Streets of Laredo
Guitar Tabs
Streets of Laredo Western music. This is a nice mournful song for your beginning guitar students. (If you want piano versions of this great song, go here.)
Also known as "The Cowboy's Lament," this American ballad tells a story of a young cowboy who sings, "I have done wrong, and I know I must die."
Please scroll down the page for the download links.
This simple song requires only fingers 1, 2, and 3, all in first position. Nice!
Lately, I like to draw a GIANT vertical guitar neck, with frets, on my white board, and then write the first few notes of a new song on the drawn "neck." I ask my student to find all those notes on their own guitar.
Then I re-draw the neck HORIZONTALLY, turning it into a GIANT bit of guitar tablature, in essence, and I write onto the tablature a phrase from a song I am introducing that lesson. The student plays it.
Then, I pull out the new sheet music! I say, "Here it is on paper, just a little bit smaller!" Success! I haven't had any students fail to make the leap.
Notice that the chords are C & G7, over and over again, with just two other chords, Am & Dm. The fact is, you can really use just C & G7 all the way through, but the two minor chords add a bit of drama that caused me to sigh, as a young girl, for the grief of the dying young cowboy. I know... silly, but music moves us all!
Plus, you really want your guitar students to push themselves a bit. This song is a good excuse for learning the Am and Dm chords, if they haven't already done so.
A word here about the C and G7 chords: I always point out to my new or younger students how exactly similar the shape of the two chords is, and how much easier (and faster) it is to go from C to G7 than to go from C to G!
Just a bit of expanding and contracting - not much - and they already have the shape of the next chord!
Will they WANT to do the G7 chord? NO. Not at first. But I make them anyway.
As for very new beginners, who are still using the "baby" C and G7 chords, they can play this song too! Just omit the Am and Dm chords.
As with all older or traditional songs, there are many variations to be found in the Streets of Laredo lyrics...
Happy Trails!
The link for the guitar tabs:
Download "Streets of Laredo" guitar tabs for beginner guitar players
Dianna:
Your website is a light in the darkness. THANK YOU for all you do in helping to spread the love of music. It matters!
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This beautiful song book for piano & voice "Esther, For Such a Time as This", available as a digital download, tells the riveting story of the time when Jews in ancient Persia faced a foe named Haman, and how a brave young queen risked her life to save her people.
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This is the perfect easy start for little pianists.
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Cat:
Thank you so much for these resources - I have a small music studio in Johannesburg, South Africa.
My kids love playing these tunes.
Peter:
Thanks for a great web site and a very useful tool for us teaching guitar.
Christine:
Thank you so much for this site! I have just started teaching some really keen Y6 boys who want to play Scarborough Fair, and your version is perfect. I will now go and look at what other goodies you have!
Matt:
THIS SITE IS AMAZING!! I've been teaching guitar for about 5 years now, and I've only just found your website! (I could really have used it 5 years ago) :-)
I teach at primary schools every week day for about 4 hours, so the beginner tabs you have are ideal. Thank you so much for your hard work getting these on the web, you have made many children very happy!!
Comments
Do you have a story or a question about teaching guitar? Do you think it is a hard instrument for beginners, or easy? What have been your challenges?
Please note that all comments are moderated, and will not appear until I have approved them. Also, IF YOU ARE ASKING FOR MUSIC THAT IS NOT IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN, YOUR REQUEST WILL BE IGNORED. That's pretty much any music written in the last 75 years...
About the Author
Hi, I'm Dana! (Say that like "Anna".) I'm the owner of Music-for-Music-Teachers.com, and a newer site, SingTheBibleStory.com.
Like some of you, I've been playing the piano since early childhood, and have added a few other instruments along the way, plus an interest in arranging and composing music.
You can find out more about me and the reason for this website at my About Me page.
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