Bird on the Wire | TAB
Let’s take a look at a fingerstyle arrangement for how you could play Leonard Cohen’s Bird on the Wire on one acoustic guitar. Here’s the TAB for verse 1.
The first line is a simple I – V – I – IV. The second line is I – V – I, just using the sus4 extension and then, an add9 as well.
The picking pattern is consistent, we go down in the first half of the bar, then up.
Here’s verse 2.
I like this pattern, it has more groove when the bass is on its own in the middle of the bar. The last bar takes us to the chorus which looks like this:
The chord progression is IV – I – VI – I. We then go to V instead of I at the end.
Bird on the Wire TAB | Related Pages
Bird on the Wire | Chords + Lyrics
You can learn to play Bird on the Wire by Leonard Cohen using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, a chord chart, and the original recording.
| A | E |
Like a bird on the wire…
Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics
Leonard Cohen tunes
Following a career as a novelist and poet for over a decade, Leonard Cohen released his debut album in 1967.
His best tunes include Suzanne, Bird on the Wire, Famous Blue Raincoat, Chelsea Hotel #2, Hallelujah, Dance Me To The End Of Love, and So Long, Marianne.
Leonard Cohen on the web
About me | Dan Lundholm
This guitar lesson by Dan Lundholm features TAB and covers Bird on the Wire. Discover more about him and learn guitar with Spytunes.
Most importantly, find out why you should learn guitar through playing tunes, not practising scales, and studying theory in isolation.