I Saw The Light - Fingerstyle Guitar - Tutorial + Free Tab

 


In this video I want to have a look at the classic country gospel song I Saw The Light. This is a catchy, upbeat song and I have done my own fingerstyle guitar version of it. The song is quite basic with a repeating 8 bar structure throughout it. In the video I will play through the verse and the chorus sections, then have a look at the music structure and give some tips on playing it. Lastly, I will play through it again slower and put the tab on screen. The music is mostly in standard 4/4 time and is in the Key of D. It is played on a guitar in Open D Tuning and employs a travis picking pattern when playing.

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

I Saw The Light Downloadable Tab - Power Tab - PDF - TXT
 
  • The 2/4 Bar - At the end of each of the eight bar sequences, whether that be the chorus or the verse, I have added a 2/4 bar in to bridge into the next section. Now, when I listen through the music, I could hear this 2/4 bar, but when I looked at some copies of sheet music of it, there was no 2/4 bar in it and it was all played in 4/4. However, I think adding in this 2/4 bar sounds good and makes it sound like the original. However, if you do not like it, you can either omit this 2/4 bar or play as a 4/4 bar.
  • The Bm Chord - On beats 3 and 4 of bar 6 I have put in a change to a B minor chord. Now this B minor chord is not in the original recording, however I was listening to a recording by The Holmes Brothers and in their version they put in this minor chord. Now it is only for two beats in one of the bars, but I think it adds quite a lot to the music and therefore that's why I've added it. However, if you don't think it sounds good or if you want to play it closer to the original, do not do this change to the B minor chord and just play straight through with the D chord
  • Rephrasing the Melody - There are a lot of different versions of this song out there and a lot of them rephrase the melody line from the original. And in the version that I have done, I play around with the melody line as well and it's something I would encourage you to do too. The melody in the original feels quite rigid and stuffy, however, in a lot of cover versions it feels a lot looser and more flamboyant because the melody line has been rephrased. The version that I have done, I have tried to provide a slightly more flamboyant melody line. Therefore, it is well worth playing around with the notes in the melody line and maybe changing some of the note durations or adding in some intermittent notes to. rephrase the melody.
This is about all I need to say about this piece. It is a fairly straightforward piece of fingertsyle guitar music. If you are used to playing travis picking fingerstyle guitar, you should be able to learn this quite quickly.

Thanks for Reading,
Neil

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