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

Home ❯ Songs ❯

Cover Me Up

by Jason Isbell • Lesson #376 • Jul 14, 2021

Hey there, friends! New lesson today for Cover Me Up, a much-requested masterpiece from Jason Isbell (and very recently covered by Morgan Wallen, with much popularity). In my main video, I’ll dive immediately into the main riff that’s heard in the intro, verse, and chorus sections. I’ll tackle it step-by-step, in both standard tuning and Drop-D – which isn’t required, but fills things out quite a bit.

Video timestamps:

  • 0:00 Overview & Lesson Summary
  • 1:53 Intro riff: melody notes & basic timing
  • 3:27 Intro riff: adding basic strums
  • 9:32 Intro riff: adding filler strums
  • 13:49 Playing the riff in Drop D tuning
  • 16:17 Final advice & tips

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.

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 January 2025 code at Musicnotes checkout: QKLSJXXWCU (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.

Play-Along Covers (Two Versions!)

Here’s an additional video, available to members of Song Notes Premium, where I play two different play-through covers (the entire song, beginning to end). In the first playthrough I am in standard tuning, showing you it is indeed possible to play it without going to Drop-D. And then in my second cover, I’ll tune down to Drop-D just to show you how much more “full” that D chord can sound, in context. I also give some additional tips on strumming and approaching the chord progression.

Only available to Premium members

Upgrade to Premium

Additional videos I suggest!

The original version of the song, from Jason Isbell. This is from his 2013 breakthrough album, Southeastern.

Michael Palmisano’s reaction video (hearing it for the first time). Really dig Michael’s channel all-around, and this reaction video is a very good one in particular!

Grady Smith’s discussion around Morgan Wallen’s massively popular cover of this song, and Isbell’s (positive) reaction to it.

Unlock My Secret Stash!

Gain instant access to my library of 259 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

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