Baby Can I Hold You | TAB
There is so much to learn here in this seemingly simple song.
The best way to do this is to first look at the TAB, recognise all the intervals, and then use the chords with extensions to serve as a reminder, a simple chord chart will do then.
The intro is a perfect example of how you can turn simple chords into a riff if you pay attention. With lyrics, I wrote D (Dsus2) because it appears and then goes back to D again. But here with TAB, I write all chords.
The open strings take us to A7sus4, and the A7sus2 is a little bridge from sus4 to the major 3rd of the A7.
As the verse starts, we play exactly this again, but add to it in the last half of bar 2, like this:
The Em uses similar rhythms to what we set up, the G is in a 2/4 bar, very folky!
In verse 3, there’s an electric guitar lick which can be incorporated into the strumming, like this:
Here’s the chorus. I’ve now included the movement of the bass from Em to G, we added an F#. The D chord is also played slightly differently, with just a bass note at first.
Baby Can I Hold You TAB | Related Pages
Baby Can I Hold You | Chords + Lyrics
You can learn to play Baby Can I Hold You by Tracy Chapman using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, a chord chart, and the original recording.
| D (Dsus2) | A7sus4 A7sus2 A7 | Em |
Sorry, is all that you can say…
Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics
Tracy Chapman tunes
Tracy Chapman is an American singer-songwriter, best known for her sensational singles Fast Car, Talking About A Revolution, and Baby Can I Hold You from her self-titled debut album.
Amazingly, these three songs were on the debut’s A-side.
Tracy Chapman on the web
About me | Dan Lundholm
This guitar lesson by Dan Lundholm featuring TAB covers Baby Can I Hold You. Discover more about him and how you can learn guitar with Spytunes.
Most importantly, find out why you should learn guitar through playing tunes, not practising scales, and studying theory in isolation.