Stand By Me - Fingerstyle Blues Version (Tutorial + Tab)

 

This is my version of the classic song 'Stand By Me'. The song was written by Leiber / Stoller and King, and was originally recorded and made famous in the 60's by Ben E King. In my arrangement, I have written and played it with a slower, country blues feel to it. It is a solo fingerstyle piece played with a travis picking pattern where the thumb plays the bass notes on alternating strings, and the melody line is played on the higher strings. This video and tab just playes through the first two verses of the song and once through the chorus. This incorporates the majority of the musical sections of the song, and can be repeated and varied as necessary if you would like to play more of the original song. 

The tune is in 4/4 time and is played on a guitar in standard tuning. The tune is quite straightforward to play if you are familiar with playing fingerstyle guitar, and shouldn't pose too many problems. Below is the tab for the song in various formats, and also some playing tips to help you:

Stand By Me Tab - Power Tab - PDF - TXT

Playing Advice

• Blues Intro - I have added a small into to this tune which lasts for most of the first 2 bars. This is just a standard blues intro / turnaround sequence for a piece of blues music in G. If you want to this intro can be changed to something you prefer, or even removed from the piece altogether. If it was removed, the song would start at the end of the 3rd beat of Bar 2. The same is applicable for the ending to the tune. The last beat of Bar 25, and bar 26, can easily be replaced with something else you prefer.
  

• Quick Change - Although this tune is relatively easy to play, there is a quick chord change needed at the start of Bars 7, 15 and 23. This is where you make a CMaj7 chord with the fretting hand. Although this is a fairly easy chord to play, the change to this chord has to be very quick and it can be easy to lose the beat doing this. With enough practice, it should be ok. However, if you are having difficulty with this, just omit the last note of the previous Bar and this wil give you sufficient time to fret the CMaj7 chord.
  

• Travis Picking - This song employs mostly a straightforward travis picking pattern. This is where the bass notes are played by the thumb on alternating bass strings. Although this is common in fingerstyle blues music, some people have difficulty alternating between the strings in a regular pattern. If you are finding this difficult just play the bass notes on a single string i.e. if the first bass note is fret 3 on the 6th string, just play this four times on every beat of the bar. It wont have the same variety and depth in the tune, but it will still sound fine.
  

This is about all I need to say about this piece.The chorus section with its wide stretch and intricate barre section makes this quite a tricky piece to play. However, with enough practise, you should be able to get it.

Thanks for Reading,
Neil