very advanced.

The song is played in 3/4 time and is made up of arpeggiated chords mostly.

You should know that it is centered around chords in the key of A minor. The chords to Für Elise are very basic (A minor, E major, C major, G major), all of which you should already know at this stage.

If not, head on back to our basic lesson on guitar chords to revise. And of course, you'll learn a lot about changing in between these chords as well, so if you're having difficulties in that area, this lesson will be very beneficial.

Have a look at the lesson, and make sure you download the tabs after logging in. It will give you the exact order of the parts, which might be confusing from just watching the video lesson by itself.

As the chords are basic, the main challenge in learning this masterpiece will be the quick chord changes and the arpeggios. Since you're mostly arpeggiating chords, it doesn't really matter if you miss-pluck a string here and there, just keep the rhythm going, and chances are most people won't even notice 🙂

I hope you have fun with this lesson, it is very fun to play, and people really love listening to it.

Song Details

Für Elise was published in 1867, 40 years after Beethoven's (1770-1827) death. It is not certain who "Elise" was, there are differing theories about it, which you can read on Wikipedia.

If you want to refine the skills you learned in Für Elise, check out these lessons on songs by clicking these links:
arpeggios / chord changes / chords

Please log in and revisit this page to download this song's tabs and backing track (along with hundreds more on the site).