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If I Needed You

by Emmylou Harris • Lesson #608 • Dec 4, 2025

About This Lesson

In today’s lesson I’ll teach you how to play the much-requested classic If I Needed You. While this song was originally recorded by Townes Van Zandt in 1972, my arrangement is inspired by the Emmylou Harris & Don Williams duet from 1981. I’ll walk you through things step-by-step, which will help you settle in to the Travis-style fingerpicking needed to capture this song’s magical sound.

  • 0:00 Lesson Overview
  • 1:01 Chords
  • 2:08 Strumming
  • 3:41 Fingerstyle: Bass Notes
  • 6:31 Fingerstyle: Step 1
  • 8:25 Fingerstyle: Step 2
  • 10:26 Fingerstyle: Step 3
  • 12:54 Fingerstyle: Step 4
  • 15:52 Additional Variations

Practice Notes 3 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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Lesson Discussion

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Step-by-Step Fingerstyle Demonstrations

Here’s a few extra videos, made in thanks to those supporting me with Premium membership here on my Song Notes website. To those showing your support, you have my true thanks and appreciation — and I hope you find these additional videos helpful!

Fingerstyle, Level 1 of 4

This plays through the 9 measure sequence with all the bass notes, but only adds melody notes on the “1” count of each measure. This gives you a very lightweight way to get familiar with things.

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Fingerstyle, Level 2 of 4

This adds some more melody notes, which are always played on the strong beats (e.g. the 1 2 3 4 counts). You can hear how the song’s melody is starting to take shape, even if there’s still plenty of nuance we’ve yet to add.

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Fingerstyle, Level 3 of 4

This is almost the same as the guitar you hear in Emmylou & Don Williams recording. It adds a bit of melody syncopation (i.e. notes played on the off-beat), as well as a few hammer-ons.

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Fingerstyle, Level 4 of 4

This is “the full Emmylou” version, which adds all remaining melody note flourish. This includes some more syncopation, as well as some pull-offs. If you find this too tricky, go back to the previous level and get some reps in.

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Full Playthrough

Here’s a full play-along, where I show what it sounds like when you put it all together. This begins with me playing the additional variations for the intro and chorus, as taught at the end of my lesson. For the remainder of the song, I use a light strum to demonstrate what that sounds like. To conclude, I switch back to fingerstyle for an outro.

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Travis Picking vs. "Normal" Fingerstyle

★ Instructional PDF

Travis Picking Patterns for Every Chord

★ Instructional PDF

How to Strum Without a Pick

Strumming & Syncopated Sus Chords

★ Instructional PDF

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