I Wanna Dance With Somebody | TAB
Let’s go through all of I Wanna Dance With Somebody’s sections as if we were responsible for all parts.
The intro has loads of fun little keyboard parts that can be adapted to the guitar, here’s the TAB.
First of all, the little dots you see above the 8th notes mean we play short, like a 16th note. I’ve written them like this as it’s easier to read.
Once the chorus-like chords kick in we go for the closest possible shape and play almost the same thing, the bass notes changing is what changes the name of our chords, not the fret numbers.
Can you see how the chord names match up with the TAB?
Next, here’s the verse TAB.
I’ve gone for minimalistic parts here, staying very close to the original keyboard parts. Small modifications like playing strings 4-2 for the Ebm, then 1-3 the second time drive the part forward.
Here’s the next part, the chorus.
Again, I’ve gone for minimalistic movement, now playing only two strings most of the time. The notes stay the same too as Gb and Ebm share two notes in a triad, we stay with them and let the bass take care of the harmonic movement.
The rhythm is identical as well to keep the momentum going. The last bar is the same as during the intro.
Here’s TAB for the middle 8 for I Wanna Dance With Somebody, I love this part it’s so cool!
The movement from min7 to the minor is great in the first two bars. The quarter note triplet really tells the rest of the band you’ve done your homework and the rhythm following this is taken straight from the original recording.
The last bar is the same as we already played which is surprising as next, we change the key, like this:
The rhythm has here been modified in this chorus it’s not just the chords that have changed. Still, once in place, we do stick with it.
This part is interrupted for a breakdown section before it comes back to fade.
It’s not easy to get that syncopated lick right but if you play with the original recording you’ll soon get it right.
Hopefully having looked at all this TAB, it becomes obvious that the more you put into it, the more fun it gets to play I Wanna Dance With Somebody, a classic found on most female-fronted party bands’ setlists.
I Wanna Dance With Somebody TAB | Related Pages
I Wanna Dance With Somebody | Chords + Lyrics
Learn to play I Wanna Dance With Somebody by Whitney Houston using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, a chord chart, and the original recording.
| Db | Db | Ebm7 | Ebm7 |
Clock strikes upon the hour and the sun begins to fade.
Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics
- Best Of My Love
- Celebration
- Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough
- Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
- Somebody Else’s Guy
Whitney Houston tunes
Over her twenty-five-year career, Whitney Houston became known as The Voice voted the 2nd best female singer of all time.
Her biggest tunes include I Wanna Dance With Somebody, How Will I Know, Greatest Love Of All, Higher Love, and I Will Always Love You.
Whitney Houston on the web
About me | Dan Lundholm
This guitar lesson by Dan Lundholm featuring TAB covers I Wanna Dance With Somebody. 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.