Pop Guitar Lessons with Marty Schwartz
Pop music dominates the charts and defines modern guitar playing. These pop guitar lessons from Marty Schwartz teach you how to play today’s hits—from Ed Sheeran’s fingerpicking patterns to Adele’s emotional ballads, Coldplay’s atmospheric textures, and everything in between.
Marty breaks down pop songs into clear, manageable steps. You’ll learn the exact chords, strumming patterns, and techniques used in your favorite songs. Whether you’re playing acoustic singer-songwriter style or electric indie pop, these lessons get you playing the songs you hear on the radio.
Learn today’s hits: Get weekly pop guitar lessons from Marty, plus exclusive techniques for playing modern songs that sound authentic.
What You’ll Learn
These pop guitar lessons cover all the essential techniques:
- Fingerpicking patterns – Ed Sheeran, John Mayer, and acoustic pop styles
- Capo usage – How pop songs use capos to change keys and create unique sounds
- Sus chords and add9s – The colorful chords that make pop music shimmer
- Arpeggios – Playing individual notes instead of strumming for atmosphere
- Modern strumming – Percussive techniques and palm muting for contemporary sounds
- Electric pop textures – Delay, reverb, and the sounds of indie/alternative pop
Pop Guitar Lessons
Essential Pop Guitar Techniques
The capo is your best friend. Most pop songs use a capo to get into singable keys while keeping guitar parts in easy chord shapes. Learn to use a capo and suddenly you can play hundreds of pop songs with basic open chords.
Suspended chords add color. Instead of playing a plain G chord, try Gsus4. Instead of C, try Cadd9. These “fancy” chords are what make pop guitar sound modern and professional instead of basic.
Dynamics tell the story. Pop music is all about build—quiet verses, bigger pre-choruses, explosive choruses. Learn to control your volume and intensity. Don’t play everything at the same level.
Fingerpicking isn’t just for folk. Modern pop uses intricate fingerpicking patterns. Ed Sheeran built his entire career on fingerpicked pop songs. Learn these patterns and you can play solo guitar arrangements that sound full and complete.
Popular Pop Songs to Learn
These pop hits teach essential techniques while being fun to play:
- Thinking Out Loud – Ed Sheeran’s romantic ballad with fingerpicking and chord melody
- Someone Like You – Adele’s emotional piano-to-guitar arrangement
- The Scientist – Coldplay’s arpeggiated masterpiece
- Paradise – Coldplay’s uplifting anthem with distinctive chord progression
- Wonderwall – Oasis’ defining 90s pop-rock song
- Hey There Delilah – Plain White T’s fingerpicking classic
- I’m Yours – Jason Mraz’s feel-good reggae-pop hit
- Riptide – Vance Joy’s indie-pop ukulele-inspired guitar part
Pop Guitar Styles
Singer-Songwriter Pop: Ed Sheeran, John Mayer, Jason Mraz. Acoustic guitar as the main instrument, often fingerpicked, with focus on supporting vocals. Great for solo performance.
Indie/Alternative Pop: Coldplay, The 1975, Arctic Monkeys. Electric guitar with effects (delay, reverb), atmospheric textures, and sparse but effective parts. Focuses on tone and space.
Pop-Rock: Maroon 5, OneRepublic, Imagine Dragons. Heavier strumming, power chords mixed with open chords, electric guitar with some distortion. Bridges pop melodies with rock energy.
Folk-Pop: Mumford & Sons, Of Monsters and Men, The Lumineers. Acoustic guitar with banjo-style patterns, driving strumming, and folk chord progressions adapted for modern pop production.
Modern Pop Guitar Gear
Acoustic-electric is essential for gigging. If you’re playing pop songs live, you need an acoustic guitar with a pickup. Straight acoustic doesn’t cut through a band mix. Look for guitars with built-in tuners and EQ.
Capos aren’t cheating. Seriously, every pop guitarist uses a capo. Buy a good one (Kyser or Shubb) that stays in tune and doesn’t buzz. You’ll use it on half the songs you learn.
For electric pop, think clean. Most pop guitar is clean tone with reverb and delay, not distortion. A good clean amp sound or modeling amp with effects is more useful than a Marshall stack.
Playing Pop Songs vs. Writing Them
Pop songs are deceptively simple. Three or four chords, repeating patterns, no complicated solos. But making simple sound interesting is an art. Pay attention to subtle variations—how the second verse differs from the first, how the bridge breaks the pattern.
Steal the structure, not just the chords. Notice how pop songs build. Quiet intro, verse, pre-chorus building energy, explosive chorus, back down for verse 2. This structure works because it creates emotional peaks and valleys.
Ready to play pop guitar? Subscribe for weekly pop guitar lessons from Marty Schwartz, plus exclusive techniques for playing modern hits and creating your own pop arrangements.