Somewhere Over The Rainbow - Tutorial + Tab

 


In this video, I will show you my blues version of the classic song Somewhere Over The Rainbow. The original version of this song was written By Harold Arlen and featured in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. This fingerstyle arrangement is in the Key of G, is in 4/4 time, and is played on a guitar in standard tuning.

Below are some tips to help you play this piece and links to download the tab.

Somewhere Over The Rainbow Tab - Power Tab - PDF - TXT

  • Getting the Right Note Duration - This piece features quite a variety of different note durations. It has 1/2 notes, 1/4 notes, 1/8 notes with a triplet feel applied, and also 1/8 note triplets. It switches between these different note durations quite frequently and it can sometimes be hard to get the timing right. Just listen through the piece on the video, keep an eye on the written music, and learn to play it slowly and you should be able to learn all these variations.

  • Making The Chords - The chords primarily used in this music are G, C, D, Em and Bm. A large part of the structure of this piece of music is playing arpeggios over these underlying chords. Thus, to make playing easier, I would recommend fretting the full underlying chords so that the arpeggios can ring out and not get muted. If you watch the video, you will see the fingerings I use to make these chords. Although you don't have to use these fingerings, they are quite economical to allow fast changes between the chords.

  • Travis Picking - The song mostly employs a Travis Picking pattern for playing the bass notes, with a few exceptions. If you want some more advice on helping you with the Travis Picking style of playing, check out my video and related post. Also, in some bars, it breaks from this Travis Picking pattern and your thumb will have to play bass notes at quicker intervals. Again, watch the video and it will show you when to use the thumb to play the bass notes.
 
This is about all I need to say about this piece. If you are used to playing travis picking fingerstyle guitar you should be able to learn this quickly enough. If you are able to make the chord changes quickly and accurately you should be able to play this piece quite easily.

Thanks for Reading,
Neil

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