We will study the first half or the Introduction and the Part A portion of the song Can’t Buy Me Love in this lesson. We will finish up this song in the second lesson in this finger-style lesson series.

The first thing you should work on is the use of brushing the chords with your right hand thumb. This will give feeling to the piece if done correctly. Refer to the CD for the sound you are striving for.

Also, once you have fingered these chord forms, be sure to hold your fingers in place to play the subsequent notes. As you will experience, this will create a free-flowing sound for this portion of the song.

Can’t Buy Me Love – Playing The Rhythm Chords

Look above the notation score for the rhythm chords for Can’t Buy Me Love. When you form your chords with the left hand, be sure to refer to these forms as they contain many of the notes you will be playing in the melody.

The rhythm chord placement is also very useful for those of you who are interested in playing the accompaniment for this song. The finger-style arrangement for this lesson for Can’t Buy Me Love utilizes the alternating bass method, using the right hand thumb.

Also, the lead or “melody” notes for the piece are picked with the index, middle and ring finger of the right hand. You should attempt to hold the left hand fingering for the chord forms wherever possible and only adjust fingering as needed to play certain melody notes.

This will allow you to more easily play the melody line and it will additionally keep you aware of your position within the score. When absolutely necessary lift your left hand finger from the indicated chord forms.

Notes On The F Chord

The F chord requires some special attention in Part A. There are several fingering you can utilize to play the F Major chord. As you will see, the method that is used in this example utilizes the Thumb of the left hand in lieu of the barred index finger, which would press down all 6 strings.

You can choose as to which method works for you and which makes transitions easier to make and work on that system for your F chord.

Can’t Buy Me Love – The Syncopated Notes

As with most of the arrangements by Chet Atkins and for most finger-style guitars for that matter, there is a fair amount of syncopation in the melody line. In using syncopation in the melody line, the notes are moved slightly out of their normal position in the score, which creates interest in the song.

If you view the 1st note in the Part A lesson tab, which is after the introduction, you will see a syncopated note. Look at the lesson tab and in particular, the last note in the 7th measure of the lesson.

Ordinarily this note would be placed as the first note in the 8th measure, but to bring syncopation to the piece it is moved “backward” in the music by 1/2 beat to the 7th measure. You will more examples of this technique in not only this piece, but in many other finger-style TAB’s.

For the complete lesson material, including free TAB, Guitar Pro files and much more be sure to visit our article: Cant Buy Me Love TAB. We also offer many other finger-style guitar lessons, free tab and guitar advice at our site, Ultimate Guitar OnLine.