Billie Jean | TAB
Let’s go through all of Billie Jean’s section using TAB, starting with the intro which is a bass line, looks like this:
This is an F# Minor Pentatonic riff as the chords move II – III – IV – III. I think you should double this, hopefully, this won’t annoy the bass player.
Next, we start playing the chords which also feature in the verse, here’s idea 1.
A Bm chord is added using the same rhythm as the previous chords. I added a slide-in for the A chord to spice things up.
Here’s idea 2. After learning both, feel free to blend them and maybe even find more areas of the neck to play Billie Jean in.
Let’s move on and now look at the bridge. For the verse, I basically took the strings part and adapted it for the guitar, here in the bridge I had to invent a part. This is what I came up with.
We have had a modal interchange here, going from F# Dorian to F# Aeolian, making the D chord IV, F#m VI and C# IIIx. Find out more about all this in the chords lesson.
Here’s Billie Jean’s chorus in TAB. It’s like a verse but the chord shapes and what to play over Bm have changed. Using chords and lyrics (chords lesson), I wrote some of the Bm chords as B5, looking at the TAB, can you see why?
Finally, let’s look at that awesome Steve Lukather guitar lick.
Billie Jean TAB | Related Pages
Billie Jean | Chords + Lyrics
You can learn to play Billie Jean by Michael Jackson using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, a chord chart, and the original recording.
| F#m G#m | A G#m |
She was more like a beauty queen from a movie scene…
Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics
Michael Jackson tunes
The King of Pop became world-famous before he was even a teenager as he signed to Motown with his brothers as The Jackson 5.
After many hits, Michael Jackson embarked on a crazy solo career that would see him become as big as Elvis and The Beatles.
Michael Jackson on the web
About me | Dan Lundholm
This guitar lesson by Dan Lundholm features TAB and covers Billie Jean. 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.