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This is a truly classic, country, camp fire guitar song.

Always On My Mind is one of Willie Nelson’s most well-known hit (1982) although the song was originally sung by Gwen McCrae (as “You Were Always On My Mind”) and Brenda Lee in 1972.

It was covered by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes and of course the king of rock and roll himself, Elvis Prestley in 1972!

For today’s post, we will be learning how to play the Willie Nelson version of the song.

Other Acoustic/Country Songs on Riffriff.com:

• HOW TO PLAY “ALWAYS ON MY MIND” – BY WILLIE NELSON – GUITAR TUTORIAL LESSON
• LEARN TO PLAY THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN’ BY BOB DYLAN
• I WALK THE LINE BY JOHNNY CASH – LEARN HOW TO PLAY
• LEADER OF THE BAND – HOW TO PLAY ON GUITAR
• KNOW HOW TO PLAY RING OF FIRE BY JOHNNY CASH

How to Play Always on My Mind

Just like other easy songs that we discussed before, in order to play this song we need to know the chords, the chord progression, the strumming pattern and some important points about the song like the descending bass notes on the verses.

Buy Willie Nelson’s Guitar:

Always On My Mind Guitar Chords

On with the chords!

The song is in the key of D major and so the chords are all related to that key. We have the following guitar chords:

For the intro: G — D/F# — Em7 — A7sus4 — A7
All those chords should span 2 bars. That means G and D/F3 gets 1 bar and the rest the other bar with A7sus4, A7 receive 2 beats each.

For the verses:
D — A/C# — Bm – Bm/A – G – A
D — A/C# — Bm – Bm/A – E/G# – EFor the chorus:
G — D — G — D/F# — Em7 — D (B) A
D — D/B — D/F# — G —

Strumming Pattern for Always on My Mind

The song is in 4/4 time and it is important to know that the strumming pattern is lose and relaxed.

A simple D – D – DU DU strumming pattern can be used or D D DU UD.

Just remember that the song is slow, mellow and the strumming pattern can be a relaxed one.

Please watch the video and see how I strum the chords on the song.

Until next time!