How to Play “Here Without You” On Guitar?
The song “Here Without You” is by the American rock band 3 Doors Down. The power ballad was released as the third single from the band’s second album, Away from the Sun, on July 28, 2003. (2002). In November 2003, the song peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was certified double platinum in the United States for sales of over 2,000,000 units. It was also a global triumph, reaching No. 2 in Australia and hitting the top 10 in Denmark, the Netherlands, and New Zealand.
“Here Without You,” one of their most popular songs, was not a big hit in the band’s main style of rock radio, reached No. 14 on the Mainstream Rock Songs list, and No. 22 on the Alternative Songs chart. “Here Without You” remained a pop and adult contemporary radio mainstay after its release, but not rock or alternative radio. The song peaked at No. 2 in Australia, becoming the band’s highest-charting single. It also charted in the top ten in Denmark, the Netherlands, and New Zealand and the top twenty in Austria, Norway, and Sweden.
This tutorial will show you how to play “Here Without You” on acoustic and electric guitar. Firstly, we will examine the easy acoustic strumming way, and then we will explain how to play the song in an actual way with electric guitar riffs.
Background of the “Here Without You”
Brad Arnold revealed that his now ex-wife was the major inspiration for the song. Arnold has also stated that the song was inspired by their lonely evenings spent on the road advertising their band and how difficult it was to be apart from their significant ones. “Here Without You” takes the listener into the psyche of a man who misses his fiancée.
Easy Strum Version – How to Play Here Without You On Guitar
We will teach you an easy strum version of “Here Without You” by 3 Doors Down. In the actual way of playing it, you do need to detune your guitar a half step, but in this tutorial, I’m going to teach you a way where you can just play in standard tuning, and it’s nice and easy and just strumming the chords and you get to sing along. For the basics of this easy strum version, you’ll need the guitar and standard tuning and a capo on your guitar’s first fret.
How to Play Here Without You – Intro Chords
For the intro, we just have three chords. We have an Am, and then we have an F and a G chord. We have two strumming patterns here that we’re going to use. For the Am chord, we have the D—D-DU-UD-D-DU strumming pattern. And for the F to G, we have the D-DU-UD–UD-D-DU strumming pattern. And the point at which you’re going to change chords F to G is the third “down” strum. So, that’s it for the intro.
How to Play? – Verse Chords
We have two lines of chords here. Our first line of chords is just an Am to the G, and then the second line of chords is identical to what we learned in the intro. For the first line of chords, we’re just playing the Am and the G chords for one full strumming pattern each. This is all the verse is. The strumming pattern is: D—D-DU-UD-D-DU. You just play that over and over again.
How to Play Here Without You – Chorus Chords
The chorus is one-liner chords. We have a C, G, Am, and then we have F to G. The first three chords are played for the one full strumming pattern, and the F to G is played similarly to how we did it in verse. We play the D—D-DU-UD-D-DU pattern for each of the three chords, and then we use the D-DU-UD–UD-D-DU for the F to G part as in the intro. That’s it for the chorus.
How to Play? – Bridge Chords
The final thing we need to learn is the bridge. It’s really simple with there are two lines of chords here. The first line of chords is Am, C, G, and then F chord. Each chord has played for the full strumming pattern, and the first line of chords is played twice. And the second line of chords is just that F again for an extra strumming pattern. That’s everything you need to learn for the easy strummed version, and again playing it this way, you can play along with the actual recording, and you don’t have to detune your guitar.
Electric Guitar Version – How to Play Here Without You On Guitar
As the easy strum version, we will be teaching this lesson in standard tuning, but in the actual song, they play everything down a half step, so if you want to play along to the actual recording, just tune all your strings down the one-half step. But to keep it simple in this lesson, we just do everything in standard tuning.
How to Play Here Without You – Intro Riff
The Intro riff is based around a Bm chord shape. All of this riff is flat-picked, and the direction of the picking does help. Let’s break this chord up into a few different chunks. We’re going to start by hitting the fifth string; then we got five more notes, so fourth, third, second, third, and fourth. So, it’s kind of down and up.
The next three notes run, you’ll lift our middle finger, and we’ll pluck these second, third, and fourth with an up-up-down.
Our next two notes sections are just the second and third with two up-pickings. To end this bar, we’re going to put our middle finger back down, so full Bm, and then you’re going to pluck the second, third, fourth, and fifth, but you have to lift all your fingers. So it’s going to be an open fifth string there.
Then we’re going to go to a lazy G shape. So you only need to put your middle and index finger down on the fifth and sixth strings. This is a six-note run, so we go sixth, fifth, fourth, third, fourth, and fifth. So it’s just down and up again. And then, on that final note for this bar, we’re going to go to an A chord. We’re going to start with that open fifth string, hold that out, and then our next three-note chunk is fourth, third, fourth, and then we’re going to end with the second, third, fourth, and fifth string.
How to Play? – Verse Riff
For the first two bars of the verse, we have something almost identical to what we had in the intro. The only difference is that instead of hitting the open fifth string for the final note of that second bar, we’re just going to hold on to our Bm and hit that 2nd fret of the fifth string. And then, instead of going to a G, we’re going straight to an A chord. We’re going to start by hitting the fifth string, and then we have a five-note run, so fourth, third, second, third, and fourth.
For our next chunk of three notes, you will take your ring finger and put it on the third fret of the second string. Second string, third string, fourth string, and then lift your ring finger back to the normal A shape. And then we have the second string, third string, and then the final note; take your ring finger, put it back on the third fret, and you’re going to pluck that and slide up to the fifth fret.
The second line of verse is identical to the intro, so there is nothing new to learn there. That’s it for the verse.
How to Play Here Without You – Chorus Riff
We’re going to start the chorus with the Dsus2 chord. It’s the same as the D chord, but you lift your middle finger. Let’s start with our first chunk.
We’ll play the 4th string on that up a little bit; then we go third, second, first, second, and third strings. And then you’re going to put your middle finger down, so it’s a D chord now, and we’re going to pluck the first and second strings.
Then for our next chunk, we lift our middle finger again and go first, second, and third strings. Therefore our third chunk puts the pinky finger down on the third fret of the first string pluck and goes down to the second, quite the open first string, and then ends on the third fret of the second string.
Then we go to an A chord
We’re going to start with the open fifth string and then a down and up pattern, so fourth, third, second, third, and fourth. And then your pinky fingers will go to the fifth fret of the first string and pluck that. Hold that out like the second string, go down to the third fret of the first string, second string, and lift up your middle finger to pluck the second fret of the first string with your index finger bar. And then back to the second string, and with your pinky finger, guard through the fifth fret of the second string and pluck.
For the second line of the chorus, we go to a Bm, but we’re not actually going to via index finger; you’re going to leave that open for the first string. So, we go fifth string, fourth, third, second, third, fourth. So, it’s just a down-up pattern. And the next chunk is the first string, second string, and third string, and the final chunk is the first, second, third, and fourth. So, the Bm in total. And then, the last two bars are identical to the last two bars of the verse, so the G and the A.
How to Play? – Bridge Riff
The bridge is really simple, and this is two lines of chords here. First, we have a Bm, a D, an A, and a G. That’s played twice, and the second line of chords is just a G. Each chord will be strum with the strumming pattern that goes like this: D—D-DU-UD-D-DU.
Those are all the parts you need to learn for the studio version and remember, if you aren’t playing along with the recording, you will need to be tuned to you’ll guitar down a half step. But in this lesson, we are teaching it to you in standard just for simplicity.
Final Thoughts
3 Doors Down is a 1996 American rock band from Escatawpa, Mississippi. Brad Arnold, Matt Roberts, and Todd Harrell were the initial members of the band. The band achieved international acclaim with their debut hit, “Kryptonite,” which reached the top three on the Billboard Hot 100 list. In 2000, the band signed with Republic Records and released their debut album, The Better Life. The album was certified six platinum in the United States and was the 11th best-selling album of the year. Later, the band was joined by drummer Richard Liles, who played on their debut record tour.
For the week of November 8, 2003, “Here Without You” peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100. Only “Kryptonite” and “When I’m Gone” made it higher on the list, reaching Nos. 3 and 4, respectively. It has now received 2 Platinum certifications in the United States and a Platinum certification in Australia. The song was a big smash on pop radio, earning its third No. 1 hit on the Mainstream Top 40 list and its first on the Adult Top 40 chart, where it lasted for 13 weeks.
We covered how to play “Here Without You” by 3 Doors Down on guitar in this article. Nothing is too complex for anyone to understand. Well, we hope you liked this lesson and learned how to play “Here Without You” by 3 Doors Down on the guitar.
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