Long Haul

Video lesson

Editor’s notes

Hey friends! I’ve got a brand new video lesson for you today, this one for the 2021 song Long Haul by the up-and-coming country artist Ian Munsick. I heard this song a week ago via Grady Smith’s YouTube recommendation – and it immediately got stuck in my head. 24 hours (and 6-7 listens) later, there was no choice but to grab my guitar and learn how to play it. If you haven’t heard this song, I strongly recommend giving it a listen!

Video timestamps:

• 0:00 Preview & lesson summary
• 2:30 Chord shapes
• 7:45 Chord progressions
• 9:54 Fingerstyle tabs for each section
• 16:49 Playthrough w/ lyrics

Watch the stripped version of Long Haul by Ian Munsick, which my lesson is based on:

What I love about this song from a guitar point of view:

• It’s fun to play! The entire song uses a style of “bouncing” between your right thumb and right index/middle fingers, trading off 8th notes. This greats a nice sense of coverage with the sound and isn’t terribly difficult to get the hang of.
• The use of dissonance! Chords like the Cmaj7, the D voicing (with the open 3rd string), and the G/F# all have a bit of tension to their sound – which adds a lot of character and distinction to the overall sound.
• All this, and it’s only ~4 chords at the end of the day. Very nice example of how you can get a lot out of a little, if you put things together in the right way.
• And while this isn’t guitar related, per se – the lyrics during that chorus section hook me every time. Love the imagery, paired with his vocals and the chord progression.

Lyrics and chords

Tuned all strings down 1/2 step to play along with Ian Munsick’s version.

See my sheet music for the lyrics with chords.

Tuning and notes about the “stripped” version

Tune all strings down 1/2 step to play along with Ian Munsick’s version of this song. Also, note that this lesson is based off the “stripped” version of this song - which I love because the acoustic guitar stands out so much more. I absolutely recommend listening to that one if you haven’t heard it.

Chord shapes

The common way to play the chords used this song is as follows. technically, you could stand the song using these voicings and it could sound good!

e –––0–––––3–––––3–––––0–––––0––––––0–––––2–––
B –––0–––––3–––––3–––––1–––––0––––––3–––––3–––
G –––0–––––0–––––0–––––0–––––0––––––0–––––2–––
D –––2–––––0–––––0–––––2–––––2––––––2–––––0–––
A –––2–––––x–––––x–––––3–––––3––––––3–––––––––
E –––0–––––2–––––3––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
     Em   G/F#   G     C   Cmaj7  Cadd9   D

Here are the chord voicings you’ll need to play it like Ian Munsick(and, what I teach in my video lesson). In each of these chords use your right thumb to play the bass note, and then use your right index and middle finger to play the thinner 2-3 strings. The notes in parentheses are sometimes played (I’ll cover this later), but most of the time your right middle & index fingers stay on the 3rd and 4th strings, respectively. Also note how there is another E-minor voicing (with the added *), which has its bass note on the 5th string… keep reading to learn about this one.

e ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
B ––––––––––––––(3)–––(1)–––(0)––––(3)–––(3)–––(0)––
G –––0–––––0–––––0–––––0–––––0––––––0–––––0–––––0–––  ← Right middle
D –––2–––––0–––––0–––––2–––––2––––––2–––––4–––––5–––  ← Right index
A –––––––––––––––––––––3–––––3––––––3–––––5–––––7–––  ← Right thumb
E –––0–––––2–––––3––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––  ← Right thumb
     Em   G/F#   G     C   Cmaj7  Cadd9   D     Em*

Chord progressions

See my sheeet music for chord progression diagrams.

Tabs for each section

See my sheet music for intro, pre-chorus, and chorus tabs.