Stand By Me | TAB
Before you start playing along with the original recording, change the Hz on my online guitar tuner from 440 to 443, it’ll feel much better that way.
Let’s go through how to arrange this classic for one acoustic guitar. To get there, we need to start by looking at what the bass plays as this is what is the main instrument on the recording.
In order to get the movement of the line right, we must start with a high A, like this:
The problem here is that on a guitar, this doesn’t sound like a bass, so what happens when we pull it down an octave, why doesn’t it work? Let’s take a look.
It’s all fine until the 5th bar where we want that D to be lower than E, playing it high ruins the bass line.
After scratching my head for a while, I managed to work out how to ask this, here’s what I came up with.
Study this carefully, I’m varying how much of the A chord. Sometimes it’s just the bass note, sometimes a power chord, sometimes a bigger power chord.
For the F#m, I again play more notes and fewer notes. To set up the D chord, I use the upper octave from F#m, then stay in the higher octave going to E, only going low before the A chord comes back.
Play along with the original recording as well as on your own.
Here’s the biggest challenge, the solo!
I’m using a lot of the strings from the original recording but also blending it with chords using open strings and therefore extensions to create a big-sounding instrumental section.
Stand By Me TAB | Related Pages
Stand By Me | Chords + Lyrics
You can learn how to play Stand By Me by Ben E. King using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, a chord chart, and the original recording.
| A | A | F#m | F#m |
When the night has come, and the land is dark…
Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics
- (Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay chords by Otis Redding
- Lovely Day chords by Bill Withers
- My Girl chords by The Temptations
- Under The Boardwalk chords by The Drifters
- Wonderful World chords by Sam Cooke
Ben E. King tunes
Starting out with The Drifters, Ben E. King soon embarked on a solo career where his first two singles would become his best-known tunes.
Hits include There Goes My Baby, This Magic Moment, Save The Last Dance For Me, Spanish Harlem, and Stand By Me.
Ben E. King on the web
About me | Dan Lundholm
This guitar lesson by Dan Lundholm features TAB and covers Stand By Me. 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.