Log In My Account Join Upgrade Premium VIP Beta Tester Free Trial
Menu Search Join VIP Beta Tester Premium
 

Home ❯ Songs ❯ Tyler Childers ❯

Lady May

by Tyler Childers • Lesson #172 • Sep 7, 2018

Video Lesson

Licensed Song Sheet 3 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 May 2025 code at Musicnotes checkout: XCSLHBNQ59 (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 lesson I’ll show you how to play “Lady May” by Tyler Childers, from his wonderful album “Purgatory”. This one features a very elegant riff that combines a melodic lead with rhythmic strumming, and is actually quite accessible to players of various skill levels. I’ll explain the riff, the chords needed, talk about hammer-ons & pull-offs, and otherwise describe how to master this little tune. I hope you enjoy!

  • 0:00 Playthrough & greeting
  • 2:14 Capo 3rd fret
  • 2:25 Chords needed
  • 4:57 Riff, simplified
  • 11:02 How to hammer-on & pull-off
  • 14:05 Riff, with nuance
  • 18:15 Verse & chorus strumming
  • 19:45 Farewell

Lyrics w/ chords

See my sheet music for the lyrics and chords, with intro tab, all shown on a single print-friendly page.

Intro (simple version)

Here’s the main melody notes of the intro. In this simplified version, I’m not including any of the hammer-ons or pull-offs. Don’t worry about adding those until you have this foundation memorized.

See sheet music for the tab.

Also, while learning the melody riff above, understand that these are the chord shapes you’ll want to have your left hand in while playing (if you can manage it). This sets you up nicely for doing full strums of any of these chords should you want to dial-down the riff and amp-up the rhythm strumming.

See sheet music for the tab.

Intro (w/ nuance)

Here’s the main melody notes of the intro. Here, I’m showing the hammer-ons and pull-offs that you hear on the album version of the song.

See sheet music for the tab.

And, understand these are the implied chord shapes played underneath. Sometimes you may want to lean into plucking strings from these chords while you’re making your way through the riff. Listen to Tyler Childer’s version - you’ll hear him sneak in occasional notes from these chords, as no doubt his hands are in these chord positions as he moves his way through.

See sheet music for the tab.

How to play the chords

Here’s how to play the chords used in this song – including a few simplified ways to play the F chord (you don’t need to play all 6 strings to make it work).

Main chord shapes:                 Simplified F positions:

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

Hammering-on and pulling-off

A crucial part to playing this song like Tyler Childers is being able to hammer on your left-middle finger on both the C and F chords. Here are some tabs that break this down to its simplest form. For each chord below, I show the “normal” way to play the chord, and then show the tab for the hammer-on note you can add with your left-hand middle finger.

E –––––––––––––         E ––––––––––––––
B –––1––––1––––         B –––1–––––1––––
G –––0––––0––––         G –––2–––––0h2––
D –––2––––0h2––         D –––3–––––3––––
A –––3––––3––––         A ––––––––––––––
E –––––––––––––         E ––––––––––––––
     C    C*                 F     F*

Similarly, the idea behind the pull-off technique involves forcefully & quickly removing your finger - in such a way that causes the now open string to ring out. This can take a lot of practice!

E –––––––––––––         E ––––––––––––––
B –––1––––1––––         B –––1–––––1––––
G –––0––––0––––         G –––2–––––2p0––
D –––2––––2p0––         D –––3–––––3––––
A –––3––––3––––         A ––––––––––––––
E –––––––––––––         E ––––––––––––––
     C    C*                 F     F*

Good luck!

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

Unlock My Secret Stash!

Gain instant access to my library of 271 print-friendly cheat sheets! Also includes my extended video lessons, jam tracks, courses, and more.

Join Song Notes Premium

Have questions? Watch video tour »

Browse Related Lessons

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

Enjoy My Lessons? Show Your Support!

Most of the lessons on my website are 100% free. If you have the means, please show your support with a tip jar contribution. I put many hours into every lesson — but it only takes you a minute to make a donation. You have my thanks!

Donate

Looking for More Song Lessons?

Recently Added
Most Popular
Beginner-Friendly
Browse by Artist
Browse by Song Title
Browse by Song Year

Featured Courses

Strumming & Rhythm

While your left hand is busy learning chords, your right hand has its own job: creating a sense of rhythm with strumming! This can be tricky at first, but there's so much fun-to-be-had once you get over the hump. Here's a guide to get you started.

17 lessons

View

Fingerstyle & Travis Picking

Dive into the basics of fingerstyle guitar, with plenty of examples of riffs, exercises, and songs that put this technique to use. This includes a healthy serving of Travis Picking lessons, which feature an alternating bass note played with your right thumb.

31 lessons

View

Blues Starter Kit

A guide to must-know elements of beginner blues guitar! I'll walk you through the essential topics, showing you fun things to play along the way.

18 lessons

View

Reading Music for Guitarists

Learn to read tabs, chord charts, fretboard diagrams, strumming patterns, and more! This course explains how to understand all of these must-know notation styles.

6 lessons

View

Learning Lead Guitar

A collection of videos teaching you licks, riffs, solos, and other lead guitar techniques! Includes info on scales, CAGED shapes, and other helpful lead guitar concepts.

24 lessons

View

Beginner Chord Guide

A guide to the must-know chords you'll need when getting started with guitar! The quickest way to learn major chords, minor chords, the chords in each key, and more.

22 lessons

View

Practical Music Theory

A general overview of must-know theory concepts. The goal here is practical, easy-to-understand explanations — all of which provide clarity to your everyday guitar playing.

12 lessons

View

Using a Capo

Capos are incredibly helpful if you want to play along with your favorite artist, change a song's key, adjust things to your vocal range, and so on. In this series of videos I explain all this & more!

8 lessons

View

Walk Ups & Walk Downs

A very common trope in rock, country, and folk music involves walking bass lines that "connect" one chord to another. I've used this in many of my song lessons, and I'm happy to share this list of related lessons if you'd like to brush up on this technique.

10 lessons

View

CAGED Essentials

Learn about the repeating pattern of shapes on the fretboard, named after the five open chord shapes (C-A-G-E-D). Each shape can be used to play a chord, arpeggio, pentatonic or diatonic scale in every key... which makes them worth knowing!

6 lessons

View

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

Key Master

See and hear the notes, chords, scales used in each of the most common keys.

View

Blank Tabs

Free PDF templates to download, print, and write out your own guitar tabs!

View

Coming soon is Jambox – which shows all the video jam tracks I've made. It's note quite ready for the spotlight, but check it out if you like!

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 →

← back to homepage