Slow Burn

Video lesson

Editor’s notes

In this video I’ll teach you how to play Slow Burn by Kacey Musgraves on the acoustic guitar. This is the opening track from Kacey Musgraves 2018 album “Golden Hour”. It uses the same 4 chords for most of the song… I’ll show you play to play them and also break down the strumming pattern.

Lyrics with chords

See page 1 of my sheet music for the lyrics and chords.

How to play the chords

The easiest way to play the chords is as follows (left). However, the two best things you can do to spice up the song is use the Asus2 (in place of a regular A) and this Dsus2, both shown on the right.

E –––0––––0––––3––––0––––0–––        E –––––0–––––––0–––––
B –––2––––0––––0––––3––––1–––        B –––––0–––––––3–––––
G –––2––––0––––0––––2––––0–––        G –––––2–––––––0–––––
D –––2––––2––––0––––0––––2–––        D –––––2–––––––4–––––
A –––0––––2––––2–––––––––3–––        A –––––0–––––––5–––––
E ––––––––0––––3–––––––––––––        E –––––––––––––––––––
     A    Em   G  Dsus2  C                Asus2   Dsus2  

Chords progression

With the exception of the bridge, the entire song uses this progression. Sometimes, she’ll swap out the E minor and play a C instead, such as this. Watch live videos of her playing for reference.

See my sheet music for the chord progression diagrams.

Strumming pattern

To keep it very easy, start with all down strums. If you can add, an accent to the “3” count. And from there, you could add an up-strum on the “+” count following the 4. Finally: if you wish, add alternating up-strums between each down strum. Keep the accent on the 3! For an “advanced” strumming pattern, I’ve also included a 2-measure pattern.

See my sheet music for the strumming pattern diagram.

Kacey Musgraves versions of this song

Her album version:

Her Late Show w/ Stephen Colbert version – I love this one! It’s where I first learned about Kacey Musgraves and I think it’s a great performance.

Good luck!

Thanks for reading! I hope this helped you.