Love Me Tender

Love Me Tender

(adapted from the folk tune Aura Lee)

   Here is a guitar arrangement for the popular tune Love Me Tender, made famous by the 1956 recording (and movie) by Elvis Presley.  The melody was adapted from an almost century-old original Civil War era folk tune called "Aura Lee."

  This particular arrangement is in the key of C.  The melody and double-stops, in particular, work and flow better in this key.   

   Accompaniment can be with a bass & strum combination, where the player will first play the BASS note of each chord, and follow with three slow down strums.   Walk-ups and walk-downs of bass notes can be implemented to provide more of a rhythmic flow to the song.

   NOTE : For those of you beginning players who are still having trouble with "barre" chords, don't give up.  Keep working on chords like F, etc. until you get the hang and master them.  However, in this tune, the chord Fmaj7 will work fine as a substitute for F; in fact, the major 7th gives the transition at the end of the third line an even deeper sound.   For those who have mastered playing the "barre" chords, you can also add an Fminor after the F or Fmaj7, before returning to the C chord.  (see chord charts below)

CHORD CHARTS

x = do not play     o = open string / note

The Fmaj7 chord is played with the first three fingers (1-2-3).

   Fminor is played as a one-finger barre chord with the first finger.

(See above NOTE about Chord Substitution and Barre Chords).