Guitar Lesson - How to play Eye of the Tiger

By Survivor (Rocky Movies)

I was getting such good response from the earlier guitar lesson about how to read guitar tabs that I thought I would teach you a simple song on the guitar. If you have read the earlier guitar lesson [Guitar Lesson - Guitar Tabs For Beginners - The Entertainer] and understood what I was trying to teach, then this one should be easy.


Now the song I would like you to learn is the famous song from the Rocky movies called Eye of the Tiger. It is a good starter song for beginners. You can find the song on albums from Survivor but also on a album called Rocky Balboa: The Best of Rocky from 2006. Like I said the group that made this song is called Survivor. Now if you have heard this song, you might think that this song is hard to play on the guitar. But actually it's a very easy song to play on the guitar. The song is played on two guitars by the Survivor band, but you can play it on one guitar also.


And if you are only going to play along with the song, this would not be a problem for you. I'm going to split this song up into segments also, just like I did with the "The Entertainer" song in the earlier guitar lesson. One more thing, I saw that there are many people teaching this song. And I found that some of them are actually wrong. Well wrong might not be the right word to use. There are a couple of ways to play this song, some use power chords. But if you want to keep it simple, and be able to play along with the song you should follow what I say here. We are only going to use two fingers most of the time to keep it simple. And then in the lyrics I show how to play the piano part.


Here is a video of Survivor doing Eye of the Tiger Live In Nagoya Japan 1987

 Now the first part is pretty simple, the intro of the song.
E|-----------------------------------------------|
B|-----------------------------------------------|
G|-----------------------------------------------|
D|-----------------------------------------------|
A|-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3---|
E|-----------------------------------------------|

You see that we press down on the third fret on the fretbord and on the second string looking down on the guitar. Then with you're guitar pick start to pick the string to get the beat going. Try and learn to pick the string on the up and down stroke. This will help you in the future to become a better and faster guitar player. To get the right sound here you need to mute the string. So place you're right hand palm over the strings at the same time you pick. This will take that extra vibration from the string and give you that muted sound we want.

Then we get to the part you want to learn.
e|---------------------------------|
B|---------------------------------|
G|---------------------------------|
D|--5---------------5--3--5------| Sounds: Naa, Na, Na, Naa
A|--3---------------3--1--3------|
E|---------------------------------|

Now you have picked the third fret, and already pressing down the right string. All you need to do is with you're pinky finger. Press down the fifth fret on the third string. Play both strings. And then just slide up with the same finger placement so that you press down the first and third fret. To get that Naa, Na, Na, Naa.

E|---------------------------------|
B|---------------------------------|
G|---------------------------------|
D|--5------------------------------|
A|--3-x-5-x-6~------------------| Sounds: Na Naa NAAAA
E|-----x-3-x-4~-----------------|

Look close at this guitar tab. You have you're finger the exact same way like you began with before. Now you just move up so you're playing the top strings. To get that ending of the Naa, Na, Na, Naa... Na Naa NAAAA (lousy attempt how it sounds)

Piano Parts (if you want to play that on guitar) You only add one finger..
So it's almost the same finger placement as you play in the beginning of the song. And it’s the same for all the lyrics of the song.

  (C5)  (G5)  (Ab5) (Bb5)
E|----------------------------|
B|----------------------------|
G|--5------------------3-----|
D|--5-----5-----6-----3-----|
A|--3-----5-----6-----1-----|
E|--------3-----4------------|

(C5)         (Ab5)                (Bb5)
...Risin' up, back on the street
                    (C5) 
did my time took my chances
(C5)                          (Ab5)
...went the distance, now i'm back on my feet
        (Bb5)                  (C5)
just a man and and his will to survive
(C5)                 (Ab5)              (Bb5)
...so many times, it happens too fast
                             (C5)
you trade your passion for glory
(C5)                           (Ab5)
...don't lose your grip on the dreams of the past
         (Bb5)                     (C5)
you must fight just to keep them alive
(Bb5)(C5)
It's The...

And here comes the guitar in again.

E|---------------------------------|
B|---------------------------------|
G|-------------8~---7~-----------|
D|--3~-------x-----x--------------|
A|--3~----xx-6~---5~----------|
E|--1~----------------------------|

E|---------------------------------|
B|---------------------------------|
G|---------------------------------|
D|--3~--------5~-3~------------|
A|--3~----xx-3~-1~------------|
E|--1~-----------------------------|

E|---------------------------------|
B|---------------------------------|
G|-------------8~---7~-----------|
D|--3~-------x-----x-------------|
A|--3~----xx-6~---5~----------|
E|--1~----------------------------|

E|---------------------------------|
B|---------------------------------|
G|---------------------------------|
D|--3-2-3-5-3-5-6~---6-------|
A|---------------------------------|
E|---------------------------------|

Piano part

(C5)          (Ab5)               (Bb5)
...risin up, straight to the top
                      (C5)
had the guts, got the glory
(C5)               
...went the distance
       (Ab5)
now i'm not gonna stop
      (Bb5)                   (C5)
just a man and his will to survive

You might have noticed the second guitar. That it adds to the song. 
This is how you play that part. You can play this in the beginning of the song also if you like.
E|---------------------------------|
B|-------------8---6---4~--------|
G|--------xx-8-x-7-x-5~------|
D|---------------------------------| Sound: Na na na
A|---------------------------------|
E|---------------------------------|

E|---------------------------------|
B|---------------------------------|
G|---------------------------------|
D|--5------------------------------|
A|--3-x-5-x-6~------------------| Sounds: Na Naa NAAAA
E|-----x-3-x-4~-----------------|

So yeah that's about it. I kept it simple. But these are the parts you need to play along.  And you can see that there is a pattern here. So once you get the first part going. You will pick it up pretty quick. Cya.

Comments

Songs - Videos

Those Who Wait3 Angelina2 Beautiful2 Borsalino2 Fields of Gold2 Fingers In Flight2 Lady Madonna2 One Mint Julep2 Sunny Side Up2 The Water is Wide2 Vaseline Machine Gun2 A Morning In Norkia1 A Simple Gift1 AC/DC Medly: Riff Raff - Let There Be Rock1 Airproofing Two1 Alone in my Prison1 Always With Me Always With You1 Amazing Grace1 Arms of Mary1 Beautiful Fields1 Bella Soave1 Blue of Blue1 Brand New Wings1 Busted Bicycle1 Chichi no Shozo1 Collage-a-Reed1 Countrywide1 Crosscurrent1 Dabster1 Dangerous Mood1 Dans Keff Avec1 Day Tripper1 Distorted Love1 Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood1 Emerald Groove1 Everyone's A Hero1 Freight Train1 Frühling Sommer Herbs1 Ghost of Blind Willie Johnson1 Guitar Drifting1 Hazel Comes Home1 Hear the Wind Howl1 Home1 I Saw the Light1 I Will1 I'm Home1 In a Constant State of Flux1 Je Te Veux1 June Bug1 Just Us1 Just the Same1 Kiss from a Rose1 Knight of the Wind1 Live Your Life1 Live at Five1 Livin On A Prayer1 Mad World1 Make You Feel My Love1 Mombasa1 Money For Nothing1 Nine Pound Hammer1 Ocean1 Old Fashioned Love Song1 One of Us1 Part Two1 Pet Food1 Pipeline1 Prime1 Rylynn1 Saltwater1 Satori1 Say it ain't so1 Secret Agent Man1 Secret Story1 Since We Met1 Skippy1 Sound Of Silence1 Spring Summer and Fall1 Stevies Blues1 Summertime1 Swingy Boogie1 Tall Fiddler1 Tears for Jerusalem1 Tears in Heaven1 Ten Million Slaves1 Tender Surrender1 The Bug1 The Robin1 The Train and the Gate1 The Wind and the Wheat1 Time1 Time 21 To B Or Not To B1 Undecided1 Unforgotten1 Up Tempo1 Waltzing Matilda1 We're the Great1 Yakitori1
Show more
buy jeans, silver tab jeans, levi jeans

Contact

Contact
Locations of visitors to this page

All the contents of this site, (design and technical device) are intellectual property of JD (unless stated otherwise). Every use or copy without an explicit permission is forbidden. Copyright Disclaimer
©2010-2020
Thank you for looking all the way down here. There is much more to see.