Welcome to this Redemption Song guitar lesson. Here you’ll find the full Redemption Song TAB as well as a full guide on how to play it. Redemption song is the final track on Bob Marley and the Wailers’ 12th album, Uprising. This strictly solo acoustic song is considered to be one of Bob Marley’s greatest. It was awarded spot 66 on the Rolling Stone greatest songs of all-time list.
Redemption Song is open to all skill levels. It uses a combination of simple open guitar chords and basic strumming. This is one that you won’t regret learning. It never gets old and you’ll always enjoy playing it.
Redemption Song TAB guitar lesson and full guide
Redemption song is immediately recognisable by its distinctive riff that is heard at the very start of the song. This is an 8 bar guitar riff and could be considered fairly simple to perform but a little bit fiddley at the same time. Here is the TAB for the Redemption Song opening guitar riff.
Redemption song TAB – Intro guitar riff
This riff can be thought of as 2 sets of 4. The second 4 bars are exactly the same as the first 4 but with one tiny difference. The 8th note at the end of bar 3 is not repeated in bar 7. As you can see in the TAB, the previous D note simply fills the remainder of the bar before moving onto bar 8.
The TAB shows you how to perform the Redemption Song riff in the most basic form. You can choose to incorporate some subtle hammer ons though if you like. Hammer ons can be heard in the record so try experimenting with them yourself once you have the intro above down.
The riff is the last time we will use any kind of lead guitar. We’ll be strumming from now to the end of the song.
Next comes the first verse of the song. Here is the TAB.
Redemption Song TAB – First verse
The strumming pattern for this section and pretty much the whole song for that matter is based around the good old DDU UDU. You can deviate from that strumming pattern if you choose to but don’t go too far.
There are also points in the song where you specifically have to move away from the DDU UDU. For example, in the TAB you just saw for the verse, you may have noticed that bar 3 looks different. For bar 3, all you need to do is play 4 downward strums. 1 on each beat of the bar.
The chords for that bar are also worth mentioning. You would play a standard open C major chord for the first 2 beats of the bar and then we use a transitional chord to get us to the following A minor. Like a sort of walk down. To play that chord, simply remove your 3rd finger from the C note on the A string and place your 2nd finger on the B note (just 1 fret down). This split bar happens in all of the verses so keep an eye out for it.
Another thing that you should pay close attention to with the Redemption Song TAB are the repeat marks. For example, the first 4 bars in the verse TAB are repeated 3 times before moving onto the next 4 bars. The last bar of those 4 which is a bar of D major is repeated twice.
Redemption song verse 1 chord progression
G / Em / Split bar / Am
G / Em / Split bar / Am
G / Em / Split bar / Am
G / Em / Split bar / D / D
Redemption Song TAB – first chorus
There you see the TAB for the first chorus of Redemption Song. Once again we’re based around the DDU UDU strumming pattern and once again we’re using some simple open chords. The TAB for this part should be easy enough to figure out but just remember to keep an eye on those repeat marks.
Redemption Song first chorus chord progression
G / C, D
G / C, D
Em / C, D
G / C, D
G / C, D
Redemption Song – second verse
The second verse of Redemption Song is similar to the first but not exactly the same. The strumming is the same and the chords that are used in the section are the same. We even have that same split bar after the E minor cropping up again.
There is a difference in the progression though. Take a look at the progression for this section. Not hard to digest.
Redemption Song second verse chord progression
G / Em / split bar / Am
G / Em / split bar / D
G / Em / split bar / Am
G / Em / split bar / D / D
Redemption Song – second chorus
The second chorus of Redemption song is extremely similar to the first. The only difference is that the very last couple of bars are repeated 1 more time.
Redemption Song second chorus chord progression
G / C, D
G / C, D
Em / C, D
G / C, D
G / C, D
G / C, D
Redemption song – Bridge / instrumental section
The instrumental part or the bridge section is a nice simple part. 1 bar of E minor followed by half a bar of C major and half a bar of D major. Repeat 4 times.
This is a part where you can come away from the DDU UDU strumming pattern and play around with some pam muting. This is probably the part of the song where you can experiment most with the strumming. At this point I’m wondering if you actually need the chords writing out for some of these parts but I guess it doesn’t hurt.
Redemption song bridge instrumental section chord progression
E / C, D
E / C, D
E / C, D
E / C, D
Redemption Song verse 3
Verse 3 follows the instrumental section and great news, nothing new to learn. Verse 3 is exactly the same as verse 2 so simply repeat that. The same can’t be said for the third and final chorus of the song.
Redemption Song third chorus
That TAB may look different to the other chorus parts but it is still quite similar to the others. This one just has a slightly different chord progression that’s all. The chords used are the same and the strumming is the same. Here is the progression.
Redemption Song chorus 3 chord progression
G / C, D
G / C, D
Em / C, D
G / C, D
Em / C, D
Em / C, D
G / C, D
Redemption Song – outro section
The final chorus of Redemption song merges really nicely into the outro. Here’s the TAB that immediately follows that last verse.
This is actually quite simple. We have a bar of G followed by that split bar that we were using in the verse sections. After that we have 2 bars of A minor and then finally we have 2 bars of an A minor 6th chord. This can be played by simply adding the F# note found at the 2nd fret of the high E string to a standard A minor open shape.
Conclusion
There you have it. That’s how to play Redemption Song by Bob Marley. This is one of my favourite Bob Marley songs and I know a lot of other people love it as well so enjoy. The guitar riff makes the songs instantly recognisable and the rest of the song is based around a few simple chords and some basic strumming. There’s some subtle changes in the chords here and there which some online lessons have missed but apart from that, Redemption Song is pretty easy to pick up.
What next?
I’m really glad that you found the Redemption song TAB / guitar lesson. This is a really fun little song to play and it’s very relaxing indeed. If you enjoyed this one then you may like the 8 Days a Week guitar lesson. Or maybe the Stand By Me guitar lesson or even the My Girl guitar lesson.
Perhaps you’re in the mood for something a little heavier. If so, try the Paranoid TAB and guitar lesson.
Hello. My name is Ryan J Mellor and I play the guitar. I’m also the creator of Eat Sleep Guitar Repeat. I’ve ben a guitarist for many years and my guitar playing has been described as “above average”. My guitar and music knowledge is somewhat impressive but most importantly, I have a passion for creating great guitar and music related content.