Will You Love Me Tomorrow

Video lesson

Editor’s notes

Hey friends, here’s a guitar lesson showing you how to play a solo acoustic version of “Will You Love Me Tomorrow”, the classic from The Shirelles / Carole King. This arrangement uses no capo, is in the Key of C (matching the two aforementioned artists), and in all cases is using relatively easy “open” chord shapes – though I do show you some advanced chord voicings you can include at certain parts of the song. I’ll explain the chords, the progressions, and show two different strumming patterns to help you get going.

Timestamps for my video lesson:

• 0:00 Lesson overview
• 2:04 Full play-along cover
• 4:22 How to play the chords
• 9:44 Chord progressions
• 13:42 Strumming patterns
• 17:40 Adding melody notes while strumming
• 20:28 Farewell

I should note, for years now my favorite version of this song is from the YouTuber Arcadian Walnut, whose fingerstyle cover & vocal performance is 100% perfection in my opinion (watch her cover version here). I’m using a chord progression very inspired by what she is playing – with a few small tweaks just to make things fit for my style. To do full honor of her version, I’ve included some additional notes on her fingerpicking approach to this song within my notes for this song.

Original & famous versions of this song

The Shirelles (1960)

The original! Fun fact: this song is the first by a Black all-girl group to reach number one in the United States.

Carole King (1971)

From her album “Tapestry”. Fun fact: even though it was 11 years before she recorded this version for Tapestry, Carole King was one of the original writers of this song (that the Shirelles went on to record), along with her then-husband Gerry Goffin.

Arcadian Walnut (2012)

This is my favorite version. She’s using a capo on the 9th fret. See below for more notes & tabs on this cover.