Tears In Heaven – Eric Clapton Fingerstyle Guitar Cover With TAB.

Chords Studies:

Tears In Heaven is quite a simple song in terms of chords progression (But most legendary songs were made of simple chords progression).

Intro and Verse:

The song is in the key of A Major, with the intro and verse uses a very identical chord sequence which are:

( A – E – F#m – E – D – E7sus – E7 – A ) on intro and…
( A – E – F#m – E – D – A – E – A ) on verse

Pre Chorus(Not really sure but let’s just call it Pre Chorus):

( F#m – C# – Em – F#Major – Bm – E – A – )

Chorus:

Something interesting is happening on the chorus when the key of the song seems to change temporarily to G Major. Here are the chords sequence:

( C – G – Am – D – G – D – Em – D – G )
( C – G – Am – D – G – D – E – A )

The song falls back nicely to it’s original key via the ‘E Major’ chord that establish a pull back to A Major.

Interlude guitar solo uses the verse chord sequence before going back to pre chorus.

The Use Of ‘Slash Chords’

One of the things that made the song look impressive when played on guitar, are the use of slash chords:

( A – E/G# – F#m – E – D/F# – E7sus – E7 – A )

Eric Clapton are a master on this and most of the time uses his his thumb to play the ‘bass note’ which is the one to the right: ‘E/G#‘


Here are the full chord sequence with ‘Slash Chord’ being used:

( A – E/G# – F#m – E – D/F# – E7sus – E7 – A ) = Intro

( A – E/G# – F#m – E – D/F# – E/A – E – A ) = Verse

( F#m – C#/F – Em – F# – Bm – E – A – ) = Pre Chorus

( C – G/B – Am – D – G – D/F# – Em – D/F# – G ) = Chorus
( C – G – Am – D – G – D/F# – E – A )