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Learn to Play "Ain't No Sunshine" on Guitar: Step-by-Step Lesson
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Looking for a great song to elevate your fingerpicking skills and jam with friends?
This “Ain’t No Sunshine” Guitar Lesson has got you covered.
Who wrote "Ain’t No Sunshine"?
“Ain’t No Sunshine” was written by Bill Withers and was first released as a single off his 1971 album Just As I Am. The record was produced by Booker T. Jones and features some fantastic musicians, including Stephen Stills on guitar, Donald "Duck" Dunn on bass, and Al Jackson Jr. on drums.
It was recorded in Los Angeles with overdubs later done in Memphis Tennesee, and became a breakthrough hit for Withers’ career.
What is the key of Ain't No Sunshine?
“Ain’t No Sunshine” is in the key of Am and features a looping 8-bar chord progression. The song is blues-based and is a great one to know because it's frequently played at jam sessions. Additionally, the chord progression is relatively simple and easy to pick up, as it's just 8 bars long.
Before diving into the song, it's important to familiarize yourself with the basic chords used in "Ain't No Sunshine." To play “Ain’t No Sunshine” you only need to know 4 chords. Am7, Em7, G7, and Dm7.
However, we are going to use two different chord shapes in this post for the Em7.
Since the song is in the key of Am you could think of each chord in relation to the scale like this:
Am7 = im7
Em7 = vm7
G7 = bVII7
Dm7 = ivm7
Notice how the chords are all 3-note chords. These are what I call “shell” chords. These types of chord voicings contain the defining elements for each chord. So for these shapes, they have the root, the 3rd, and the 7th from the scale.
The song has a slow and melancholy feel to it. To begin the first measure plays an Am7 for 2 beats and then 1 beat for each Em7 and G7.
/ / / /
Am7, Em7, G7 (1 bar)
Then one full bar of Am7.
Am7 (1 bar)
These first two bars create the signature riff for the song and establish the minor blues groove.
Then all of that repeats again:
/ / / /
Am7, Em7, G7 (1 bar)
Am7 (1 bar)
From there we get to the turnaround progressions and here we’ll use the Em7 chord from above at the 7th position and play:
Em7 (1 bar)
Dm7 (1 bar)
Then tie in the first part above again.
/ / / /
Am7, Em7, G7 (1 bar)
Am7 (1 bar)
Then all of the repeats back to the top.
Ain't No Sunshine Fingerstyle
Now that you have the basic chords and progression down, next, let’s look at the guitar style Withers plays as he accompanies himself singing. He doesn’t use a pick to strum the strings instead he uses his fingers.
This gives a lot more dimension to the sound and easily helps him create a full sound alone. This is accomplished by two key ingredients.
Breaking up the bass notes from the chord to create the feel of bass and guitar
Pinching strings all at once which sounds more like a piano than a typically strummed guitar
Let’s next look at an approach for each chord to see this in action.
The basic underlying rhythmic value in the guitar part here is going to be an 8th-note pattern. Now this is slightly different than the overall feel of the song which I would say is a 16th-note feel, listen for this in the drum pattern played by Al Jackson Jr.
The guitar part plays an alternating pattern between the bass note of the chord and then a pinch on the other strings in the chord. I creatively call this a “bass-note-pinch” pattern.
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