Tennessee Whiskey

Summary: Tennessee Whiskey

This laid back track from Chris Stapleton is a real gem of a track to learn on the guitar. You have a cool melody line as well as some classic soulful chord progressions. Simone takes you through the whole song!

The melody: A major Scale

For the opening melody, we are using the A Major pentatonic scale to play the main melody. We use a lot of slides, and are in the key of 6/8, which means you count "1 2 3 4 5 6" each bar. Simone talks more about this in the rhythm, so for now, make sure that you reference the scales below when learning the melody.

The Chords: Just two chords

The whole song just loops the same two chords, A major and B minor the entire way through. You play the chords in the same place each time as well, as shown here. We've also added the embellishment chord that Chris Stapleton sometimes uses (which is officially called D/A).

Rhythm: Counting 6/8

The rhythm pattern is very simple, as shown below, but you need to remember that this is a 6/8 rhythm pattern. This means that you are counting "1 2 3 4 5 6" for each bar, rather than "1 2 3 4" as in normal 4/4 time signature.

Keep Learning: Acoustic Beginners Course

Many thanks for watching this video and visiting the website. If you love this tune, but find some of the basics quite hard to follow, check out our beginners' acoustic guitar course! We take you through everything you need to learn to ensure your chord playing and rhythm playing is perfect, and we make sure you lose any bad habits you may have picked up! Check out the full course here: Beginners Acoustic Guitar Course.