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A Fingerstyle Arrangement of Tom Petty's American Girl

Lesson #438 • May 27, 2022

Description

In today’s lesson I want to show you how I came up with a fingerstyle arrangement for American Girl by Tom Petty (1976). Back in lesson #113 (link) I taught how to play this song the “normal” way (i.e. with fast strumming) — but recently, when returning to the song & spending time with it, I put together this low-key, easy-going fingerpicked version which I’ll show in my video. My aim was to create something that worked well for a solo acoustic guitar, without requiring the fast strumming used in my prior tutorial. I’ll end the video with a full play-through (tabs included), so you can see how it sounds when I put it all together. I hope you enjoy!

Lesson timestamps:

  • 0:00 Lesson Preview
  • 0:55 Verse Fingerpicking Approach
  • 4:12 Pre-Chorus and Chorus Chords
  • 11:36 Full Playthrough w/ Tab
  • 14:12 PDF & Song Sheet Overview

Video lesson

Instructional PDF 2 pages

Follow along with the print-friendly PDF! It includes all of my notes for this lesson, allowing you to follow along at your own pace. You're free to download, print, and share the PDF across your devices.

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Follow along with the print-friendly PDF!

It includes all of my notes for this lesson, allowing you to follow along at your own pace. You're free to download, print, and share the PDF across your devices.

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Get my American Girl Song Sheet (3 pages)

Song sheet preview for American Girl by Tom Petty

I’ve updated the licensed song sheet I previously created for American Girl so it includes the fingerstyle tabs I show in this video. This song sheet also includes all the strumming notes, tabs, and chord shapes I use in my original tutorial for American Girl (lesson #113). And of course, all the lyrics & chords are shown on page #1, for easy access in case you’re performing this song — whether you’re strumming or playing fingerstyle.

My Earlier Tutorial for American Girl (Strummed!)

If you want to view my previous lesson teaching American Girl, here it is! I show you how to strum it and play it more like Petty’s recorded version. Video below, and view my full notes here if you want to dive in. Again, my 3-page song sheet linked above will work for both this version (#113) as well as my finger picked tutorial (#438).

Top Petty’s Recorded Version of American Girl

Want to hear how Petty plays it? Here you go! This is from the 1976 album Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers.

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