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You've Got a Friend in Me

by Randy Newman • Lesson #338 • Nov 22, 2020

How to play the full song (Lesson #338)

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.

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Editor’s notes

Hey friends! New lesson here teaching you how to play a strum-friendly campfire version of “You’ve Got a Friend In Me”, from start to finish. This is a song I first learned the intro to last year (see my lesson #246), but knew I needed to return and teach the entire song after several of you requested I do so. As such, I put together this lesson teaching you basic chord shapes, progressions, and strumming patterns needed – and also show you two new ways to play the intro (one very simple, the other my “secret stash” personal version). This one has been a blast to learn, I hope you enjoy learning it as much as I did!

This version is largely inspired by the Claire Ryann (and her dad) cover that’s on YouTube, which is fantastic and I recommend watching. Note, I don’t get into the complexities of his fingerstyle technique – just because they raise the bar of difficulty quite a bit. Where possible, I’m opting for easy / familiar chords, especially during the bridge which I keep as simple as possible.

Video timestamps:

0:00 Preview & lesson overview
2:25 Chord shapes needed
6:20 Chord progressions
9:48 Strumming patterns
13:21 Rhythm tip: pushing the C7 chord
15:40 Intro tab: simple version
19:06 Intro tab: my secret stash version
21:47 Full play-along cover w/ lyrics

Advanced fingerstyle intro (Lesson #246)

Here’s my earlier lesson, recorded about one year before my full-song lesson above. This one focuses only on the intro, and aims to fully mimic what’s played in the Claire Ryann cover on YouTube. Just note, this one is tricker than my newer video above!

Song lyrics

See PDF for my intro tab.

Chord Progression

See PDF for chord progression.

Strumming

When first learning this song, begin with something simple – e.g. downstrums on the 1/2/3/4 counts, with the 1 and 3 getting the bass note of whatever chord you’re playing. Then do a full strum on the 2 and 4 counts.

See PDF for strumming pattern.

Then, you can proceed to this full version – which adds extra up strums on the “+” counts after the 2 and 4:

See PDF for strumming pattern.

Intro riff

Simple version:

See PDF for full tab diagram.

My “secret stash” personal version:

See PDF for full tab diagram.

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You've Got a Friend in Me

How to play the full song (Lesson #338)

Print-Friendly Song Sheet 2 pages

Editor’s notes

Advanced fingerstyle intro (Lesson #246)

Song lyrics

Chord Progression

Strumming

Intro riff

Browse Related Lessons

About Song Notes

Get Free Lessons Each Week!

Enjoy my lessons? Buy me a beer!

Fun & Helpful Tools I've Made

Fret Monster

Capo Captain

Subscribe to my YouTube channel

Recent Lessons

Major Key Cheat Sheets: Must-Know Chords, Scales, and Fretboard Diagrams

"Stuff That Works" by Guy Clark

Monday Morning Triad Practice! (Key of A Major)

"Into the Mystic" by Van Morrison

Practicing Major Arpeggios in Each CAGED Shape

Travel Guitar... Worth It, or a Waste? (Taylor GS Mini review, 3 years later)

Creating a Fingstyle Arrangement from Scratch (feat. Graceland by Paul Simon)

"Bouncing Around the Room" by Phish

Simple Way to Travis Pick Any Song (Key of C)

"Summertime Blues" by Zach Bryan

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