Classic Clapton Song For Beginners

The "Wonderful Tonight Tabs" here are a great example of a classic song that's easy for beginners to play. There are only four chords in the song; G, D, C and Em. Now, you should be familiar with those chords even if you're a complete beginner, but the trick here is to play them as arpeggios. Here are the four chords, with the picking pattern:

G

e |--------------3---------|

B |--------0--------0-----0|

G |-----0-----0--------0---|

D |------------------------|

A |------------------------|

E |--3---------------------|

D

e |--------------2---------|

B |--------3--------3-----3|

G |-----2-----2--------2---|

D |--0---------------------|

A |------------------------|

E |------------------------|

C

e |--------------0---------|

B |--------1--------1-----1|

G |-----0-----0--------0---|

D |------------------------|

A |--3---------------------|

E |------------------------|

Em

e |--------------0---------|

B |--------0--------0-----0|

G |-----0-----0--------0---|

D |------------------------|

A |------------------------|

E |--0---------------------|

Practice that pattern a few times without changing the chord, just so you get your right hand "in the zone". You can use a pick, but this is a nice easy introduction to finger-picking, too.

So now you know the chords, it's just a matter of learning the sequence for the song, which is like this:

Verse:

G - - - D - - - C - - - G - - - (x 2)

It's late in the evening...

Chorus:

C - - - D - - - G - - - Em- - - C - - - D - - - G - - -

And then she asks me...

Middle part:

C - - - D - - - G - - - Em- - - C - - - D - - - C - - - D - - - G - - -

...wonderful because I see...

If you want to play the little "fill" that appears a few times, it goes like this:

e |--7--5--3--5--gap--7--5--3--0--gap--7--5--3--5--7--8--12--10

So that's it - as you can see, it's a nice easy song, but it sounds good when you play it. Now, once you've learnt your "Wonderful Tonight Tabs", you want to play a few more songs, so go and find some more tabs! But don't stop there - you can only go so far playing simple guitar tabs.

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