Learn How To Play How Sweet It Is
April 27, 2026
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It seems like every guitarist searches for that elusive combination of groovy rhythm guitar with a vocal-friendly lead line. Learning “How Sweet It Is” on guitar is one key to mastering soulful rhythms.
When you set out to learn “How Sweet It Is” tabs, you get the best of both worlds. Whether you’re covering the Motown hit or the laid-back folk-rock anthem made famous by James Taylor and Jerry Garcia — this song is sure to brighten the room. The beauty of “How Sweet It Is” is that while the song is easy to learn, it offers advanced rhythmic concepts to break you out of typical “noodling” habits.
If you learn guitar by ear, you can be a little mechanical in your playing. Learning the “How Sweet It Is” chord progressions and strumming patterns with intention will change your playing from weekend-warrior campfire songs to professional sounding, tested-by-time melodies.
The song “How Sweet It Is” was written and recorded by Marvin Gaye and the incredible songwriting team Holland-Dozier-Holland back in 1964 at the peak of the Motown Sound. This song became a hit almost instantly due to its fun, upbeat tempo and lyrics about feeling thankful. As a guitarist, knowing the history behind your favorite songs is extremely important! This Motown classic is built on a driving, almost danceable “four on the floor” rhythm section.
When James Taylor recorded this song in 1975, he transformed it into a more folk rock-leaning tune — this is likely the version of “How Sweet It Is” your friends are looking for. Slowing down the tempo ever so slightly created more of an acoustic bounce to the guitar playing. From there, versions by Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead catapulted this tune into the jam-band world, where it became a launching point for improvisation.
With only major and minor chords in its arsenal, learning the “How Sweet It Is” guitar chords is simple! For ease of use, this song is typically played in the key of C Major, but feel free to adjust the capo to suit the range of your singer. This song follows a simple progression built around the I, vi, IV, V chords of a key. In this case, those chords are C, Am, F, and G.
Between each chord change, there is what musicians call a “walk-down” or passing chord. This is what gives the song it’s sexy, rolling feel.
Like any good song, the verse has a very subtle difference from the chorus. We want to add some flavor to an otherwise straightforward chord progression. To accomplish this tastefully, use a C Major 7 chord or add some flavor to your G chord by playing a G11 or Gsus4.
You don’t want to sound repetitive! If you’re a beginner, clean articulation between the Am and the F chord is key. If the barre chord F is scaring you, use a “small” F major (XXX211) instead. This fingering will still give you that soulful sound we are trying to emulate with this track.
You might be thinking this section seems too easy. How do you make THIS sound good? Well, during the chorus we want to drive home the hook. Lay into that C chord! Accent the root notes of each chord on beats one and three while allowing the higher strings to ring on beats two and four. This gives your playing a “backbeat” feel, like there’s an invisible drummer playing the snare off of your solo guitar.
Can you tap your foot at four beats per minute while alternating between a C chord and an Am chord? If your hands feel like they stop moving when your foot hits the ground, you’ve found the mechanical breakdown hundreds of guitarists experience every day.
Slow your metronome down to about 60 BPM and focus solely on synchronizing your foot and picking hand. Start super slow, then try to go faster once you’ve got it!
“How Sweet It Is” Tabs
Learning the “How Sweet It Is” guitar tabs will be essential if you want to quickly learn the recognizable intro guitar lick and space-filling stuff between vocal phrases. In the intro of most versions of “How Sweet It Is,” you see a descending piano-like riff played on the top 3 strings.
For the Intro: Jerry Garcia uses lots of double stops in his playing. Start on the 8th fret of both the B and E string while simultaneously sliding down to the 5th fret.
Why does the IV chord feel like it causes tension in the song? It’s because there is usually a brief “movement” to an E7 or Dm7 during the bridge. When you look at the tabs and pay close attention to your finger positioning, you’ll notice you have to reach farther.
Make sure to center your thumb on the back of the guitar neck while your fingers “arch” over the strings. Arched fingers make clearer-sounding notes/chords.
Looking to spice up your rhythm playing with some “jam band” swagger? Learning Jerry Garcia guitar style is the first step. Jerry was a master of incorporating both bluegrass flat-picking and soulful R&B style bends into his playing.
For “How Sweet It Is,” Jerry played mostly clean with a slight overdrive tone to allow the nuances of his playing to cut through the mix. He rarely just played chords — he played “around” chords!
Take note of how Jerry uses chord tones to build melodic guitar runs.
Jerry plays many chromatic (or half-step) notes leading into each chord change. Instead of playing straight from a C chord to an F chord, he would build tension by playing a mini guitar lick (C – D – D# – E) into the following chord. He also uses what guitar players call the “Mixolydian” scale to give the song more of a bluesy feel than your typical major key song.
If you want to learn how to solo like Jerry, you have to learn how to tell a story. He rarely stuck to just “running up and down” one area of the guitar. Jerry listened to the vocal melody and then embellished on that melody using triplet runs and playful rhythmic figures.
Try singing the melody of “How Sweet It Is” — what notes are you singing? Try to match those notes on the 3rd and 1st string (G and B string). Once you can sing and play the melody, it’s time to start adding notes around those notes — the enclosures.
Here’s the secret to becoming a better player: Timing! Jerry was one of the greatest guitar players to “play behind the beat.” This is something you will have to listen and feel for yourself.
Try playing along with the track and let the groove carry you. You want to take your time with these lead lines! Also, work on your vibrato. Sliding back and forth slowly on sustained notes is what give Jerry’s lead lines that vocal quality we associate with soulful expression.
You can easily find guitar tutorials online, but where do you go when you get stuck? Invest in a well thought out online guitar lesson program. These teaching suites will lay out a roadmap of sorts that links your technical skills to music theory. Not only will you learn how to play songs faster, but you’ll learn why your favorite musicians play the way they do.
Look for guitar solo lessons that teach you how to visualize the entire fretboard as one cohesive map rather than viewing chords as individual shapes. Once you understand how chords are related to scales, you will find songs like this become much easier to change into other keys, improvise over, and of course: master.
The Shred Shed mission is to help you break free of the musical “plateau” and find your voice on the guitar. Whether you are struggling to escape the pentatonic prison or you simply want to up your game for your next live show, we aim to eliminate the frustration from your practice sessions. At the Shred Shed, we pride ourselves on creating a curriculum built around the Dallas Sound, defined by technical mastery and heavy-handed soulful groove.
Through step-by-step video lessons and guided mentorship, we have created a way for absolute beginners to understand how music works from the ground up. We get that learning functional harmony and tuning your touch sensitivity sounds like a foreign language. That’s why we’re here! To guide and support you through your musical journey, subscribe today.
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