"Stairway to Heaven" Reaches a Milestone Birthday.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Led Zeppelin's magnum opus, "Stairway to Heaven". The song, which is nearly ten minutes long, is considered one of the greatest rock songs of all time. Composed in late 1970 by band members Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, it was released on the album Led Zeppelin IV in November 1971. 

The song contains a variety of guitar parts and techniques. The first part, soft sounding arpeggiated chords, is played finger style on an acoustic guitar. These chords are played throughout the song when the verses are sung and are the most recognizable sounds for most people. The remaining parts are played on electric guitars, both six string and twelve string. Jimmy Page would usually use a double necked guitar when playing the song live so he did not have to switch guitars in the middle. As the song progresses, it becomes more of a hard rock tune. Page's guitar playing and Plant's singing become more and more rock, or even metal sounding, as they drive the song through the thought-provoking lyrics.

The verse chords are not that uncommon, but later in the song Page employs variations of these more familiar chords. For someone still learning to play the guitar, like me, this is a great song to spend time on. The chord shapes for the verses are pretty simple although playing bar chords is always good practice. Playing arpeggiated chords is always a challenge for me, but when this song is played well the sound is magical. Learning the chord variations and where they go in the song is a great way to practice moving my left hand around on the fretboard.

The solo, considered by many to be the best rock solo ever, is beyond my skill level. It is still fun to just play the chords while Jimmy is wailing away. One interesting tidbit about the solo is that Page has said that he played is using a Fender Telecaster. He is usually identified as a Gibson Les Paul played so it is interesting that he used a Fender on one of Led Zeppelin's most iconic songs. 

When I began learning to play guitar, my teacher showed me the opening chords to this song pretty early in my lessons. So, I have known the shapes for a long time. Every once in a while, I will get the urge to try and get a little better at playing this masterpiece of rock music. The fact that I pulled it out again so close to the 50th anniversary of its release seems to have a little bit of karma to it.