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Romeo and Juliet

by Dire Straits • Lesson #284 • Feb 12, 2020

Video lesson

  • 0:00 Greeting & overview
  • 1:42 Capo & tuning notes
  • 3:00 Chord shapes needed
  • 4:18 Chord progressions & strumming
  • 11:17 Playthrough of verse & chorus
  • 13:12 Intro tab, step by step
  • 21:41 Farewell

Here’s a tour of the chord sheet I’ll be releasing for this song. Get it here!

Licensed Song Sheet 3 pages

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Editor’s notes

Hey there friends! Here’s my lesson for the Dire Straits song “Romeo & Juliet”. I’ll be showing you an “easy” way to pick up your guitar and play this song, specifically (1) using no capo, (2) in standard tuning, and (3) using a simplified version of the intro. All this together allows you to quickly jump into the song, hopefully keeping things accessible. As per normal, I’ll explain the chord shapes, the verse & chorus progressions, talk about strumming, and then break down the intro riff step-by-step.

Best of luck with things! Again, keep on reading for additional notes on how to play this 100% exactly like Dire Straits does. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this lesson and the PDF chord sheet I’ve made for this song.

Capo and tuning

My video is in standard tuning, no capo –– which aims to give you an accessible way to play this song with any ole’ guitar. However, if you want to play along with Dire Straits, use the chords I show and put a capo on the 3rd fret. Any for extra credit even, you’ll want to tune your guitar to open G tuning (D G D G B D). Check out Justin Sandercoe’s lesson if you want to learn how to play it in open G. Again, my lesson is a simple version (standard tuning, no capo).

Listen to this song!

Here’s the official album version:

Playing It with Capo 3 & Open-G Tuning?

Here’s Justin Sandercoe’s excellent lesson if you want to learn a non-simple, 100%-accurate-to-the-album version of this song. Again, it requires capo 3rd fret and open G tuning.

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