Killing Me Softly With His Song | TAB
The best way to come to terms with a chord progression like this is to make sure you can hear and feel the Roman Numerals.
To achieve this, play along with Roberta’s original recording using just one strum per bar, always being aware of the Roman Numeral.
To make it a chord exercise so you can create parts anywhere, here’s the chorus in three areas, starting with the most comfortable, I’ve called this exercise 1.
Make sure you can hear this as you play:
| Fm7 (VI) | Bbm7 (II) | Eb7 (V) | Abmaj7 (I) |
| Fm7 (VI) | Bb/D (IIx/3) | Eb (V) | Db (IV) |
| Abmaj7 (I) | Db (IV) | (change the key to Db here so Db is also I)
| Gbmaj7#11 (IV) | Gbmaj7#11 | F (IIIx) | F (IIIx) |
Here’s another area of the neck, remember to hear/feel the Roman Numerals!
Here’s the last chorus example, when you can play it, blend all three in an improvised manner along with the original recording.
Let’s now do the same to the verse.
Again, you must hear the Roman Numerals! This is what they are:
| Bbm7 (II) | Eb7 (V) | Abmaj7 (I) | Dbmaj7 (IV) |
| Bbm7 (II) | Eb7 (V) | Fm7 (VI) | Fm7 (VI) |
| Bbm7 (II) | Eb7 (V) | Abmaj7 (I) | C7 (IIIx) |
Notice how it’s always the II – V first, it’s the second two bars of four that keep changing.
Here’s exercise 2.
And here’s the final exercise.
When you can play in all areas, start improvising with the original recording. When you can do it, you’ll be surprised how easy creating a part will be!
Killing Me Softly With His Song TAB | Related Pages
Killing Me Softly With His Song | Chords + Lyrics
You can learn to play Killing Me Softly With His Song by Roberta Flack using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, a chord chart, and the original recording.
| Fm7 | Bbm7 |
Strumming my pain with his fingers…
Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics
Roberta Flack tunes
Roberta Flack is one of the greatest female soul singers from the golden era of the ’70s, who found a great duet partner in Donny Hathaway.
Her best tunes include Killing Me Softly with His Song, The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, and Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow.
Roberta Flack on the web
Fugees tunes
Hip Hop trio Fugees formed in the ’90s. After releasing a credible debut album, they dropped The Score in 1996 and became world-famous.
Their best tunes include Killing Me Softly, Ready Or Not, Fu-Gee-La, Nappy Heads, and No Woman, No Cry.
Fugees on the web
About me | Dan Lundholm
This guitar lesson by Dan Lundholm featuring TAB covers Killing Me Softly With His Song. 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.