One Love (Bob Marley) Guitar Lesson with TAB

One Love Guitar Lesson + TAB
In this guitar lesson, we turn One Love into a CAGED exercise for the electric guitar. We also look at TAB for a one acoustic guitar arrangement!


One Love | TAB


There is an enormous amount of TAB to get through here. We only use chords I – IV – V – VI so tune down to 343 Hz and lay along with Bob, see it as a test if you can do it!

First, we play using only strings 1-3 using the concept of the closest possible shape. Once you worked your way through all five areas successfully, try playing in an improvised way, without looking at the TAB.

Here’s the lowest possible starting point, the A shape. Play all chords with an upstroke only!

One Love TAB, chorus A shape.

Stick with this example until you’re not making any mistakes, then move up, to a G shape as a starting point. You don’t have to play through the entire song before you switch!

One Love TAB, chorus G shape.

The same concept applies here, you switch up to the E shape once you can do it along with Bob.

One Love TAB, chorus E shape.


Let’s keep going (if you can do it!), next up is the D shape, which looks like this:

One Love TAB, chorus D shape.

The final shape is the C shape, can you do it?

One Love TAB, chorus C shape.

One Love chords in all CAGED shapes, strings 2-4

Before you start improvising, do it all over again on strings 2-4, still, use only an upstroke, here’s the example starting with an A shape.

One Love TAB, chorus A shape strings 2-4.

That IV chord (Eb) became a power chord above, this is what will happen whenever we use a D shape, playing on strings 2-4.



Here’s the next example, we now start with a G shape.

One Love TAB, chorus G shape strings 2-4.

In this example, it was the V chord (F) that had a D shape and therefore became a power chord.

Here’s the E shape, now there is no power chord.

One Love TAB, chorus E shape strings 2-4.

Here’s the next starting point, it is the D shape and therefore chord I is a power chord.

One Love TAB, chorus D shape strings 2-4.


Only one more to go, it’s the C shape, again, no power chords.

One Love TAB, chorus C shape strings 2-4.

When you can play all these 10 examples, improvise along with the original recording.


One Love acoustic guitar arrangement (capo 3)

I couldn’t help myself, I had to create an acoustic guitar arrangement as well.

I started with transcribing the bass line but it didn’t work, the bass was too free so I instead mainly focused on the drum beat and came up with this:

One Love TAB, acoustic guitar arrangement.


One Love TAB | Related Pages


One Love | Chords + Lyrics

One Love chords lesson.

You can learn to play One Love by Bob Marley using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, a chord chart, and the original recording.

Bb | F |
One love, one heart…


Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics

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


Bob Marley tunes

Bob Marley wrote One Love.

Bob Marley was a Jamaican singer, songwriter, guitarist, and activist. Few artists have had such widespread recognition.

As the most widely known performer of reggae music, Bob Marley is also regarded by many as a prophet of the Rastafarian religion.


Bob Marley on the web

Listen to Bob Marley on Spotify.


About me | Dan Lundholm

Dan Lundholm wrote this guitar lesson and TAB for One Love.

This guitar lesson by Dan Lundholm features TAB and covers One Love. 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.


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