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Learnin' To Fly

by Tom Petty • Lesson #108 • Nov 25, 2017

Video lesson

Licensed Song Sheet 2 pages

Follow along with my print-friendly guide for this song! It’s available for purchase at Musicnotes.com, the web’s leading provider of licensed sheet music.

On the fence? Here's a guide I made showing the purchase & print process, including answers to common questions about my song sheets.

Buy at Musicnotes.com

Editor’s notes

In this lesson, I’ll teach you how to play “Learnin’ to Fly” by Tom Petty – complete with chords, tabs, strumming pattern, and rhythm tips. This entire song only uses 4 chords, in the same order, the entire time – so it’s quite easy to get started with! And if you want to take it a step further, there’s good opportunity to add some flourish notes to spice things up. Here’s what’s in the video:

Video timestamps:

0:00 Playthrough
0:39 Greeting
1:47 Chords needed
3:43 Timing & strum pattern
5:11 Adding flourish notes
8:10 Farewell

Chords needed

The entire song uses these 4 chords, in this order, repeating. The pinky on the high E-string (for all chords) isn’t required for the C and Am, but it helps keep the sound consistent. Play whatever version of F you prefer – I like this one (or a 3-string version on the D/G/B strings) because they work well with the flourish-note riff I show below.

E –––3–––        ––––3–––           –––3–––              –––3–––
B –––1–––        ––––1–––           –––1–––              –––0–––
G –––2–––        ––––0–––           –––2–––              –––0–––
D –––3–––        ––––2–––           –––2–––              –––0–––
A –––––––        ––––3–––           –––0–––              –––2–––
E –––––––        ––––––––           –––––––              –––3–––
     F               C                 Am                   G   

Strumming and timing

An easy way to play this is using all down-strums. As such, divide up each chord as follows – and accent the first strum of each chord.

F        C              Am       G
•  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  
>        >              >        >

The same diagram but with counting instead of generic dots (for each eighth note), is as follows:

F        C              Am       G
1  +  2  +  3  +  4  +  1  +  2  +  3  +  4  +  
>        >              >        >

Adding flourish note to your strumming

While doing your regular strumming, try to add/remove the notes shown below. See my video for reference.

See my sheet music for the tabs.

Lyrics w/ chords

See my sheet music for the lyrics with chords.

Good luck!

Let me know if you have questions. I hope this was helpful.

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Learnin' To Fly

Video lesson

Licensed Song Sheet 2 pages

Editor’s notes

Chords needed

Strumming and timing

Adding flourish note to your strumming

Lyrics w/ chords

Good luck!

Unlock My Secret Stash!

Browse Related Lessons

Enjoy My Lessons? Show Your Support!

Looking for More Song Lessons?

Featured Courses

Strumming & Rhythm

Fingerstyle & Travis Picking

Blues Starter Kit

Reading Music for Guitarists

Learning Lead Guitar

Beginner Chord Guide

Practical Music Theory

Using a Capo

Fun & Helpful Tools I've Made

Fret Monster

Capo Captain

Key Master

Blank Tabs

Subscribe to my YouTube channel

Recent Lessons