Free Fallin’ | TAB
Free Fallin’, in order to sound right, needs two guitars. The first is played using a capo on fret 1, playing these chords:
||: E Asus2 | Asus2 E B5 :||
The second guitar is played using a capo on fret 3, playing these chords:
||: D G5 | G5 D Asus4 :||
Notice how the position of the capo changes the chord shapes, which makes the two guitars sound bigger.
This is one of the best tricks you can use when designing guitar parts, but also when learning more about how to play the guitar as it teaches you the fretboard. In my acoustic guitar courses, we do this to almost every song.
Tom and Mike don’t just play the same chords using different chord shapes, they also use different extensions.
The Asus2 played with a capo on fret 1 is a G5 with a capo on fret 3, effectively letting only one guitar add the colour – genius!
The final chord of the loop does this again, but now the other way around, guitar 1 plays a B5, and guitar 2 an Asus4.
This little loop of two bars is so great we don’t need any more chords. Only a breakdown section where we remove all extensions for power chords and some dynamic changes provides enough variation.
Here’s the TAB for Tom Petty and Mike Cambell’s Free Fallin’ guitar parts. Notice how the strumming is divided up.
Free Fallin’ TAB | Related Pages
Free Fallin’ | Chords + Lyrics
You can learn how to play Free Fallin’ by Tom Petty using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, a chord chart, and the original recording.
| E Asus2 | Asus2 E B5 |
She’s a good girl, loves her mama…
Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics
Tom Petty tunes
Tom Petty released most of his albums with his band The Heartbreakers although some solo material appeared as well.
His best-known tunes include American Girl, Free Fallin’, Learning To Fly, Into The Great Wide Open, Don’t Come Around Here No More, and I Won’t Back Down.
Tom Petty on the web
About me | Dan Lundholm
This guitar lesson by Dan Lundholm features TAB and covers Free Fallin. 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.