John Prine – All The Best

Learn how to play John Prine – All The Best note-for-note on guitar.
Difficulty level: Intermediate leaning towards easy.
Bar Chords: No
Thumb-over Chords: Yes (D/F#)
Playing Style: Fingerpicked (Travis picked)
Tuning: Standard
The lesson teaches John’s part from a live version of the song in 1990 where he plays it solo on an acoustic guitar.
The complete file contains a lesson video, a performance play thru video, full tabs, chords and lyrics. You’ll receive a link to download the lesson which will download as a zip file of 170 Mb containing all the lesson content.
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You’ll receive at least two videos per song, one lesson and one performance-standard play-through. You’ll receive the chords/lyrics and guitar tabs as PDF files.
The videos are mp4 format and should play on PC’s, Macs and most mobile devices.
They will download as Zip files. If you don’t have a Zip program on your PC you’ll need to install one to open the file.
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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Fingerstyle Instrumental pieces
Bruce A Tomaselli says
Are these lessons still for sale?
Alan Ranft says
Hi Jerry, I frequently play your arrangement of Willie Nelson’s “Always On My Mind” and everything
goes smoothly until I get to the “Dsus2/C# chord”. My pinky is not up to the job of playing the C#
note on the 5th string. I adapted by substituting the “Dmaj9(no 3rd)” chord for the “Dsus2/C# chord”. The Dmaj9(no 3rd) chord is much easier to play because you just play the 2nd and 3rd strings at the 2nd fret! I’d be interested in your thoughts on this! Thanks, Alan
Jerry says
Hi Alan.
That’ll work as a substitute.
You lose the moving bass that you get from putting the C# on the 5th string, but you have the correct notes in the Dmaj9 chord so it should sound fine.
Alan Ranft says
Hi Jerry, Thanks for pointing out that I’ll lose the moving bass. I hadn’t considered that but I will take a look at it. Eventually, I want to write a song and any important detail like that I want to be aware of. In the 7 episode Country Music DVD set I mentioned a few weeks ago, Townes Van Zandt is asked “How did you come up with the music and words for the song “Pancho and Lefty”? Townes says: “It just floated into my room through an open window. That semi-incoherent answer mystified and annoyed me for a while until I realized that the melody I want to use for the song I have in mind just came to me when I was taking a long walk. I was not in any kind of a musical mood at the moment, but, suddenly, there it was, a melody that works well on guitar and could easily be the basis for a chorus. I guess an empty mind needs to be filled by something and a melody is just as good as anything else!
Lance says
Hi Jerry, could you add ‘ Caravan of Fools ‘ by John Prine to your list please?
Steve Huff says
Great lesson! I really love not only how good you are at the lessons walking us through the songs but also that you do a lot of songs that can’t be found elsewhere. Also, I’m actually a pretty good fingerpicker now thanks to you when I sucked at it before! Can I ask you for one thing, though? It would be really helpful if you would show the whole song in order on the tab files. For instance, on this song, you tell us where things are different in the subsequent verses, but I buy a lot of your lessons and I’m not going to remember down the road that info. unless I watch the lesson video again each time. I usually watch the lesson video and follow along with the tab and songsheet and then just find the actual song on youtube or itunes and then play along from there. So, the next time I want to play the song it would be helpful to have the tab show the whole song in order. Thanks!
Jerry says
Thanks for the kind words Steve.
I could tab out the whole song for sure. The drawback would be that almost all songs would be 6, 7, 8 pages long – too long for a standard music stand.
But I’m open to it if that’s what most people want.
I’ll post the question on the Facebook page and see what the feedback it.
Thanks for the suggestion.
Steve Huff says
Thanks for the quick reply! It’s definitely not a deal breaker for me. I’ve bought a ton of lessons from you. It just would help me if I want to go back and play something after a while and I don’t remember the particular changes for that song.
Jorma Puranen says
Just downloaded zip. Thank you very much
Larry Smith says
Hi Jerry,
I have 15 or 20 of your pieces, I love you work. I’m hoping you might add three John Prine songs:
Speed of the sound of Lonliness
Long Monday
You got gold
Jerry says
They’re all on the long to-do list Larry.
Larry Smith says
Hi Jerry, good to hear from you. No pressure but any eta? If it’s one, it would be you got gold. What would you charge to bump it to the top of the list? I’m serious. Do you do that?
Jerry says
Hi Larry
The next Prine on the list is Big Old Goofy World. I can make You Got Gold the next one after that, which would make it, I guess, about 3 or 4 months away.
Larry Smith says
Hi Jerry, can I pay to have it done, I just need the TAB. I hope I’m not being to pushy asking this. Let me know.
D C says
Just downloaded zip file reader and it works. Great lessons. Thanks
D C says
I am enjoying your lessons. Thanks
DC says
I am not able to download either. I am on an ipad. I dont know if this has anything to do with the problem.
Chris says
Can you fix the download link? Having trouble.
Jerry says
It seems to work fine Chris. What problem are you having?