I Heard It Through The Grapevine was written in 1966 by Norman Whitfield & Barrett Strong for Motown. It has been released and covered by many awesome artists since then. In 1968 Marvin Gaye released his version and this is the one based on ‘feel’ we are looking at today.
In today’s Acoustic Guitar Tutorial we learn Marvin Gayes I Heard It Through The Grapevine.
This song has an instantly recognisable intro riff followed by a grooved, sparse strum of simple open guitar chords.
In order to talk chords and keys in the set up I have taught the lesson in the open position without a capo.
We use chords Dm, G/D, A7, G7, Bm7. The strumming pattern is intended to be sparse and percussively rhythmic as the recording.
The intro riff creates an excellent contrast in mellow, flowing notes.
THE SONG:
The Intro –
Follow the tab below for the intro riff. I play the D pedal tone with my pick and the remaining strings with my index, middle & ring fingers on my picking hand. Feel free to play this another way round. I like the percussive aspect the pick brings in contrast with the mellow sound of the fingers. It also has my pick readily accessible for the verse strumming pattern in which I prefer a raise in dynamics.
The Verse-
Chords
The Rhythm
I play the beat 1 down strum just on the root notes of the chord. Beat 2 plays the rest of the chord notes (if you need extra help check out the video lesson ➡️ HERE)
The x indicates an up-strum mute. This gives us a bit more percussive groove.
The verse plays the chord sequence below twice.