I Feel My Savior's Love

Merry Christmas from Jason Booth!

Just in time for Christmas, Jason emailed me and offered this tab and video.  I think you'll agree that both are fantastic.  Here's the tab, and Jason's comments, both published with his  permission.  There's also a video of Jason playing the piece [HERE].  This arrangement is NOT in the Public Domain, but Jason has generously offered them to the blog.  Same rules apply as for my tabs.  Thank you, Jason.

Jason describes himself thus:  I'm a married, father of four, mechanical engineer, who loves all things guitar related.  I've been playing for about 17 years.  I've accompanied people in talent shows and at different church functions.  I just think the guitar is wonderful.  I actually am in the process of building my own acoustic guitar, but since I work on it when I'm not busy with my kids the process is a couple of years in the works so far.

I wrote a couple of paragraphs about playing the song.  That was harder than I thought it would be.  Let me know if something doesn't make sense.  Here they are:

The song is originally written in the key of F.  This arrangement is in the key of D, to get to F you just need to put a capo on the 3rd fret.  In my video I have the capo on the 2^nd fret because that’s the range that fit my daughter’s voice the best.  The tab is written for a guitar tuned to DADGBE, regular tuning with the low E string dropped to a D.  [This is often called, "drop D tuning"-- Don]

The song requires the use of the barred C-form chord.  Because the low string is dropped to a D it makes a couple of strange barred chords that take a bit of practice to be able to go to smoothly, like the G in measure 10 and the F#m in measure 11.  Because the song is finger picked you can cheat a little bit though.  You don’t have to have all of your fingers in place at the beginning of the measure, just the ones that are needed for the first note.  Then the fingers in place act as an anchor to help the others land in the correct position.  That’s the technique I use going from the D5 in measure 9 to the G in measure 10.  I make sure my 1st finger is on the 6th string at the 5th fret and my 3rd finger is on the 1st sting at the 7^th fret at the start of the measure then I have a whole extra beat to get my other two in place.  I do the same thing for the F#m in the 11^th measure.

I added a couple of beats to measures 13 and 17 to account for a couple of notes that are usually held longer by the person singing the song and I liked the way it sounded.  If you end up playing along with someone who is playing on the piano you’ll need to make some adjustments there. To start the song I play the end of the song starting on the last note of measure 13 as an intro.  I end the song with a slow strum of the full D chord, ending on the 2nd string, a D.

Dream A Little Dream Of Me

It’s not really LDS, or even religious, but it’s such a pretty lovesong, and a chaste one at that, that I couldn’t resist including it as a Valentine’s Day treat. Yeah, I know, it’s barely New Years, but it might take you a while to get this one down pat, as the chord progressions, while beautiful, are a bit unusual. I’m including two versions. If you like instrumental guitar solos, play the tab version. If you’re intending to sing it to someone special, the cheat sheet is probably better. Or, you can do as I do most of the time -- play the chords and sing it, but include some finger-pickin’ as an interlude.

The “cheat” version is intended to be strummed, either with a soft, flat pick or with the thumb. Strum slowly and easily, DOWN up-down-up, DOWN up-down-up, DOWN up-down-up, DOWN up-down-up. The song makes extensive use of barre chords, to bring out the melody, even when chording. They are not especially difficult ones, but you may find the use of the GVII chord (a barred C) difficult, if you are not used to it. I often play it as a four-string chord, which makes it much easier.

The transitions: CIII - B7II - Fm7sus & CIII - B7II - A7 are central to the song. The only really hard part of this is making the transition B7II - A7 quickly. I do it by just lifting the barre and sliding the whole chord two frets toward the nut. It may feel “wrong” to play A7 this way at first, but it’s lots faster than trying to change finger positions to play it the normal way, and it does pre-position your hand perfectly for the full-barre F which follows.

The song will sound LOTS better if you put in the melody notes on the F - Fm phrase. See the tab version for the exact notes to play. The AV - A6V - AV transition is even easier, as all you are doing is moving the little finger. You have to be quick to hit the following E7 and stay in the rhythm, but again, you can do it much faster if you just pick up the barring finger and move the whole hand, playing the chord with the “wrong” fingers. Try hard not to actually slide the chord. It sounds bad if you do, though sliding UP the bass string to the AV works really well. Barbara says it’s her favorite part of the song!

I wrote the tab version in 8/8 time, to make all the notes come out eighth notes, or very nearly all of them. I don’t know what the original time signature was-- 4/4, or even 2/4. I tried writing it as 4/4, and it just looked too “busy” to be easily readable. The hard thing is to make it sound slow and relaxed. It might take a month of practice, which is why I’m posting it now. If you haven’t been working on “Til There Was You” from last year, this makes an acceptable replacement, and it’s not nearly as hard. It even works well as a duet -- if one of you has a throaty, contralto voice like Mama Cass!

This is NOT in public domain, so -- SORRY! You don't get the full lyrics with the tab. I've included them with the cheat sheet, because you can't write a cheat sheet without the lyrics! The arrangements are all mine, including simplified (really!) chords. Papa Denny must be double-jointed, to play the chords he's written. I can't!

Til There Was You

From The Music Man by Meredith Willson. Start practicing NOW for next Valentine's Day. This is one of the most beautiful love songs ever written, and one of the hardest to play. It's the most difficult in my personal repertoire. It is NOT in the public domain, so no lyrics. You can get them on nearly any lyrics website. Hard as this version is, the original is even harder, as Willson wrote it in the key of Eb. I've transposed it down (one fret) to D, where it's slightly easier to play. There are so many barre chords, it scarcely makes a difference.

The chords in this song are unusual, hauntingly beautiful, and excruciatingly difficult to play. The chord changes are fast, and there's no room for error. Do NOT attempt this song unless you are an ADVANCED guitarist. If you are an advanced guitarist, don't let the weird chords scare you off. It took me more than a year to master, but it was well worth the effort. It's that pretty.

I Am a Child of God

This song is NOT in public domain, so, sorry-- no lyrics! If you don't know them, you can find them on page 2 of the Children's Songbook or page 301 of Hymns. You can also get them from the music page on lds.org.

My version is my own arrangement, but after the introduction, it follows the layout of measures in the Children's Songbook, measure for measure. It is also in the same key (C). If you'd rather play it in D, as in the hymnal, use a capo. The notes don't come out in the same place, if you just transpose it. This is not a particularly easy song to play, but done right, it should appear to be simple and easy. The key is lots of practice.

You don't have to play the intro, I just think it sounds pretty. It's not the standard intro shown in the hymnal. You can play the C chord in the first measure of the verse as a C/G if you want, or just hit the G note as a melody note. The slide in this measure is a bit tricky, as you have to play the note on the fifth string while sliding on the fourth string. It's really not particularly hard to do; it just requires a bit of practice. The last measure of the verse has a rest after the last note, hence, only five notes are shown. Don't be fooled, they are still all eighth notes.

The first three measures of the refrain are just the melody, with an interpolated drone on the bass string, to add variety. The last measure of the line is just a single, strummed C chord. You can lengthen it out for emphasis if you can sustain it that long. The first measure at the beginning of the last line is almost the same as the first measure of the previous line except the bass note is the C on the fifth string, instead of the G on the sixth string. You can play it as a G, if you want to, but it does make it a bit harder to hit the F chord in the second measure quickly. The third measure returns to the bass G drone. You do not have to actually play the G7 chord. You can just play the two notes. But it seems to make it easier, to me, to play the whole chord.

The last measure is the hardest one, because of the need to play two artificial harmonics in rapid succession, as part of an arpeggio. They are not really any harder to play than regular harmonics, but you play them with one hand, while fretting the string with the left hand. They are easy to do if you rest the right index finger lightly on the string, exactly over the eighth fret, while fretting the string at the first fret with the left hand. Pluck the string with the ring finger, allowing the index finger to come off the string in the same motion. With a little practice, you can achieve a gorgeous, bell-like tone, with a single movement. Fret the first two strings with the left index finger, exactly as if playing an F chord.

Practice until you can do one harmonic easily, then practice playing the two of them in a row. After you master this, add the first three (normal) notes. Keep at it until you can make it look and sound easy, for a really impressive finale.

About me

I have been playing LDS hymns, Christmas carols, hymns of other Christian churches, gospel songs, romantic love songs, and other music, as classical guitar solos, for thirty years. All of the tabs are entirely my own work; such tabs are not currently available anywhere else. I'm currently trying to figure out how to actually publish the tabs as .pdf format attachments. Hopefully, with the help of some knowledgeable people, I will soon be able to do so. Each week or so, I'll try to feature a different song here, with notes about the relative difficulty, technical discussion of playing techniques, and other stuff I find interesting about the songs.

I currently have tabs for about 200 songs, but most are not suitable for publication without some tweaking. I'll try to get to them as fast as I can, but it's gonna take years. Please be patient. This is an adventure in technology for me; I began playing guitar when John McCain was a young man.

Sorry, I cannot include lyrics for songs not in the public domain. I didn't write 'em, I don't own 'em, and I have no wish to pay for 'em. To make up for this, I have included measure lines, so you can follow the words and printed music in the 1985 edition of Hymns, published by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Where I use other sources, or where I have made changes such as in time signature, I will note the source or changes in this blog. Please limit comments to technical discussion of the songs and guitar techniques. This is not a personal blog.