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Total Eclipse of the Heart

by Bonnie Tyler • Lesson #93 • Aug 17, 2017

Video lesson

Licensed Song Sheet 3 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

In this lesson I’ll show you how to play a strum-along guitar version of “Total Eclipse of the Heart” by Bonnie Tyler. I’ll show you the chords needed, strumming pattern, tabs for the intro, and some advice for tackling the barre chords. Note I’m using no capo, but you’ll want to use a capo on the 1st fret in order to play along with Bonnie Tyler’s version.

Capo 1st fret

If you want to play along with Bonnie Tyler’s recorded version of the song, you’ll need to put a capo on the 1st fret and use all chords and tabs I show in my video lesson (or printable song sheet). You could also not use a capo and use the chords - but note you’ll be in a different key than the album version of this song — which may not be a big deal unless you’re trying to play along with it.

Chords needed:

E –––0––––3––––0––––––––––––––4––––0––––2––––0––––2–––
B –––1––––3––––1––––3––––8––––4––––0––––3––––2––––0–––
G –––2––––0––––0––––3––––8––––5––––0––––2––––0––––2–––
D –––2––––0––––2––––3––––8––––6––––2––––0––––2––––1–––
A –––0––––2––––3––––1––––6––––6––––2–––––––––0––––2–––
E ––––––––3–––––––––––––––––––4––––0––––––––––––––––––
     Am   G    C    Bb   Eb   Ab   Em   D    A7   B7

Lyrics, Chord Progressions, Strumming, and Fingerstyle Tab

See my 3-page song sheet! The first page includes the lyrics for the entire song, along with the chords atop each of the corresponding words. I also show you how to fingerpick the verse sections, before switching to strumming (for the chorus and ending). I also show how to emulate the outro “melody” riff, to imitate the vibe of the album version.

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