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Me and Bobby McGee

by Janis Joplin • Lesson #114 • Dec 19, 2017

Licensed Song Sheet 4 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.

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About This Lesson

In this lesson, I’ll teach you how to play Me and Bobby McGee on guitar. Originally written by Kris Kristofferson, this lesson is more influenced by the Janis Joplin version of the song — which has a more straight-ahead & driving rhythmic groove. This is one of the first songs I learned on guitar! I’ll show you the chords needed, the strumming pattern, and explain how to change keys midway through the song.

  • 0:00 Playthrough (partial)
  • 0:57 Greeting
  • 1:38 Chords needed
  • 4:49 Strumming pattern
  • 6:07 Changing keys from G to A
  • 9:33 Playthrough (complete)

Kris vs. Janis Strumming Comparison

A few years after recording the video above, I got asked about the approach Kristofferson takes to strumming this song… and made a separate video diving into this topic. This updated video compares the strumming in both versions (Kris vs Janis), showing the tabs for each chord as strummed in both of their recordings.

Be sure to check out my lesson webpage for additional resources, including my print-friendly notes with all the strumming patterns written up for each chord. Walk-up and walk-down riffs are included too!

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