It's another tequila sunrise Stirrin' slowly cross the sky
I said goodbye He was just a hired hand
Workin' on a dream he planned to try The days go by
Hey there! I’m Tomas Michaud. If you’re here to learn Tequila Sunrise by the Eagles
you’re in the right place. I’m gonna start off with the chords and kinda map out the
song. By the way you can get the free sheet for this lesson on my website at tomasmichaud.com.
I’d recommend having it handy as we go through the lesson.
I’m gonna divide the song into three sections an A B and C. I could call it chorus verse
but not the clear chords to chorus which is the verse so let’s just go with A, B and
C. And I’ve color coded the sheet that I talked about so you can clearly see where
the sections are.
Now I know a lot of people are interested in that intro to the song also so after we
map out the song and go through the sections I’m gonna show you both the strum pattern,
the original strum pattern and the intro itself so hang in there. Let’s get started.
So Tequila Sunrise is in the key of G and by the way that’s the rhythm in key and
it's mostly just common open chords with the exceptions of two chords. We’ve got a B7
chord in there and I’m gonna play it just a standard B7 is still open but uses four
fingers and it’s got the pinky there on that second fret first string. Then the other
chord which you might wanna work on depending on where you’re at is the B minor. Now I’m
gonna play the B minor as a bar chord because I’m used to that but if bar chords aren’t
your thing right now that’s okay. You can play this form of a B minor. No bar needed.
I’ve got my first finger on the second fret of the first string, my second finger over
here on the third fret of the second string then my pinky and my third finger are here
on the fourth frets of the fourth and third strings.
Now you don’t really wanna hit the fifth and sixth string. They are not part of it
chord but I would stress over it too much. If you would like more help with the B minor
I’ve made a lesson that shows you several forms of the B minor. I think the main thing
is you just practice a little bit before you play that part of the song and it only comes
up one time in the C section of the song. I actually made a mistake when I first recorded
this. I hadn’t practiced that section and when I got to it I fumbled a little. I realized
I just need to go back and forth between that because it kinda pops up out of nowhere.
So let’s go ahead and map out the song with the chords. We’re gonna start with the A
section. The section actually repeats both the progression and the melody five times
in the song so you get a little bang for your buck by starting off with the section.
I’m gonna strum one time per measure so if I strum twice that means that chord has
two measures. I recommend you do the same thing by the way. It’s really helpful to
kinda map out the song this way first before you start adding a strum and really trying
to coordinate the words with the strum. Here we go.
Start with G
It's another tequila sunrise That’s two bars D
Stirrin' slowly cross the sky A minor
One bar on D I said
Going two bars of the G
Now that’s the progression I place over and over. It’s two bars of G, two bars of
D, one bar of A minor, one bar D and one bar G. It’s helpful to recognize this pattern.
It makes it much easier both to play the song so you know what to practice, what changes
but also to remember the song. So let’s do that one more time with the words.
It's another tequila sunrise - D Stirrin' slowly cross - A minor, one bar
I said good -G G G, two bars there, right?
Now the next half of the verse is exact same progression
He was just a hired hand - D Workin' on a dream he planned to - A minor
going to D Dadada G
And that’s the A section, I said the verse. We’ll call it the verse but we will call
it the A section. So you see you play the progression twice and that’s the entire
A section.
Now you go on to the B section. The B section goes in to a minor keys. It starts off with
E minor, goes to C. There’s a D in there and A minor. I forgot the A minor. So let’s
map that out starting with E minor
Every night when the - C sun goes down - E minor
There’s another - C boy in town - E minor
Going to E minor this time now out runnin' - to D and again on D
So look at the progression without the words. Em one bar, C same thing one bar E Em Am and
in two bars a D. Again it helps to memorize it to hear that progression to see the progression.
One thing I noticed especially a lot of pop songs, this one included a lot of phrases
in 8 bars. Watch 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 and after a while I dont need to count. I can feel an
_____ 6:25 ____that’s just so common. I can feel if it goes an extra bar, I can feel
something's a little off and that’ll happen occasionally cause they want to change things
up a little bit but mostly I can feel words shouldn’t change.
One more time on that B section.
Every night when the sun goes down There’s another lonely boy in town
Whoops extra strum And Am G
She's out runnin' - to D And back into the A section.
So actually after we play the A section again and it’s the same chords and the same melody
but different words of course that’s how verses are. Kinda repeats the chords and melody
but different words.
Then we go on to the C section which is what we're gonna do now. This is where the B7 and
the Bm come in. It starts off with A minor then to D then we are going to the B minor.
It’s got an E in there. Kinda cool. A minor, B7. I like that change right there and it
goes on to the E minor again and then ends on an A major chord. Kinda brighten things
up. It’s another ______7:38 phrase.
Let’s map it out. Start with Am. We’re gonna do one strum per bar.
Take another shot of courage - B minor Wonder why the E words never - Now we go to
A minor c-o-m-e… It holds that note out.
You just get Em and A that’s cool, 8 bars. Look 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8.
Okay one more time. We will go a little slower. I’ll try to call out the chords as I go
through it.
Start with A minor. Take another shot of courage - B minor.
Wonder why the right words never -going to Am. Now that B7
you just get Em, A.
Hope your fingers are not getting numb by now. You might wanna shake it out. One more
time. Come on.
Take -- Oh, think I’d give you a chance. Okay, here we go. Ready, go.
Better, Am Take another shot of courage
Bm Wonder why the right words never Am, B7 going
back into that Am, A And then you guess it. It goes back into the
A section but this time just one time ____ 9:18 and its end of the song.
Now for that classic strum pattern. We're gonna start up with what I called the Pop
Rock Strum, probably one of the most used strum at least in this style of music. It's
down, down, up, skip, up, down, up. Now if you're new to this strum I’m gonna break
it down a little bit but if you’ve been taking my lessons you probably. If you haven't
already come across it you’re gonna come across it. I teach many lessons so it's four
beats long and you could count it this way. I prefer if I say don’t get too caught off
in the counting 1 2 and skip that’s 3 and 4 and or 1 2 and 3 and 4 and. I’m gonna
just call it a skip for now. Remember the skip is on 3.
So try that with me right quick. Let’s do it in the G chord so we’re all together.
It’s gonna be down, now down up skip the strings then up down up and again that’s
- do it with me 1 2 and skip again 1 and 2 and skip. Down, down, up, skip, up, down,
up, down, down, up, skip, up, down, up.
Now if this strum is a struggle, work on the strum separate and stay there. Use that strum
for the song . It works great really. If you’re ready I’m gonna add something to that. Listen.
So it's the same pop rock strum with the addition little - - part. Now, it starts on the second
half of the first beat. Here’s the pop rock 1 2 and, and here’s where we're all through.
All together it's down, down, up, skip, up, down, up. I could go slow like this down,
down, down, up, skip, up, down, up. So it's all in the first half. The second half is
exactly the same. Down, down, up, skip, up, down, up. Let's try that first half together
really slow - ready, hit it. Down, down, up, down, up. Do it
with me now. Ready, go down, down, up, down, up. One more time. Ready, hit it - Down, down,
up, down, up. Now we better add the second half or it won’t get words that actually
fits in there with the second half. Go. Down, down, up, down, up, skip that starts the second
half. Down, up. Again. Ready, go. Down, down, up, down, up, skip, up, down, up. Again. Down,
down, up, down, up, skip, up, down, up.
One tip. When I’m doing that faster part that down, up, down, up. I’m staying right
in here. I’m not making big movements. Initially when I first learn this strum I’m trying
to go too wide and it just sounds clunky even if you get the timing which at first is really
hard to get the timing. Stay right in there and relax of course. If you tighten up it's
gonna make it harder and it sounds bad.
Ready, go. Down, down, up, down, up, skip, up, down, up. I’ll do a little faster as
you hear how it fits together. You can try it with me if you want. Ready, go.
And now we’re ready for the intro. First of all the intro is 8 bars long. Imagine that
it’s 4G’s, one Am, one E and then 2 G’s 8 bars. We’re doing that exact same Tequila
Sunrise strum with the addition of a little hammer on. On the G it changes from a G probably
to a G6. Don’t worry about that. Listen for a minute what it sounds like. So what
I’m actually doing is taking my second finger off hammering on the fourth string second
fret and then releasing. Where? It’s _______14:04 gap where on the right hand I’m skipping
the strings so it’s down, down, up. As I’m skipping, I left my second finger off and
hammer down. You can take a little practice to get the timing. I would recommend to just
practice the hammer on for a little bit without the timing and then try to fit it in. Try
playing it slow.
Okay, go ahead and try it with me. It is something you might have to go back and forth a few
times but just keep at it. Ready, go. Again. Thumbs up skip, hammer down and on the last
up it comes off and it's ready for the down stroke for the next beat. Let’s do it a
little faster.
Okay let’s put this together in the intro even if you’re not there yet it pays to
kinda have the structure in your mind so you know what you’re aiming at. And by the way,
there’s no hammer on in the Am and the D which we gonna use in the regular strum. Here
we go. Ready, hit it and then to G’s.
Okay, I know I’ve thrown a lot of stuff at you in this song but I’ve got a lot of
help for you too. Not only did I create a free download sheet which you can get in my
website at tomasmichaud.com but I’ve also created a play along track so you could practice
along with it. The play along video include both the chord chart and me playing alongs
so you can put it together and if you’re having a hard time whether you did some of
the chords or changing between them I really encourage you to check out my Real Guitar
Success that’s realguitarsuccess.com You’ll be surprised how much fun and how easy I made
it.
Now here’s one final and I think important tip. When I first started learning songs I
would try to do everything at once very quickly and learn the chords and if I didn’t know
them I’d still ______16:49 through the song and trying not to strum. I’ve learned better
and I’m hoping you can learn from my experience. It really works to break things down. For
example, in this song map through the song one strum at a time just to get where the
chords go with the melody or the words. If a chord is hard or you are not used to that
chord, practice it. Work it between the chords that it goes to and from then add the strum
and start over from the beginning doing one section at a time so you can match the strum
with the words and the chord changes. It looks like it takes longer but it doesn't. It’ll
actually save you time and a lot of frustrations. I hope this helps.
Thanks for being here with me today. Check out the play along video. I’m gonna put
a link to it right after this video. See you again soon.