Welcome to our Save Your Tears guitar lesson. This is an excellent beginner song for those looking to learn songs with easy guitar chords and rhythms. Save Your Tears was released in 2020 and reached number 4 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The remix version, featuring Ariana Grande, reached number 1. The song comes from The Weeknd’s album After Hours.
Figure 1 (below) shows you some of the basic notation information you will need to understand to play the song with the score. For some readers reading this lesson, they may need to learn more music theory to fully follow the score. In addition, for those with limited rhythmic notation understanding, they may have to learn more about reading rhythms prior to attempting the song.
Song structure
Save Your Tears song structure is as follows:
- Intro
- Verse 1
- Verse 2
- Pre-chorus
- Chorus
- Verse 3
- Pre-chorus
- Chorus
- Bridge
- Chorus
- Outro
Chords
To play the song, you will need to know the chords C, G, F, Am, Em and Dm. All of these chords can be played as open chords except for chord F which is a bar chord.
Guitar part
Save Your Tears uses a quaver (eighth note) rhythm in the intro, verses, pre-chorus and last chorus. This is played with down strums with accents played only on the second and fourth beat of the bar. One exception to this rhythm is found in bar 4. In that bar, there is a quaver rest at the end of beat 4.
In the chorus, a semibreve (whole note) is played in the bars with the chords C and Am. That is followed by a quaver rhythm in the bars with the chords Em and G. This is played with alternating up and down strumming. Please note that at the end of the chorus (bars 32 and 52) rests are present. That is, a quaver rest (eighth note rest) on beat 3 and a crotchet rest (quarter note rest) on beat 4.
Semibreves are played for each chord on the bridge. The song finishes with the chorus and outro played in a quaver note rhythm using alternating up and down strumming.
Conclusion
Hope you enjoyed our Save Your Tears guitar lesson. This is an ideal beginner song for practicing easy guitar chords and rhythms. In addition, it is a very good introduction to beginner guitarists wanting to master the bar chord F. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
Note: The score excerpts included herein are used exclusively for educational purposes.
