Sweet Child O' Mine

Video lesson

Editor’s notes

In this video I’ll teach you how to play the intro riff of “Sweet Child O’ Mine” by Guns N’ Roses, simplified for an acoustic guitar. I’ll show you the tabs needed for this riff, walking you through exactly how to go about learning this for the first time (I’ll be using standard tuning).

In my 4-page song sheet, I also include the lyrics, chord shapes, chord progressions, and strumming patterns for this entire song – in addition to two full pages with my notes on the intro riff (which I teach in the video above). Note, the song sheet does not include the tabs for Slash’s solos – as that is it’s own beast I haven’t tackled yet.

I hope you enjoy!

Quick notes about my acoustic arrangement

👉 I’m in standard tuning Slash tunes all strings on his guitar down 1/2 step (Eb Ab Db Gb Bb Eb). To keep things easy for you, I’m going to keep things in standard tuning (E A D G B E).

👉 I’m using an easier fretboard position Slash plays things up between the 11th & 15th frets (tough!), but I’ll bring the riff down one octave so it uses the familiar D-major chord position (easy!).

👉 I’m simplifying a few of the notes For the sake of practicality, I’m deviating from what Slash plays for just a few of the notes. 99% of listeners won’t notice the difference!