Chords + Lyrics | On the Road Again
Intro
||: E | E :||
Verse 1
| E | E | G# |
On the road again, just can’t wait to get on the road again.
| G# | F#m |
The life I love is making music with my friends.
| A B7 | E |
And I can’t wait to get on the road again.
Verse 2
On the road again, goin’ places that I’ve never been.
Seein’ things that I may never see again.
And I can’t wait to get on the road again.
Bridge 1
||: A | A | E :||
On the road again, like a band of gypsies we go down the highway.
We’re the best of friends, insisting that the world keep turning our way.
| B7 N.C |
And our way.
Verse 3
Is on the road again, I just can’t wait to get on the road again.
The life I love is makin’ music with my friends.
And I can’t wait to get on the road again.
Solo
||: E | E | G# |
| G# | F#m | A B7 | E :||
Bridge 2
On the road again, like a band of gypsies, we go down the highway.
We’re the best of friends, insisting that the world keep turning our way.
And our way.
Verse 4
Is on the road again, just can’t wait to get on the road again.
The life I love is makin’ music with my friends.
And I can’t wait to get on the road again.
| A B7 | E | A B7 | E |
And I can’t wait to get on the road again.
On the Road Backing Tracks | Chord Analysis
Above, you’ll find backing tracks to use when learning On the Road. I’ve used stem separation to extract the guitar while keeping the drums, bass, keys, and vocals intact.
After studying the chords and TAB, use my backing tracks to prepare for playing this tune with a band.
Should you want to play along with the original recording instead, you need to tune your guitar sharp to 441Hz. In the backing tracks, I’ve done this job for you by tuning it to 440Hz.
Chord Progressions – What’s Going On?
Played in the key of E, On The Road Again features a chord progression of unusual length. The verse is 7 bars long and goes like this:
| E (I) | E | G# (IIIx) |
| G# | F#m (II) |
| A (IV) B7 (V) | E (I) |
In Roman numerals, we start on chord I, move to IIIx, or the mediant major, as it’s sometimes called. This is followed by II – IV – V – I.
Bridge
The bridge starts on chord IV, giving the feeling of hitting the road toward new adventures. It then moves to chord I, repeats, and finishes on chord V with a stop:
||: A (IV) | A | E (I) :||
| B7 (V) N.C |
I’ve designed three pieces of TAB for playing the verse and three for the bridge, find this further down this guitar lesson.
Once you’ve studied the chords, lyrics, and TAB enough to feel organised, this chord chart will be all you need to take with you as you play with the backing tracks and then go on the road again.
On The Road Again Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro
Should you want to download this chart, here’s a PDF: On The Road Again chord chart PDF.
This chord chart was created using iReal Pro, here’s a link to that file: On The Road Again iReal Pro. Using this and the iRealPro app, you can change the key.
On The Road | TAB
On the Road Again is a great opportunity to improve your fast country picking using a plectrum. Start slowly, and practise each example for as long as you can bear.
When you feel ready, play each idea along with the backing tracks (for example, verse idea 1 + bridge idea 1). Methodically work your way through all ideas like this over several days before you let go and start blending them together.
Doing this with a tune is much, much better than using some silly exercise—make the tune the exercise, that’s my philosophy!
Here’s verse idea 1 in TAB:
Now here’s verse idea 2:
And here’s the TAB for verse idea 3. This one’s much more difficult—I’ve taken the intro lick and incorporated it into the picking pattern, then adapted it for all the chords. Remember to start slowly, use a metronome
Let’s apply this approach to the bridge as well. Here’s bridge idea 1:
In this first example, due to how the pattern sits on the fretboard, we get an A5 instead of a full A chord. That’s fine if other instruments are filling out the harmony—and even if you’re playing solo, it’ll all work out once you’re confidently blending ideas.
Here’s bridge idea 2 in TAB:
And finally, bridge idea 3. Take it slowly, come back again tomorrow if you need to.
The step from playing this fluently to improvising and adding country licks isn’t that big. Getting the foundation right—being able to play all these patterns along with the backing track—is the biggest leap. Take your time!
On the Road Again Chords: Continue Learning
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