Gordon Lightfoot – If You Could Read My Mind Guitar Lesson Info
Learn how to play Gordon Lightfoot – If You Could Read My Mind note-for-note on guitar with our detailed step-by-step guitar lesson.
This lesson teaches both acoustic guitar parts from Gordon Lightfoot’s classic recording of If You Could Read My Mind—Gordon Lightfoot’s fingerpicked accompaniment and Red Shea’s beautifully crafted lead guitar part. Together, they create one of the finest acoustic guitar arrangements ever recorded, and this lesson explores both in detail.
Because of the scope of the lesson, the download is larger than usual (947 MB), so please allow a little extra time for it to download.
Gordon’s accompaniment is played with a capo at the 2nd fret, using G chord shapes. It consists of flowing fingerpicked arpeggios built from standard chord shapes, proving once again that a relatively simple approach can create an unforgettable accompaniment. There are no barre chords and just one brief thumb-over chord, making the left-hand technique very approachable. The part is rated intermediate, but anyone already comfortable with fingerpicking should have little difficulty learning it.
Red Shea’s guitar part is taught as a separate lesson, exactly as it fits around Gordon’s accompaniment. Playing without a capo (in the key of A while Gordon plays G shapes with the capo), Red combines melodic fills, arpeggios, slides, hammer-ons and all the tasteful touches that make his playing such an integral part of the recording. There are a few more challenging passages, but anyone with experience playing lead guitar in a singer-songwriter setting will find the techniques well within reach.
Whether you’re looking to accompany yourself with Gordon’s elegant fingerpicked part or add Red Shea’s memorable guitar lines, this lesson gives you everything you need to recreate the complete acoustic arrangement heard on the original recording.
The download includes the full video lessons for both guitar parts, play-through performances, and detailed tab and chords, allowing you to learn each part individually or combine them for the complete arrangement.
- Difficulty level: Intermediate
- Barre chords: No
- Thumb over chords: Yes
- Playing Style: Fingerpicked
- Tuning: Standard
- Separate Solo: Yes
- Separate Bass Part: No
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Gordon Lightfoot – If You Could Read My Mind Lesson Previews
Playthru & Intro
Tab Previews
Chords & Songsheet Preview
Gordon Lightfoot – If You Could Read My Mind Download Details
The complete lesson contains a lesson video and a performance-standard play-thru video. It also contains the guitar tabs as PDF files and a songsheet with the chords and the lyrics of the lesson (if applicable), also as PDF files.
The videos are MP4 format and will play on PC’s, Macs and most mobile devices.
You’ll receive an email with a Zip file containing a total of 12 files as follows:
GORDON LIGHTFOOT’S PART
- Part 1: Guitar Video Lesson – Intro
- Part 2: Guitar Video Lesson – Verses 1 & 2
- Part 3: Guitar Video Lesson – Verse 3
- Part 4: Guitar Video Lesson – Outverse
- Part 5: Guitar 1 Tab
- Part 6: Performance-standard Playthru Video
- Part 7: Songsheet with tabs & lyrics
RED SHEA’S PART
- Part 1: Guitar Video Lesson – Verse 1
- Part 2: Guitar Video Lesson – Verse 2
- Part 3: Guitar Video Lesson – Verse 3
- Part 4: Guitar Video Lesson – Outverse
- Part 5: Guitar 2 Tab
Total Download size: 957.7 Mb
You’ll need to extract the MP4 and PDF files from the Zip file/s to be able to use them and you’ll need software to do so. If you don’t have a Zip program on your PC you’ll need to install one to open the file. I use Peazip which you can get free, here.
If you want to download to an iPad or iPhone you’ll need an app to do so, please read here to know more about it.
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