Description
To play "Keep on the Sunny Side of Life," I will be using a Taylor 614 acoustic guitar, which has Elixir medium strings along with a Dunlop large, medium pick. This makes it so I can strum at different dynamics while staying true to playing around the melody of the song. I will be using the traditional "boom-chuck" technique throughout the song, which you can also find more information about in our Guitar Tricks guitar course if you want to learn more about this style.
For an added bonus, I'm going to teach the melody of the song on a second acoustic guitar. I will be using a Martin D28 acoustic with Martin light gauge strings along with the same Dunlop guitar pick. This makes it so we can treat the song like a second guitar player is coming in and playing the melody. You can learn the melody and play it along with the play a long if you want, or just simply strum the chords.
After we break down all the parts of the song and how to play them, then it will be time to put it all together with a backing track using both guitars. We will also do a single guitar performance after the full play a long, where you can just strum along with Guitar #1 if you want. Both approaches will sound great, so let's get started.