In this guitar lesson, we will be looking at a great track from Blink 182. I will be providing you with the What’s My Age Again TAB and guiding you through how to play this cool little power chord-based pop punk track. I wanted to do two things for Eat Sleep Guitar Repeat this week. I wanted to write another beginner guitar lesson and I also wanted to write my first Blink 182 guitar lesson. I soon realised that there was multiple ways of achieving both of these objectives at once thanks to the accessibility of some Blink 182 songs. I narrowed it down to either What’s My Age Again or All The Small Things. I settled on the former simply because it seemed slightly less obvious but a lesson on All The Small Things will be here at some point, I’m sure. There is another reason why I settled on What’s My Age Again, but we’ll get to that.
About What’s My Age Again by Blink 182
What’s My Age Again was the lead single from Blink 182’s third studio album, Enema of the State which was released just before the start of the new millennium. The track is credited to the band’s guitarist Tom DeLonge, and bassist Mark Hoppus, but Hoppus was the primary composer. It’s a mid-tempo pop punk track known for its arpeggio based guitar riff and it was the band’s first single to feature drummer Travis Barker.
This song which is one of Blink 182’s best performing, is based on the onset of age and maturity, and the failure to implement changes in one’s behaviour. Hoppus didn’t label the song as autobiographical, but he did admit that he spent his 20’s acting immature. The music video for the track famously features the band running naked through the streets of LA.
What’s My Age Again TAB Guitar Lesson and Guide
What’s My Age Again is a song that I would class as a song for beginner guitarists but that doesn’t mean that it won’t present a challenge for the beginner and even more advanced players. We can break the track down into five elements which we will learn one by one. You can then piece these elements together and use them to play the whole song. Let’s start with the most difficult part of the track which is the main guitar riff.
What’s My Age Again TAB – main guitar riff
On paper, the following guitar riff is easy but in the real world, it’s actually rather tricky. Allow me to show you the TAB.
Doesn’t look particularly intimidating right? Well, I guess it isn’t really. The concept is simple. You’re 3rd and 4th fretting fingers will take up residence at the 11th fret on the B and G strings and your first and second finger will perform the bass notes when indicated.
Where you’ll have trouble is with the string skipping. This is a riff that experienced guitarists will mess up all the time so what better for them, and the beginner guitarists to use for string skipping practice?
This is definitely one of those situations where every guitarist reading this will have to start slowly, very slowly, and gradually increase the tempo as they become more comfortable with the riff and even then, mistakes are all too easy to make.
In my opinion, it’s this riff that holds the key. Master this, and you’ll fly through the rest of the track.
This riff forms the intro of the song and it also provides the backing for the first full verse. A snippet of it is heard later should you wish to implement it there, but you don’t need to.
What you do need to do though is learn the riff alteration that we’ll look at next.
What’s My Age Again TAB – riff alteration
As mentioned above, the opening riff serves as the guitar part for the first verse, but it doesn’t simply loop through the whole first verse section. It almost does, but there’s a slight alteration with the bass notes right at the end, just before the chorus kicks in. Here is what that alteration looks like.
There isn’t a drastic change there. The only change is with the bass notes but believe me, this is a tripping hazard. You won’t need this part again, but it’s important that you get it right. The rest of the verses use the muted power chord approach which is common in pop punk. More on that later because it’s the chorus that we’ll be looking at next.
What’s My Age Again TAB – Chorus section
The chorus sections use a simple set of power chords. We’ll be using the 3-finger power chord variation for these choruses. Here’s the TAB.
I could have simply listed the power chords to be honest. The above TAB gives you a guide to the rhythm, but the TAB is just that, a guide. If you want to alter the rhythm slightly you can. Just be sure that you’re playing the right power chords at the right time.
Foot control
There are both clean and distorted guitars in this track. I would recommend some form of foot control over your tone so that you can easily switch between a clean tone and a distorted tone when required to do so.
The muted power chord verses
As we saw earlier, the opening verse of What’s My Age Again used that riff. The rest of the verses are much more straightforward as they use a simple muted power chord approach. Here’s the TAB.
This TAB demonstrates how to play these sections in the most basic way possible. Just like with the chorus sections, you can use the TAB as a guide. If you’d like to develop the muted power chord rhythm, go for it. Just don’t stray away from the groove of the track. Sometimes simple is best, but there is definitely room for a tiny bit of flavour. You’ll also notice that I’ve used the 2 finger power chord shape here rather than the 3 finger version.
What’s My Age Again Guitar Solo TAB
The final section that you need to learn for What’s My Age Again is the guitar solo section. This is a neat little instrumental part which serves as a kind of dynamic breakdown. It’s an easy guitar solo that utilises repetition and simple rhythm. Here’s the TAB.
There’s not a great deal to cover with this solo section. The rhythm is simple enough that you can use the TAB in combination with the recording and figure it out pretty quickly in terms of rhythm. For those not familiar, take note of the rest marks on the TAB seen at bars 5 through 8. A rest means you don’t play at that point. If you aren’t sure, use the recording to figure out where the notes sit.
I almost forgot
There is one more part that I’d forgotten about. At the end of the song, there’s lead guitar over the top of those chorus chords. It’s nothing drastically different to what you’ve learned so far. Here’s the TAB.
If you’re in a 1 guitar player situation, forget that above part. You’d want the full and powerful sounding chords rather than that. Use the above part only if you’re in a 2-guitar setup.
You now know all the guitar parts that you’ll need to play What’s My Age Again. Use the TAB that you’ve learned here to figure out the structure of the song.
I’d recommend practicing this one by playing along with the recording. You’ll have to do some slow but steady work on that riff beforehand but once you’re starting to get to grips with it, playing along with the track will help you get it under your fingers.
What next?
That’s about it for the What’s My Age Again TAB and guitar lesson. If you’d like to learn another Blink182 song, try the All The Small Things TAB and Guitar Lesson. Or, if you’re looking for similar songs from different bands, try the Basket Case TAB and guitar lesson. Great song by Greenday.
Hello. My name is Ryan J Mellor and I play the guitar. I’m also the creator of Eat Sleep Guitar Repeat. I’ve ben a guitarist for many years and my guitar playing has been described as “above average”. My guitar and music knowledge is somewhat impressive but most importantly, I have a passion for creating great guitar and music related content.