Paul | Guitar Lessons and Performance - Paul Elwood

How to play hallelujah

Taking some time to figure out how to play ascending and descending chord tones is a great exercise for guitar students. The pdf linked above has tabs and chord charts for the first part of the song as illustrated in the video below. Enjoy practicing how to move slowly between chord shapes as you arpeggiate them! You can apply this technique to tons of songs.

“Hallelujah” is a song written by Canadian singer Leonard Cohen, originally released on his album Various Positions (1984). Achieving little initial success, the song found greater popular acclaim through a new version recorded by John Cale in 1991. Cale’s version inspired a 1994 recording by Jeff Buckley which in 2004 was ranked number 259 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

The song achieved widespread popularity after Cale’s version of it was featured in the 2001 film Shrek. Many other arrangements have been performed in recordings and in concert, with more than 300 versions known as of 2008. The song has been used in film and television soundtracks and televised talent contests. “Hallelujah” experienced renewed interest following Cohen’s death in November 2016 and re-appeared on international singles charts, including entering the American Billboard Hot 100 for the first time.

“What stands in […]

Paul2026-08-04T10:08:16-04:00

Every Rose Has Its Thorn

Every_Rose_Has_It’s_Thorn

“Every Rose Has Its Thorn” is a power ballad by American glam metal band Poison. It was released in October 1988 as the third single from Poison’s second album Open Up and Say… Ahh!. The band’s signature song, it is also their only number-one hit in the US, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on December 24, 1988, for three weeks.

It also charted at number 11 on the Mainstream Rock chart. It was a number 13 hit in the UK. “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” was named number 34 on VH1’s “100 Greatest Songs of the 80s”, number 100 on their “100 Greatest Love Songs” and number seven on MTV and VH1 “Top 25 Power Ballads”. Billboard ranked the song number five on their list of “The 10 Best Poison Songs”.

In an interview with VH1’s Behind the Music, Bret Michaels said the inspiration for the song came from a night when he was in a laundromat in Dallas waiting for his clothes to dry, and called his girlfriend on a pay phone. Michaels said he heard a male voice in the background and was devastated; he said he went into the laundromat and wrote “Every Rose […]

Paul2026-08-01T07:01:01-04:00

Dire Wolf

Dire Wolf tabs

“Dire Wolf” is a ballad by the Grateful Dead, released as the third track on their 1970 album Workingman’s Dead. The lyrics were written by Robert Hunter after watching a film adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles. The music, containing elements of country and folk music, was composed by Jerry Garcia on the same day. The song tells the story of a man who plays cards with a dire wolf on a cold winter’s night in “Fennario”; the lyrics have been variously interpreted. The piece became a staple of the Grateful Dead’s performances, and was played more than two hundred times between 1969 and 1995.

Paul2026-07-06T11:23:19-04:00

Deal

This is a great Grateful Dead tune with some interesting changes and not too hard to play. The above video breaks down how to play the chord changes and below is an example of how you might play over the top of those changes. The distinctive part of this tune- the thing that says “Jerry” to me is the D following the B7. Playing this tune in A, normally I’d think to resolve to the 5 there, which in this case would be E7. I’m no expert at this stuff but I’d say the D makes an interesting, almost a “signature” tension here. Jerry Garcia fan? I bet you know exactly what I’m talking about.

Typically when I want to work out a tune like this, I’ll get the chord changes under my hand well enough to play them rhymically in time, then put them on a loop (if you don’t have a looper and you’re interested in playing extemporaneously or just practicing lead lines, I highly recommend you get one). Once the loop is set up, you can get as granular as you want with your playing. I generally stop working hard at it once I understand the way the song moves, anticipating the next change. I start to be able to play […]

Paul2026-07-05T07:50:04-04:00

Melissa

Chord and lyric sheet here

“Melissa” (sometimes called “Sweet Melissa“) is a song by American rock band the Allman Brothers Band, released in August 1972 as the second single from the group’s fourth album, Eat a Peach. The song was written by vocalist Gregg Allman in 1967, well before the founding of the group. Two demo versions from those years exist, including a version cut by the 31st of February, a band that featured Butch Trucks, the Allman Brothers’ later drummer. Allman sold the publishing rights later that year, but they were reacquired by manager Phil Walden in 1972.

The song’s title is frequently referred to incorrectly as “Sweet Melissa” due to the lyric being sung at the end of each of the first two choruses.

The version on Eat a Peach was recorded in tribute to Duane Allman, who considered the song among his brother’s best and a personal favorite. He died in a motorcycle accident six weeks before its most famous rendition was recorded.

Background

Gregg Allman penned the song in late 1967. He had previously struggled to create […]

Paul2026-07-05T07:40:54-04:00

Hobo Song

Hobo life was dangerous. Itinerant, poor, far from home and support, hobos also faced the hostility of many train crews and the railroad police, nicknamed “bulls”, who often dealt violently with trespassers. British poet W. H. Davies, author of The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp, lost a foot when he fell under the wheels trying to jump aboard a train. It was easy to get trapped between cars, and one could freeze to death in cold weather. When freezer cars were loaded at an ice factory, any hobo inside was likely to be killed.

Around the end of World War II, railroads began to move from steam to diesel locomotives, making jumping freight trains more difficult due to higher speeds and less frequent stops. This, along with postwar prosperity, led to a decline in the number of hobos. In the 1970s and 1980s hobo numbers were augmented by returning Vietnam War veterans, many of whom were disillusioned with settled society. Overall, the national economic demand for a mobile surplus labor force has declined over time, leading to fewer hobos.

Lyrics & music by Jack Bonus

Too late to feel sorrow Too late to feel pain
He’s just an old hobo And he’s Lost out in the rain

He’d never cause trouble. So don’t have no fear
He’s just an old hobo And […]

Paul2026-07-04T11:22:19-04:00

Blue Eyes Cryin’ In The Rain

“Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain” is a song written by songwriter Fred Rose. First recorded by Elton Britt in early 1947, then made more popular by Roy Acuff later that year, the song has been covered by many artists, including Hank Williams Sr., Johnny Russell, Charley Pride, and Elvis Presley. Most notably, the song was recorded by Willie Nelson as part of his 1975 album Red Headed Stranger. Both the song and album revived Nelson’s success as a singer and recording artist.

Originally recorded in 1947 by Acuff, “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain” was recorded by Hank Williams in 1951 for the Mother’s Best Flour Hour. Other early remakes of the song were made by Donn Reynolds (MGM single – June 1957), Ferlin Husky (album Ferlin’s Favorites – November 1959), Slim Whitman (album Country Favorites – 1959), Gene Vincent (recorded October 15, 1958; album Crazy Times! -1960), Bill Anderson (album …Sings Country Heart Songs – January 15, 1962), John D. Loudermilk (album Country Love Songs Plain and Simply Sung – August 1968), Hank Snow (album Greatest Hits) and Conway Twitty (album Hello Darlin’ – June 1970).

The version by Willie Nelson, recorded for his 1975 concept album Red Headed Stranger, which was about a fugitive preacher on the run from […]

Paul2026-07-03T09:50:19-04:00

Cry Me a River

Cry Me A River

Arthur Hamilton later said of the song: “I had never heard the phrase. I just liked the combination of words… Instead of ‘Eat your heart out’ or ‘I’ll get even with you,’ it sounded like a good, smart retort to somebody who had hurt your feelings or broken your heart.” He was initially concerned that listeners would hear a reference to the Crimea, rather than “..cry me a…”, but said that “..sitting down and playing the melody and coming up with lyrics made it a nonissue.”

A bluesy jazz ballad, “Cry Me a River” was originally written for Ella Fitzgerald to sing in the 1920s-set film Pete Kelly’s Blues (released 1955). According to Hamilton, he and Julie London had been high school classmates, and she contacted him on behalf of her husband, Jack Webb, who was the film’s director and was looking for new songs for its soundtrack. After the song was dropped from the film, Fitzgerald first released her version on Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie! in 1961. The song was also offered to Peggy King, but Columbia Records A&R chief Mitch Miller objected to the word “plebeian” in the lyric.

The song’s first release was by actress and singer Julie […]

Paul2026-07-27T13:38:22-04:00

It All Depends On You

it all depends on you chart

“It All Depends on You” is a 1926 popular song with music by Ray Henderson and lyrics by Buddy G. DeSylva and Lew Brown. The song, written for the musical Big Boy, was published in 1926. It was featured in the hit 1928 Warner Bros. film The Singing Fool, starring Al Jolson, Betty Bronson and Josephine Dunn, and directed by Lloyd Bacon. This is a lovely Great American Songbook tune to learn and it’s not too difficult to get under your hand.

“Music can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable.” – Leonard Bernstein

Paul2026-07-01T19:27:05-04:00

Fields of Athenry

Fields_of_Athenry

“The Fields of Athenry” is a song written in 1979 by Pete St John in the style of an Irish folk ballad. Set during the Great Famine of the 1840s, the lyrics feature a fictional man from near Athenry in County Galway, who stole food for his starving family and has been sentenced to transportation to the Australian penal colony at Botany Bay. It has become a widely known, popular anthem for Irish sports supporters.

“The Fields of Athenry” was written in 1979 by Pete St John, who stated he heard a story about a young man from the Athenry area who had been caught stealing grain to feed his family during the Irish famine years, and was deported to Australia. A claim was made in 1996 that a broadsheet ballad published in the 1880s had similar words; however, the folklorist and researcher John Moulden found no basis to this claim, and Pete St. John stated that he wrote the words as well as the music.

In 1979, the song was recorded by Danny Doyle, reaching the top ten in the Irish Singles Chart. The song charted again in 1982 for Barleycorn, reaching […]

Paul2026-07-20T14:36:04-04:00

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