Janis Ian – Stars Guitar Lesson Info
Learn how to play Janis Ian – Stars note-for-note on guitar with our detailed step-by-step guitar lesson.
This lesson teaches Stars by Janis Ian as a note-for-note transcription of the guitar part played on the original recording.
The arrangement is fingerpicked throughout and built around flowing arpeggio patterns played over a series of beautiful chord voicings and chord sequences. Technically, the song is quite approachable, with no barre chords and no thumb-over chords, but it falls firmly into the category of music that is easy to play, but difficult to play well.
Much of the challenge lies in the song’s use of rubato and phrasing. The timing constantly breathes and shifts in subtle ways, and the accompaniment needs to be played with both crystal clarity and real sensitivity in order to capture the emotional pull of the performance.
This makes it an excellent study in expressive fingerpicking — not fast or flashy playing, but learning how touch, timing, and dynamics can completely shape the mood of a song.
The lesson walks through the arrangement step by step, and the download includes the full video lessons, a play-through performance, and detailed tab and chords so you can learn the arrangement exactly as Janis Ian plays it on the record.
- Difficulty level: Easy
- Barre chords: No
- Thumb over chords: No
- Playing Style: Fingerpicked
- Tuning: Standard
- Separate Solo: No
- Separate Bass Part: No
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Janis Ian – Stars 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 8 files as follows:
- Part 1: Guitar Video Lesson – Part 1
- Part 2: Guitar Video Lesson – Part 2
- Part 3: Guitar Video Lesson – Part 3
- Part 4: Guitar Video Lesson – Part 4
- Part 5: Guitar Video Lesson – Part 5
- Part 6: Performance-standard Playthru Video
- Part 7: Songsheet with tabs & lyrics
- Part 8: Guitar Tab
Total Download size: 607.0 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.
Janis Ian – Stars Lesson Previews
Playthru & Intro
Tab Preview
Chords & Songsheet Preview
Return to Individual Songs page
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