Scroll down for full fingerstyle guitar lesson (with tab/video tutorial) of While My Guitar Gently Weeps by The Beatles
While My Guitar Gently Weeps was written by The Beatles in 1968 and appears on their album the 'White Album'. It was written by George Harrison, the lead guitarist of the band, and the song has gone on to become one his best known.
Harrison invited fellow guitarist Eric Clapton along to the session during the recording of While My Guitar Gently Weeps, and the overdubbed guitar solos you hear on the track were all played by him.
While My Guitar Gently Weeps is no. 39 on my Top 60 Fingerpicking Songs of ALL TIME list. If you've not seen the list be sure to check it out and sign up to my weekly email lesson. That way you won't miss learning any of these great fingerstyle songs.
We're going to learn a full fingerstyle arrangement of While My Guitar Gently Weeps in this lesson. This means that for the entire piece we're going to be playing the chords, melody and the bass notes all at the same time. You may find it a little tricky at times as there's so much going on. Hopefully you'll get a lot out of this lesson.
While My Guitar Gently Weeps Song Details:
- Key - A minor
- Tempo - about 110 bpm (original recording fluctuates)
- Tuning - standard
- Difficulty - intermediate - advanced
As you learn this song please make sure that you are constantly listening to the track at the same time. This will help with your timing of the the melody, which is greatly important.
This arrangement is just one I've come up with, and I have no problem whatsoever if you add/take away things from it. In fact, I actually strongly encourage you to try and add some of you own creativity to it and see what you can come up with on your own.
Play Through
Intro:
For the intro I've added the piano line you can hear on the song over the descending bass notes. I recommend starting by isolating the two individual parts (bass/piano line), practising them both separately and then bringing them together.
Want to really take your fingerpicking to the next level?
Verse:
Throughout the verse we're playing the descending bass line again, with the melody of the lyrics. At the same time we're also adding in some arpeggiated notes from within each chord. Remember that when doing a fingerstyle arrangement of any song you want to think of the guitar as a band, not just one single instrument.
Chorus:
The interesting part about the chorus and what gives it the strong lift is the key change. Here it goes from the key of A minor to its parallel key of A major, this is pretty typical of The Beatles and a mark of their truly outstanding songwriting skills.
Instrumental Section:
During this section of the original recording Clapton is letting rip and he plays a big guitar solo with huge bends. That's a little hard to replicate on an acoustic guitar so here I've just followed the chords and added a few somewhat simple melodic lines. This is just an example and you can change it as much as you want to.
Want to really take your fingerpicking to the next level?
If you want to make sure that you're really on the right track with fingerpicking, then try one of my fingerstyle guitar courses - find out more here.
If you have any questions or want to share anything at all, then please leave a comment below.
I hope you've found this lesson useful and thank you for reading.
Where is the TAB?
Tab is up now. No idea why it didn’t upload with the rest of the lesson.
[…] While My Guitar Gently Weeps by The Beatles (Fingerstyle Guitar Lesson) […]
when you are doing the play trough, i noticed the second time youbplay through the chorus you play the something different for the last two or 3 chords. are you just playing the G,C,E chords for the verse the rest of the song and only play the G,D,E that first time through the verse?
Sorry Sam you’ve lost me a little here. The chords I play are as they’re written in the tabs.
I’m talking about the second time you play through the verse you play through two chords to lead you into the chorus. The tabs have a C chord and an E chord and the tab doesnt sound right but when you play it sounds right.
I’m talking about the second time you play through the verse you play through two chords to lead you into the chorus. The tabs have a C chord and an E chord and the tab doesnt sound right but when you play it sounds right.
That part is very open to interpretation. So long as you arpeggiate the two chords it doesn’t matter too much what you play, so long as it sounds good. Sometimes I’ll pick my through those chords and sometimes I might strum them. Play around with it and find what works for you, don’t be afraid to change it.
cool thanks for the quick response I was also wondering what should be played before the instrumental? I’ve tried the chorus and verse but it doesnt sound very fluent transitioning into the instrumental.
It’s the verse that leads into the instrumental.
Thank for sharing those kind of songs ! Now i can’t stop playing it !
Thank you !
See you !
Great work and thanks for sharing your expertise. You are doing a great service to all of us who long to play our favorites.
Where were you when I was 12 years old with my first $15.00 acoustic trying to play along with the radio? LOL.
Thanks Gary, I’m pleased I’m helping you out.