Time for a baptism of fire in DADGAD...

There are a few prerequisites here:

1. You're in DADGAD. If in doubt, go to drop-D, then drop the top (high) E down to a D, then retune the B-string down to an A.
2. You're NOT using a pick. Fingers only. The reason being that sometimes you'll want to play something that doesn't work across all the strings. Also you get better control when playing melodies, more flexibility with volume and so forth
3. You're not going to complain at stretching. If you want to get better, get over it!!

Okay, so forgive the bluntness here, but if you want nice, three chord songs - maybe I'll do some chords at a later point, but in the mean time, this first lesson is to show you what you can do in DADGAD.

Anyway - most people's first impression is that they're going to play celtic music.  Not true at all - which is why this lesson looks at a bona-fide rock classic, namely Stairway to Heaven. "Stairway? In DADGAD?"- yup. Why not. You'll find a lot of people who insist that they choose this tuning because of the 'mood' or other suitably pretentious waffle. To be honest, it's just a tuning. There's a nice string interval thing going on between the G and A strings, but there's nothing to stop you playing in other keys that aren't just D or G (c.f. most Celtic music).

Onwards... 

Here's my recording

and here's the tab.

Several things to watch for:

1. Half bars. Everywhere.. Get familiar with this since it will make playing more complicated things later on a lot easier!
2. Stretches - okay so throwing in a 5-fret stretch in the second bar of the first lesson might not be the best thing to do, but everything is easier beyond that point..
3. Improvisation - use the tab as a guide, then play around with it.
4. Try to let each string ring out for as long as possible.
5. Spread chords - see Bar 10. Use your RH thumb for the bottom strings, then each individual finger for the other strings to make up the chord.