Love Story | TAB
Let’s learn this epic tune by studying custom-made TAB that works for the sole guitarist in a band.
Intro
The intro establishes the riff and looks like this:
On the recording, there are layers of guitars. If you have a second guitarist live, it’s a good idea for them to establish the movement using power chords—here’s a part that works well:
That said, you could just as easily have the bass player cover this movement higher up the neck using single notes. To avoid turning this into the world’s longest beginner lesson, I won’t include further second guitar parts.
Verse
The verse begins with guitar alone. When the bass enters, it works well to tie the last note into the chord change and leave the downbeat for the bass player. Here’s how that looks in TAB:
Verse 2 follows the second half of verse 1 harmonically, but we vary the part by including more bass notes:
Bridge
The bridge builds towards the chorus while maintaining a similar riff. The chords move more quickly, and the bass line changes:
Chorus
There are several variations of the chorus. Here’s the first:
I’ve intentionally played less here to let the bass and drums drive the section. This creates a bigger impact, using long, sweeping rhythms before moving into 8th notes. We finish with an instrumental identical to the first two bars of the intro.
Chorus 2 is the same but drops the Asus4, allowing it to loop more smoothly:
Chorus 3 follows the build-up, with chords simplified into triads. Here’s a part that fits well:
Chorus 4 and the outro introduce a key change. Notice how the third chord hit uses one fewer string each time. We also begin with single notes before expanding into power chords:
Solo
The solo is heavily layered in the original recording. Here’s a way to combine those melodies into a single playable part:
You could analyse the harmony in detail, but it quickly becomes overcomplicated:
- Dsus2 can be heard as Dsus4 – D – sus2, then sus2 – D – sus2
- A7sus4 works as a general name for most of the notes, though the final note introduces a 6
- Bmadd4 is slightly misleading; a more accurate view would be Bmb6 – Bm – Bsus4 – Bm, followed by a B minor scale
The final two bars become even harder to label clearly—so the best approach is simply to learn the TAB.
And that’s the key point: just learn the TAB. This is a beginner song, so there’s no need to get lost in complex chord theory at this stage.
Middle 8
The same applies here—focus on the TAB rather than the chord names.
The first chord (Bm with an open E string) can be called Bmadd4. The next chord, Gmaj13, is the same shape with a different bass note—just shift the bass while holding the upper structure.
Once you can play all of this, practise along with the backing tracks—and then find yourself a band!
Love Story Backing Tracks + TAB | Related Pages
Love Story | Chords + Lyrics
You can learn Love Story by Taylor Swift using chords, lyrics, analysis, a chord chart, and the original recording.
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