I Was Only 19 by Redgum on Acoustic Guitar

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This beautiful fingerstyle song is perfect for Anzac Day!

Let’s check out how to play I Was Only 19 by Redgum on acoustic guitar. This is a powerful song about the Vietnam War and is very well-known in Australia. :)

💙 This lesson is my Anzac Day tribute to everyone who has served in the armed forces. I have massive respect for them - it’s a tough gig.

We’ll start with the chords and strumming before checking out several fingerpicking options. My fingerstyle arrangement isn’t exactly the same as the original Redgum version, and it’s your choice whether you strum, pick, or use a mixture. :)

Let’s start with the chord progressions for I Was Only 19.

I Was Only 19 by Redgum: Intro & Verse Progression

Good news - there are only four chords in the intro and verses. The intro progression is Am, C, G, D; Am, G, Am, Am. But each chord lasts for only one bar of 4/4 and the tempo is fast, meaning the chord changes are pretty quick. :)

🤔 Extra Bars? In folk music, the story is more important than the chords. So sometimes you stay on chords a little longer. This trend started in blues music, where “12-bar blues” often aren’t 12 bars long, and folk musicians adopted it.

Since I Was Only 19 is a folk song, you can add extra bars if you need a break from singing or forget the lyrics! Don’t stop strumming, though - you have to keep the rhythm going if the vocal stops.

You can hear an extra bar in the Redgum version after the lyric “the passing out parade at Puckapunyal”: the music stays on Am a little longer.

Let’s check out the chorus.

I Was Only 19 by Redgum: Chorus Progression

There’s a key change in the chorus, so we’ll need different chords. ;) The progression changes to two reps of E, E, D, A; E E, D, A then F#m, E, D, A, followed by E, E, E, E; D, D, D, D.

All the chords are simple open chords - except that F#m! Let’s see a couple of ways to play it.

The most common grip for F#m is the E-shape minor barre chord. But I cheat. ;) I use a mini barre with finger 1 and grab the bass note with my thumb. I prefer this grip because switching to it from mini-barre A is really easy. It’s up to you which grip you use. :)

Those are the chords you’ll need - let’s turn our attention to the rhythm guitar.

I Was Only 19 by Redgum: Strumming

Though this song is laden with fingerpicking, it’s totally legit to strum I Was Only 19, and lots of patterns work well. You can also add some embellishments, like sus chords, to add extra texture. I like adding a sus4 embellishment on the open E chord - it fits real nice with the harmony. :)

A great strumming pattern is bass-downstrum, bass-downstrum, where we pick the bass note on beats 1 and 3 and play a downstrum on 2 and 4. This works with both a pick and fingers.

Try any strumming patterns you know and see if they work, but keep them nice and simple. It’s a quick song, and a busy pattern will sound frantic.

Vary Your Guitar Dynamics

You might have noticed I used fingerstyle for most of the I Was Only 19 demo but changed at certain points. I also slowed the tempo down in a later verse by playing single strums, then strummed the rest of the song. Why?

It’s crucial to realise that if you keep the rhythm and volume the same for the entire song, it gets a bit repetitive for the listener. The fingerstyle guitar keeps going for the entire Redgum original, but other instruments add variation. As a solo guitarist, you need to find a way to change it up without relying on other musicians.

🎸 Master Your Dynamics: varying the dynamics is so crucial that I made a whole course on it! Become a master rhythm guitarist with my Strumming Dynamics course.

One way is to change the volume level between the different sections. Another option is to alternate between fingerstyle and strumming - you can even add a section of melodic fingerstyle if you like. ;)

Adding some strumming later in the song gives it a sense of direction, especially if you blend it with the fingerstyle patterns. Speaking of which…

I Was Only 19 by Redgum: Fingerstyle Pattern

Let’s start with a basic fingerstyle pattern, ignoring melody lines for now.

The key thing in this style is to play alternating bass notes with the thumb: you pick a low bass note on beats 1 and 3 and a higher one on 2 and 4. Over Am, for example, we alternate between strings 5 and 4 with the thumb. Then we add our melody notes to this bassy backdrop.

🧐 Chord Choices: I tend to play D/F# instead of regular D whenever I’m playing fingerstyle. It has much more depth, and it means I don’t have to move my picking pattern across strings. :)

It’s crucial you pay attention to the chords so that you adapt the pattern as they change. We have three versions of this pattern: one for the root-6 chords (G, E, F#m, D/F#), one for the root-5 chords (A, C, Am), and another for D, a root-4 chord.

Fingerstyle is tricky when you start out, so how do we get it to sound natural and relaxed?

I Was Only 19 by Redgum: Automate Your Fingerstyle

The secret is to practice the pattern slowly and carefully. Stay on one chord and make sure the notes are perfect and you’re in time. Don’t program the wrong pattern! Repeat, repeat, and repeat it correctly until it’s totally automated, then you can add chord changes.

🔥 Dig Fingerstyle Guitar? Check out my Folk Fingerstyle Module to master all the essential fingerpicking skills.

How do you know that it’s automated? If you play the pattern perfectly and effortlessly as you chat to a friend, you can be sure it’s on autopilot. That might take a few weeks of practice, or if you’re new to fingerstyle, a few months.

Only then can you start singing too. Many guitarists find it tricky to sing while playing fingerstyle, but it’s all down to practice.

Once you’ve nailed the basic pattern, it’s time to take it up a notch. ;)

Fingerstyle Guitar with Melody

The melodic pattern I played in the demo isn’t what Redgum did, but it still sounds great. :) Check out the video for the exact pattern!

It involves adding melody notes by changing the chord grips, adding and removing fingers, and playing hammer-ons. You don’t have to copy it exactly, and I vary it throughout the song. But it’s a lovely idea and a good starting point for further exploration.

💡 The Fingerstyle Journey: When you’ve learned lots of fingerstyle patterns, they become in-built and you don’t have to think about what you’re doing. Your focus turns to singing, delivery, and arrangement instead.

Enjoy this heartfelt classic from Redgum, and I’ll see you for more guitar real soon. :)