swiftlessons

swiftlessons

How to Play "The Boxer" - Simon and Garfunkel Complete Guitar Lesson

Added 2016-10-28 20:36:29 +0000 UTC

Hello friends,
and welcome to another By Request Song Tutorial. In today's lesson, I'll explain common folk style guitar techniques with a complete tutorial on Simon and Garfunkel's 1970 classic "The Boxer." We'll begin this lesson with a full demonstration, before I break down the intro section, and the chord progressions and finger picking patterns for the verse and chorus sections. Let's get started!

Links:

How to Play "The Boxer" - Simon and Garfunkel Complete Guitar Lesson

Comments

I love it, this is what keeps me going... Streets of London by Ralph McTell would sound great also ..😉

2023-03-06 20:41:40 +0000 UTC

Often I like fingerpicking arrangements with embedded melody lines. Harder to learn, but significantly easier to sing to. However, this Rob version is true to the this Paul Simon version, the Paul Simon Paris version...and very well sung. IMHO better sung than any of the S&G versions.

2021-12-02 03:27:37 +0000 UTC

This is a very cool find.

2021-12-02 03:25:04 +0000 UTC

This song has been a nightmare for me for the past 15 years of playing guitar. Thanks so much for this. I'm blown away by how simple it is.

2021-11-03 00:16:32 +0000 UTC

Thanks for the lesson! I really appreciate the learning materials you provide for this song. I've been practicing for about five months and I've got it down pretty well including the vocals. I just need to work on playing and singing is well with an audience present.

2021-09-09 22:13:50 +0000 UTC

I love this song. I just found Rob Swift on YouTube yesterday, and love how he explains things. He sings well too, so I signed up for his PDFs. I learned how to pick by playing Dust in the Wind by Kansas, and that made learning this song a lot easier. I'm still working on the Intro, and the Riffs, but I'm already singing quietly while I play. Thanks, Rob!

2021-03-30 12:16:58 +0000 UTC

I find it super super difficult for me to sync my singing with my right hand, this song is so fast, if I don’t look at the tab chart, it’s so easy to insert extra accompaniment and delay singing.

2020-12-11 21:55:19 +0000 UTC

Paul recently posted a home performance of The Boxer on YouTube which is ideal for learning this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rGpNPJEzOI. He plays it in standard tuning and uses a slightly different finger-picking pattern and a different chord shape for the C chord than used in this lesson. I found it particularly useful because it's so rare to get single camera live performances that have a good view of both the fingerboard and the right hand! There is nothing wrong with the way it's played in this lesson, but I found alternating the bass notes in the C chord at the beginning by moving the ring finger between the 5th and 6th string awkward, and Paul does not do that either (at least in this performance).

2020-05-18 13:48:27 +0000 UTC

I could have learned the song in three hours...BUT it took me 5 months to learn how to finger pick..and then put it to the song.. I now can play it What I like to pass on is this..I can play double dgebdg...found that to difficult, EGDB for me is easier and sounds just as good..2 repetions is a full 8 note measure..fits mentally better then the 7 note pattern...Was it worth all that time and effort YES...now I Can fingerpick any song and move on to Brownie ..He says he uses 3 Fingers " Lol...so do I Brownie...l had a guitar 60 years thanks to Rob I'm just learning to play it..the goal to play it well....fingerpicking is a start finally graduated from KIndergarten. With all the wonderful things I have done..THIS is a major accomplishment.

2019-09-04 10:03:01 +0000 UTC

well with a little research on google I learned to retune a half a step lower..NOt surprising I am right in tune with the original recording...That solves that for me.

2019-09-01 06:33:57 +0000 UTC

PS The lost verse is to be found in the live 25th anniversary version..both emotional singing this great verse

2019-08-29 07:24:35 +0000 UTC

Both the album version & the live central park 25 anniversary...they are not in Cstandard tuning Paul solo in Paris is in standard C tuning..." I'd like to know what he is tuned down too.lmuch easier on the vocal chords...thanks...

2019-08-29 07:21:11 +0000 UTC

I might have to go back to the original recording, but I seem to remember it being in standard tuning. I'm sure that all the live performances are.

2019-08-28 21:54:50 +0000 UTC

The original is not in Standard Tuning? What does Paul have his guitar tuned down to C#...It sounds terrible..in standard tuning..too difficult to sing high notes?

2019-08-28 09:10:03 +0000 UTC

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