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Fast Car

by Tracy Chapman • Lesson #494 • May 27, 2023

In this week’s lesson I’ll be walking you through the intro riff to Fast Car, the Tracy Chapman classic from 1988. I’ll show you how to play things step by step, starting with the most beginner-friendly version of the riff. With each step I’ll add one additional layer of complexity, eventually leading to the full version you can hear Chapman play.

  • 0:00 Overview
  • 1:10 Basic Campfire Version
  • 2:22 Rhythm & “Pushed” Chords
  • 5:14 Adding the Melody
  • 9:51 Adding Chapman Chords
  • 14:34 Adding Fingerpicking
  • 16:01 Adding Grace Notes

Looking for strumming & rhythm tips for this song? See lesson #567 where I teach how to strum all sections, including the chorus.

Practice Notes 4 pages

It includes all of my notes for this lesson, allowing you to follow along at your own pace. You're free to download, print, and share the PDF across your devices.

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Here's a print-friendly PDF I made with all of my practice notes for this lesson. This lets you follow along with everything I show in video tutorial at your own pace.

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Lesson Discussion

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Audio Clips

Here’s a handful of audio clips of me playing each exercise I demonstrate in my video lesson. These will let you carefully listen to each step along the way – starting with the most simple. See my print-friendly guide to follow along with a visual (e.g. tabs) for each clip below.

Note, all of these are played with no capo. Again, you’ll need to add capo 2 to play along with Tracy Chapman, and capo 1 to play along with Luke Combs.

Members of Song Notes Premium can download these clips for offline use... if you're already a member, log in to view the download links.

Clip 1: Just the Four Chords

Click to download, or play below:

Clip 2: Adding “Pushed” Rhythm

Click to download, or play below:

Clip 3: Adding Basic Melody

Click to download, or play below:

Clip 4: Adding “Up The Neck” Chords

Click to download, or play below:

Clip 5: Adding Fingerstyle & Grace Notes

Click to download, or play below:

Additional Videos

Tracy Chapman’s original version (capo 2nd fret):

Luke Combs’ cover (capo 1st fret):

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