One (Harry Nilsson) Guitar Lesson with TAB

One (Harry) Guitar Lesson + TAB
In this guitar lesson, we mainly look at how to play One on an acoustic guitar using TAB.


One | TAB


Let’s start with TAB for how to play the chords without a capo, it’s a descending chord idea over chord VI, the home chord in Harry Nilsson’s One.

One TAB, verse no capo.

If you play in a band, you play this pretty much throughout, for the bridge, just play long sweeping chords.

Playing this on one acoustic will help you understand the song better and also give you ideas for the electric so let’s focus on that. First, we transpose what you just saw.

One TAB, verse idea 1 capo 3.

Let’s develop this into a part that works beyond verse 1.

One TAB, verse idea 2 capo 3.

What we’ve done here is move the extensions into the bass. You could have called these chords AmAm7/GF#m7b5 and Fmaj7. Make sure you can see this is the case.



Here’s another idea.

One TAB, verse idea 3 capo 3.

It’s all very simple, let’s look at one more.

One TAB, verse idea 4 capo 3.

Practice all examples/ideas and then start blending them as you play along with the original recording. Perhaps you can come up with more concepts, and then blend those in.

Here’s the bridge.

One TAB, bridge capo 3.

That Cadd9 is there because I’ve included a string line that used the note 9.

The best thing you can do now is just play along with Harry’s original on repeat.



One TAB | Related Pages


One (Harry Nilsson) | Chords + Lyrics

One Harry Nilsson chords lesson.

You can learn how to play One by Harry Nilsson using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, a chord chart, and the original recording.

| Cm | Cm7 | Cm6 | Cmb6 |
One is the loneliest number that you’ll ever do…


Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics

When you can play the TAB for One, try these five tunes from the songbook.


Harry Nilsson tunes

Harry Nilsson covered One.

Known as the 5th Beatle, Harry Nilsson was a singer-songwriter from New York who moved to L.A. to pursue a recording career.

Harry is best known for the tunes Everybody’s Talkin’, Coconut, One, Without You, and Spaceman.


Harry Nilsson on the web

Listen to Harry Nilsson on Spotify.


About me | Dan Lundholm

Dan Lundholm wrote this guitar lesson and TAB for One.

This guitar lesson by Dan Lundholm features TAB and covers One. Discover more about him and how you can learn guitar with Spytunes.

Most importantly, find out why you should learn guitar


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