Chords for How To Play Sleepwalk On Guitar | Santo & Johnny Guitar Lesson + Tutorial

_ _ [Am] _ _ _ [G] _ _ [C] _
_ [Am] _ _ [Fm] _ _ _ _ _
[C] _ [Am] _ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _
_ _ _ How's it going everybody?
John McLennan here and in today's video I'm going to teach you how to play Sleepwalk by
Santo [Bm] & Johnny on guitar.
In this video I'm going to break down the chord progressions for the entire song from
top to bottom so you'll be able to play this right along with the recording.
It's also a great chord progression to practice soloing over.
So once you get through with this lesson, if you want to record yourself playing the
chord progression or perhaps you want to play it into a looper pedal and work on soloing
on top of it, it's going to be a great exercise and a classic chord progression to do this over.
And to help you with that, you're going to want to download my free book in the description
below, Melodic Expressions.
It's got over 100 licks and exercises that are going to help you unlock the fretboard
and learn to play over chords.
So make sure you download that at the link below and with that said, let's dive into today's lesson.
Let's break down how to play Sleepwalk as recorded by Santo & Johnny on guitar.
We're going to go through all the chord changes that you need to know to get playing this today.
Here's what the first part sounds like.
[C] _ _ [Am] _ _
[Fm] _ _ [G] _ _ [C] _ _ [Am] _ _
[Fm] _ _ [G] _ _ [C] _ _ _
This is primarily based around just a four bar chord progression here for the A section.
We're going to play C to A [Am] minor, _ [Fm] then F minor to [G] G7.
And each one of those chords is lasting one bar of 6-8.
So we're going to [C] count 1, 2, 3, [Am] 4, 5, 6, switch, 2, 3, 4, 5, [Fm] 6, switch, 2, 3, 4, [G] 5,
6, G7, [C] 5, 6.
And the strumming pattern, I was just doing eighth notes, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, [Am] 6, 1, 2, 3,
4, [Fm] 5, 6, 1, 2, 3, 4, [G] 5, 6, with a little accent [C] on 1 and 4.
[Am] 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, [Fm] 6, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, [G] 6.
_ [F] So if we start the melody, [Gm] [C] right from where that comes in, we're going to do this four
times to start.
So like_
_ [Am] _ _ [Fm] _ _ [G] _ [C] Repeat.
_ [Am] _ _ [Fm] _ _ [G] _ _ [C] _
_ [Am] _ _ [Fm] _ _ [G] _ _ [C]
That's sort of [Am] the first phrase.
_ [Fm] _ [G] Then we do all of that [C] again, except for we're going to make a variation on the last time.
So basically I played C, A minor, F minor, G7 four times.
Then we're going to do it three times like this.
_ [Am] _ _ [Fm] _
_ [G] _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ [Fm] _
_ [G] Last one.
[C] _ [Am] _ So third time.
[G] Then we have a variation here.
We're going to go C [F] to F major, [C] C, then [C] C7.
[F] Then we hit the bridge.
[C] So this is our little interlude.
It's a four bar chord progression that's super common to millions of songs.
And it has the sound of taking us from the A section to the B section.
Now this song is in the key of C, but the B section starts on an F.
So the A section
starts on a [F] C, the B section starts on an F.
Now this chord progression is used in millions of songs that sounds like [C] you're going from
the one to the four, because millions of songs go to the four chord in the bridge.
And so this is what we're going to play.
We're going to play C for a bar, [Em] and then instead of F minor this time, we're going
to put that [F] middle finger down and play F major.
Again you can use these chords, you know, your standard bar chord shape.
I'm playing the same thing, just with my thumb.
And you can actually see there's some videos on YouTube and on the internet of them performing this live.
And he uses these shapes with [C] the thumb.
So C [F] to F, [C] then C, then you're going to go to C7.
_ So the transition to the bridge is_
[F] _ _ [C] _
_ Then we go to the [F] bridge.
_ _ _ [Fm] _
_ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [F] _ _ _ [Fm] _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [B] _ [C] _ [G] Then we're back to the A section.
So let me break down this B [F] section.
We're going to play two bars of F, then two bars of F [Fm] minor.
_ [C] Then two bars of C, two bars of C7.
[Abm] So that sounds like this.
Again, keeping the strumming pattern the [F] same.
One, two, three, four, five, six, one, four.
F [Fm] minor.
_ _ [C] _
_ C.
C7.
_ _ _ Then we repeat the first [B] four bars again of [F] the bridge.
F, F, [Fm] F minor, F minor, then [G] G7 for four bars. _ _ _
[C] _ So the interesting thing about the last four bars here of the bridge is it sounds like
the guitar [G] player plays a G7, and then the other [Bb] musician goes up [G] to like a Bb7.
So that ends up being like_
Kind of like this sound.
G7 [F] to G sharp 9.
[G] G7 sharp 9 back to G7.
So you could just, in the live video, it just stays on G7.
[B] But you could also, some people play an [G] Ab7 in there.
So they'll go G7, [Ab] _ [G] Ab7, and G7.
_ [Eb] So either one of those will work.
So you can decide which set of changes you want to play for that section there.
All right, let's talk about the strumming pattern here for the bridge.
The feel just slightly changes.
We still have the eighth note.
One, [F] two, three, four, five, six, one, two.
But there's like a little bit of a rest in there. _ _ _
[Fm] _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [F] _ _ _ _ [Fm] _
_ _ [G] _ _ [Ab] _ _ [G] _ _
_ [C] _ _ [A] [C] Now another really common thing you could do in this kind of feel is arpeggiate.
One, two, three, four, five, [Am] six.
One, two, three, four, five, six.
_ _ [C] _
[Am] Kind of go through each [F] chord like that.
_ [G] _ _ [C] _
_ Have fun practicing Sleepwalk.
I hope you got some value out of today's lesson.
If you all would like to see a video of me breaking down the melody, let me know in the comments below.
Also to help you out with your lead playing and get you improving today, make sure to
download my free book, Melodic Expressions.
You can get it at the link below.
It'll be sent to your inbox.
Again, you're getting all of this completely for free, so all I ask is that you hit the
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It really helps out the channel.
Get any song requests in in the comments below.
Thanks for watching and we'll see you next time.
_ [Am] _ _ _ [G] _ _ [E] _ _ [Am] _ _ [Fm] _
_ _ _ _ _ [Am] _ _ [Fm] _
_ [G] _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _