A Winter's Tale - David Essex - Fingerstyle Guitar Tutorial + Tab

 

Here is something for the festive period. This is my fingerstyle guitar version of the classic song A Winter's Tale written by Mike Batt and Tim Rice, and performed originally by David Essex. It is a hauntingly poignant love song with touching and beautifully written lyrics which really capture the emotions of the listener. Although I have tried to make this fingerstyle version as accessible as possible, it is still a tricky piece to play. It requires a lot of barring and playing melody notes across those barres. It also has some wide stretches and going up and down the neck. There is a lot to do. .

It is played on a guitar in Open D tuning, is in 4/4 time, and is in the key of D.

Below are the lyrics as recorded, and the altered lyrics with a 3rd verse added. Below are also some tips to help you play this piece, and links to download the tab.

A Winter's Tale Downloadable Tab - Power Tab - PDF - TXT

 

Here are the lyrics to the song if you wish to sing along:

 

Lyrics 

 

The nights are colder now
Maybe I should close the door
And anyway the snow has covered all your footsteps
And I can follow you no more
The fire still burns at night
My memories are warm and clear
But everybody knows it's hard to be alone
At this time of year

 

It was only a winter's tale
Just another winter's tale
And why should the world take notice
Of one more love that's failed
A love that could never be
Though it meant a lot to you and me
On a world wide scale
We're just another winter's tale

 

While I stand alone
A bell is ringing far away
I wonder if you hear
I wonder if you're listening
I wonder where you are today
Good luck I wish you well
For all that wishes may be worth
I hope that love and strength
Are with you for the length of your time on earth

 

It was only a winter's tale
Just another winter's tale
And why should the world take notice
Of one more love that's failed
It's a love that could never be
Though it meant a lot to you and me
On a world wide scale
We're just another winter's tale

 

It was only a winter's tale
Just another winter's tale
And why should the world take notice
Of one more love that's failed
It's a love that could never be
Though it meant a lot to you and me
On a world wide scale
We're just another winter's tale

 Source: musixmatch

 

These are the lyrics used in the recorded version, and all the subsequent cover versions. However, after it was released, Tim Rice wrote a 3rd verse (and altered chorus) for the song which he said was needed to make the song complete. The only version I can find of this is sung by Emma Kershaw in an interview video with Tim Rice. There are also some other subtle changes to the original lyrics, which Tim originally intended, but were not carried forth into the original recording. It starts at 15:05 in the video below, see what you think of it:

 

 

Here are the full lyrics inlcuding the 3rd Verse as Tim Rice wrote it:

The nights are colder now
Maybe I should close the door
And anyway the snow has covered all your footsteps
And I can follow you no more
The fire we lit still burns
My memories are warm and clear
But everybody knows it's a bitter wind that blows
At this time of year

 

It was only a winter's tale
Just another winter's tale
And why should the world take notice
If one more love should fail
A love that could never be
Though it meant a lot to you and me
On a world wide scale
We're just another winter's tale

 

While I stand alone
A bell is ringing far away
I wonder if you hear
I wonder if you're listening
I wonder where you are today
Good luck I wish you well
For all that wishes may be worth
I hope that love and strength
Will be with you for the length of your time on earth

 

It was only a winter's tale
Just another winter's tale
And why should the world take notice
If one more love should fail
It's a love that could never be
Though it meant a lot to you and me
On a world wide scale
We're just another winter's tale

And then my thoughts return

To childhood winters long ago

When everything was clear

When everything was simple

When love was all we had to know

We've come so far since then

And many times we've lost our way

But still in darkest night, we stumble to the light

Of each Christmas Day 

 

It was only a winter's tale
Just another winter's tale
But one that the world should notice
Lest madness should prevail
A tale of love that just had to be
For so many more than you and me
On a world wide scale
We need another winter's tale

We need another winter's tale

 

• The Big Barre - This piece requires a lot of full barres across all six strings, and you have to play the melody notes across these barres.. It is in Open D tuning and this is a usual consequence of using such a tuning. I chose this tuning because it lets more notes ring out during the chorus which makes it sound really good. The downside is that it requires a lot of barring during the verse section. The real difficulty in this piece comes from having to play the bass notes continuously in a travis picking pattern whilst also incorporating the melody line. This is what facilitates the need to make so many full barres across the strings. One way around this would be to omit the travis picking pattern and just play the bass notes on one string rather than alternating between strings. The music wont sound as varied and may sound a bit flatter but it should make it easier to play. Another option is to leave out some of the bass notes. If playing four bass notes per bar is causing problems, maybe omit some of them and just play two bass notes, a half note in length, in each bar. This again will affect the overall quality of the music but may make it easier to play. If you are struggling, certainly look at minimising the bass notes played which will make it easier.

• Up and Down - At the start of the chorus you have to go up to the 11th and 12th fret of the highest string and then back down to the 5th fret. Although it may seem counter-intuitive, I recommend playing all these 3 notes with the pinky of the fretting hand. The reason being is that when you play the 5th fret, you also have to play the 2nd fret on the 3rd string. This is quite a big stretch and to set you up for it, you should use the pinky to play those melody notes. In bars 28 and 29 of the music, a similar situation occurs. If you play the melody notes on the 9th and 10th frets with your pinky, this allows your index finger to stretch and make the subsequent barre across fret 5. I find this is the most efficient way to play these parts but maybe you can find a way that's more comfortable for you.
  

• Slow Down - I emphasise this for learning every piece of music, but especially with this one. Due to the difficulty, you must learn to play it slowly first. The tempo of this song is actually quite deceptive. Although it isnt fast, it is faster than the song sounds because it does sound like a very slow ballad. Because of this, you can actually play it at a slower tempo and it will still sound fine. Therefore, I definitely recommend it is learned at a slow tempo and you may actually prefer how it sounds at this slower speed.
  

 
This is about all I need to say about this piece. It is a tricky piece of music to play and requires a good bit of skill and dexterity to play it as per the tab. you need to be skilled at making full barres across the strings and holding these to play melody notes over them. You also need to be comfortable playing a bass picking pattern at regular intervals on the beats of the bar. Just start very slowly though and you should start to hear it coming together, and hopefully you will be able to learn it after that.

Thanks for Reading

Neil