How to Play “Sleepwalk” on the 3-String Guitar! Guitar TABs Included!

“Sleepwalk” by Santo and Johnny is one of the most recognizable instrumental melodies in Rock & Roll history. It’s one of those songs that, within the first few notes, recalls the absolute essence of an era. The distinctive melody was originally written and recorded for lap steel guitar, with rhythm section laying down a tasteful harmonic and rhythmic bed. This 3-String arrangement of the song is a chord/melody arrangement, meaning the melody is played on the higher strings, and the harmony (chord changes & bassline) are played on the lower strings. Essentially, you are playing the entire band’s music on 3 strings.

I’ve written out the tablature below to correspond to the video above. It’s in Open G tuning (G-D-G) using the A, D, & G string from a standard 6-string pack.

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