The Weight

by The Band • Lesson #406 • Dec 29, 2021

Video lesson

Print-Friendly 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 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

Hey there, friends! At long last & after many requests, here’s my lesson teaching you THE WEIGHT by The Band (1968). As usual, I’ll break everything down for you step by step, showing you beginner friendly ways to play each part of the song (including the walk-down riff, intro riff, and even the C#m chord) while also going in-depth with some more advanced instruction. This has long been one of my all-time favorite songs, and I’m excited to show you how to play it! Let’s get after it.

Video lesson timestamps:

  • 0:00 Preview & Lesson Summary
  • 3:08 Chord Shapes
  • 5:17 Verse & Chorus Progressions
  • 9:40 Strumming Patterns
  • 14:04 Post-Chorus Walkdown Riff
  • 21:37 Intro Riff
  • 27:01 Full Playthrough

Instructional lessons to help with this song

Walk-downs in the Key of A (Lesson #408)

Video coming soon! Get the PDF »

Key of A Major Cheat Sheet (Lesson #407)

Video coming soon! Get the PDF »

Triad Improv in Key of A (Lesson #405)

View lesson notes & Get PDF »

How to play F#m (Lesson #192)

View lesson notes & Get PDF »

How to play A-major with One Finger (Lesson #46)

View lesson notes »

Recognizing Chord Shapes within Guitar Tabs (aka “Reading Tabs Backwards”) (Lesson #404)

View lesson notes & Get PDF »

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