Slow Burn

by Kacey Musgraves • Lesson #140 • Apr 3, 2018

Video lesson

Print-Friendly 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

Save 50% on this song sheet by applying the September 2023 code at Musicnotes checkout: WRKGBMXP7Y (click to copy). Thanks for being a Premium supporter!

Song Notes Premium includes a 50% discount code you can use when buying any of my licensed song sheets. For the current month's code, upgrade to premium or log in.

Editor’s notes

In this video I’ll teach you how to play Slow Burn by Kacey Musgraves on the acoustic guitar. This is the opening track from Kacey Musgraves 2018 album “Golden Hour”. It uses the same 4 chords for most of the song… I’ll show you play to play them and also break down the strumming pattern.

Lyrics with chords

See page 1 of my sheet music for the lyrics and chords.

How to play the chords

The easiest way to play the chords is as follows (left). However, the two best things you can do to spice up the song is use the Asus2 (in place of a regular A) and this Dsus2, both shown on the right.

E –––0––––0––––3––––0––––0–––        E –––––0–––––––0–––––
B –––2––––0––––0––––3––––1–––        B –––––0–––––––3–––––
G –––2––––0––––0––––2––––0–––        G –––––2–––––––0–––––
D –––2––––2––––0––––0––––2–––        D –––––2–––––––4–––––
A –––0––––2––––2–––––––––3–––        A –––––0–––––––5–––––
E ––––––––0––––3–––––––––––––        E –––––––––––––––––––
     A    Em   G  Dsus2  C                Asus2   Dsus2  

Chords progression

With the exception of the bridge, the entire song uses this progression. Sometimes, she’ll swap out the E minor and play a C instead, such as this. Watch live videos of her playing for reference.

See my sheet music for the chord progression diagrams.

Strumming pattern

To keep it very easy, start with all down strums. If you can add, an accent to the “3” count. And from there, you could add an up-strum on the “+” count following the 4. Finally: if you wish, add alternating up-strums between each down strum. Keep the accent on the 3! For an “advanced” strumming pattern, I’ve also included a 2-measure pattern.

See my sheet music for the strumming pattern diagram.

Kacey Musgraves versions of this song

Her album version:

Her Late Show w/ Stephen Colbert version – I love this one! It’s where I first learned about Kacey Musgraves and I think it’s a great performance.

Good luck!

Thanks for reading! I hope this helped you.

Browse Related Lessons

Click any tag below to view other lessons I've made in that category:

About Song Notes

Hey there! My name is David Potsiadlo, and I'm the creator of the 400+ weekly lessons here at Song Notes, going back to 2013. Here’s my guitar story »

Get Free Lessons Each Week!

Join the 20,000+ readers who get my new lessons dropped in their inbox each week. I teach a fun mix of songs, weekly riffs, practice ideas, and more!

Enjoy my lessons? Buy me a beer!

If this and my other lessons have proven helpful to you, please consider making a one-time donation to my tip jar. Contributions of any amount help make this project possible (including the many, many hours I put into it).

Fun & Helpful Tools I've Made

Fret Monster

Interactive fretboard map! See the patterns behind every scale in any key.

View

Capo Captain

An easy way to calculate key & chord combinations, for any capo location!

View

Subscribe to my YouTube channel

Be sure to never miss a lesson by subscribing on YouTube. I put out 2-3 new videos every week. These include full song lessons, as well as covers, practice tips, behind-the-scenes updates. Thanks!


Recent Lessons

Browse All Recent Lessons →

Browse All My Lessons

By lesson type

By technique

By musical genre

By decade

By musical key

By popular artist


← back to homepage