John Prine – That’s How Every Empire Falls Guitar Lesson Info
Learn how to play John Prine – That’s How Every Empire Falls note-for-note on guitar with our John Prine – That’s How Every Empire Falls Guitar Lesson.
This lesson teaches my solo acoustic arrangement of That’s How Every Empire Falls, based on the version from John Prine’s final studio album, The Tree of Forgiveness.On the original recording, the defining sound of the song comes from the electric guitar — those haunting linking licks and the modal, almost droning atmosphere that runs through the track. John’s own acoustic part sits quietly underneath, functioning more as a rhythmic bed than as a featured element.
For a solo guitarist, that presents a challenge.
In this arrangement, we recreate the mood and texture of the record in a way that works convincingly on one acoustic guitar. The song is played in Drop D tuning, using a steady Travis-picked foundation with alternating octave D drones. By avoiding the third in the D and A chords, we preserve the open, suspended quality that gives the song its stark character, while bringing key electric licks into the arrangement so the instrumental hooks remain intact.
The result is a version that feels true to the spirit of the recording, but stands confidently on its own as a solo performance piece.
This lesson covers:
-The Drop D setup and chord shapes
-The Travis picking pattern and drone technique
-How to capture the modal atmosphere
-The adapted electric guitar licks
-How the vocal sits over the picking pattern
As always, the package includes the full lesson broken into sections to aid the learning process, a play-through video, and detailed tab, chords and lyrics, so you can work through it step by step.
If you’re a fan of John Prine’s later work, this is a powerful, understated cover of the R.B. Morris song, that translates beautifully to solo acoustic — once you know how to approach it.
- Difficulty level: Intermediate
- Barre chords: No
- Thumb over chords: No
- Playing Style: Fingerpicked (Travis Picked)
- Tuning: Drop D
- Separate Solo: No
- Separate Bass Part: No
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John Prine – That’s How Every Empire Falls 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 9 files as follows:
- Part 1: Guitar Video Lesson – Intro
- Part 2: Guitar Video Lesson – Verse 1
- Part 3: Guitar Video Lesson – Interlude
- Part 4: Guitar Video Lesson – Verses 2 & 3
- Part 5: Guitar Video Lesson – Guitar Break
- Part 6: Guitar Video Lesson – Verses 4 ,5 & Outro
- Part 7: Performance-standard Playthru Video
- Part 8: Songsheet with tabs & lyrics
- Part 9: Guitar Tab
Total Download size: 677 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.
John Prine – That’s How Every Empire Falls Lesson Previews
Playthru & Intro
Tab Preview
Chords & Songsheet Preview
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