Ventura Highway | TAB
Before you start, you need to tune the guitar slightly sharp or it’ll sound weird playing along with the original recording. Use my free online guitar tuner, and set it to 446 Hz.
Just like with America‘s other huge tune, A Horse With No Name, we are dealing with several layered guitars here. So much so that it may be impossible to play this on one acoustic.
Below, there is TAB for each section. Learn this and play along with the original recording. Once you can do it, feel free to modify the sections to your liking.
Starting with the intro, here’s the original lick of guitar 1:
The verse is pretty intense, you could play this during the intro as well if someone else plays that awesome lick.
The bridge introduced a G6 and also extended that D chord even further, to a Dmaj9/F#. We finish on an F#m11, I would play this, extremely intense strumming pattern.
The chorus calms down as we now play 8th notes when strumming, like this:
The final section, which I’ve called the chorus tag is like the intro, but starting with Dmaj7, instead of G.
On a final note, David Gray clearly played along to Ventura Highway by America once or twice before he composed his tune Babylon.
In my book, this falls under inspiration, not stealing. The difference is that David put enough time into developing Babylon so it doesn’t sound like a rip-off.
Songwriting is a craft, not a waiting game for inspiration to strike.
Ventura Highway TAB | Related Pages
Ventura Highway | Chords + Lyrics
You can learn to play Ventura Highway by America using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, a chord chart, and the original recording.
| G | G | Dmaj7/F# | Dmaj7/F# |
Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics
America tunes
Named America so people wouldn’t think they put on a fake accent, the band formed in London during the late 60s.
Their best tunes include A Horse With No Name, Ventura Highway, and Sister Golden Hair.
America on the web
About me | Dan Lundholm
This guitar lesson by Dan Lundholm featuring TAB covers Ventura Highway. 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.