Below is the lesson for “Blackbird” by The Beatles.

Helpful Tips

Learn to fingerpick one of the most iconic acoustic guitar songs. While our arrangement is intended for vocal accompaniment, the harmony is so beautiful that it can stand on its own as an instrumental piece.

This piece is fairly straightforward in terms of what our left hand is doing. What makes it challenging are the requirements of what our right hand has to do. Specifically, syncopation.

A lot of measures use syncopated rhythms. These can be tricky to play because the hits occur on the off-beats. But fear not! We’ll use two methods to tackle these bars: ‘by ear’ and ‘by counting’ the rhythms.

Playing by ear simply means to memorize the beats. In other words: if you can sing it, you can play it. Whereas counting rhythms requires an understanding of rhythmic notation. If you really want to gain a thorough understanding of rhythmic notation, there is no better way than by learning to read standard notation.

The last area I want to touch on is the form. The song bounces between measures of 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4. Needless to say, it can be confusing and tricky to memorize. Try to memorize the form section by section.

Part 1 – Performance & Free Lesson

Tab Play Along