Chords for Tom Petty - Running Down a Dream - Guitar Lesson - How To Play

_ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
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_ _ [C] _ Hey this is Brett, today we're going to do Tom Petty Running Down a Dream.
Super simple, got a couple cool parts.
We [E] got the typical, _ _ _ [D] which is good for getting the single strings down.
[C]
Got some cool open chords in there.
Some little hybrid chords with some open _ _ _ strings in there as well.
So the song's pretty long so we're going to blow through the parts super quick.
Here we go.
Ok the song's in E, so when you start the riff off the count of the drums would be 1
2 3 4 1 and then you [Am] would do the riff.
So it would be 1 2 [E] 3 4 1. _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Ab] So what you're going to do there is you're going from the 7th to the [E] 6th to the 5th to the 3rd.
In between each you're pulling off to the open E. _
_ _ _ _ [A] _ [E] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ Now since Tom Petty's got two guitar players in the band, the guitar player doing this
riff can let the open E [Ab] ring while the other [Gb] guy's playing the chords.
So [E] you got. _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Right from there the verse just goes between an E chord _ _ _ _ _ to _ _ _ a D [A] chord. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ I'm not doing the full D chord.
I really like the sound of _ _ just hitting the D string, _ 1st finger, 2nd fret G, _ 3rd finger,
3rd fret B.
Those are the only three notes I [D] hit. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[E] Back to D. _ _ _ _ _
And then after each little _ sequence of that he ends it with a. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ And then the chorus, _ that's the verse part, the chorus just goes.
[D] _ _ _ [E] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [A] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[E] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ [G] _
_ [A] _ _ _ _ [E] _ _ _
_ _ [B] _ _ _ _ _ [E] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
So you got D, G, E, and A.
Those are the only four chords.
So it goes.
[D] _
_ _ [G] _ _ [E] _ _ _
And there's an acoustic guitar in the background that does that. _ _
[Ab] _ Right so there's three guitars going.
So we got.
I just, when I play the song there's another guitar player in the band so I kind of just
[G] hold down the distortion part of it and I basically [A] do this.
_ [G] _ _ [E] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _
[E] So the second part would be.
[G] _ _ _ [A] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [G] _
_ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[G] _ _ [A] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ [B] _ _ _ _
_ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ And [Bb] does the sequence of the verse again which is the E to D.
_ And then you do the chorus one more time like we [E] just did.
And out of that chorus he does the riff twice. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ And it [C] goes into _ a C chord but you're going to let, so you're going to do _ _ 3rd fret, _ 5th
fret on the D, _ 5th fret on the G and then the B and E strings are open in all these different chords.
So it's going to go from C [F] to D to E.
And [G] those are all going to be [E] open.
So we go. _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [C] _
_ _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ [A] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [E] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _ [E] _
_ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _ [E] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ Again in.
_ _ [C] _
_ _ _ [E] _ _ _ [A] _ _
_ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _
[E] _ _ _ [B] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ Right [Bb] then it's going to go back through that same sequence of [G] the E and the D.
_ This time when you do the chorus it's got that little riff in the chorus as well, the
little [E] walk down riff.
_ _ [G] So I'll play the chorus all the way through.
It's the same thing I've showed you before with just a little tweak to it.
So we [A] got.
_ _ [G] _ [E] _ _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ [A] _ _ _ _
[D] _ _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _
_ [G] _ _ [A] _ _ _ _ _
_ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [A] _ _ [D] _ [E] _ _ _
_ _ _ [G] _ _ [A] _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _
[E] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ It's going to do the same walk down riff. _ _ _ _ _
This time it's going to do it three times. _ _ _ _
_ And then back into the C, D, E riff.
_ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _ [E] _
_ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _ [E] _
_ _ _ So this time you're going to hang on the E twice. _ _ _ _ _ _
And at that point in the song that's when he starts doing his lead.
So that's basically all the rhythm parts of Running Down a Dream, Tom [F] Petty.
Very simple.
Hope you enjoy it.
Also download all the songs, you know, help out the artists and it really helps to play
with the song.
So practice this slowly on your own and then get the song, practice with the song.
I practice, you know, right now I got a lot of distortion but I try to practice everything
really clean so you can hear if you're making any mistakes or not.
And then gradually, you know, get in, try to tweak more so you're getting more of