Sunshine Of Your Love | Chords + Lyrics
Intro
||: D blues scale riff :|| x8
Verse 1
||: D blues scale riff :|| x8
It’s getting near dawn, when lights close their tired eyes.
I’ll soon be with you my love, to give you my dawn surprise.
| G riff | G riff | G5 G7 | G riff G7#9 ||: D blues scale riff :|| x4
I’ll be with you darling soon, I’ll be with you when the stars start falling.
Chorus 1
| A | C/G G |
I’ve been waiting so long,
| A | C G/D |
to be where I’m going,
| A7 | C5 G5 | A5 | A5 | D riff | D riff |
in the sunshine of your love.
Verse 2
I’m with you my love, the light’s shining through on you.
Yes, I’m with you my love, it’s the morning, and just we two.
I’ll stay with you darling now, I’ll stay with you till my seeds are all dried up.
Chorus 2
I’ve been waiting so long,
to be where I’m going,
| A7 | C G5 | A | A7 A7#9 |
in the sunshine of your love.
Solo
||: D blues scale riff :|| x8
| G riff | G riff | G5 G7 | G riff |
||: D blues scale riff :|| x4
| A5 | C/G G5 | A5 | C/G G5 |
| A7 | C/G G5 | A | A7 |
||: D riff :|| x4
Verse 3
I’m with you my love, the light shining through on you.
Yes, I’m with you my love, it’s the morning, and just we two.
I’ll stay with you darling now, I’ll stay with you till my seeds are all dried up.
Chorus 3
I’ve been waiting so long, I’ve been waiting so long.
I’ve been waiting so long, I’ve been waiting so long.
| A | C5 G | A | A7 | A7 | A7#9 | D riff | D riff D7#9 |
To be where I’m going, in the sunshine of your love.
Sunshine Of Your Love Chords: Learn the progressions
To be free and able to improvise, you must understand the chords and progressions of Sunshine Of Your Love. You must focus on how it changes/builds for each section, and be able to play the riff and chords anywhere on the neck.
The intro is just the riff which is built on the D Minor Blues Scale.
The first verse then moves that riff to chord IV, like this:
||: D blues scale riff :|| x8
| G riff | G riff | G5 G7 | G riff G7#9 |
||: D blues scale riff :|| x4
The chorus starts at chord V, then uses a chord outside the key, a bVIIx (C). Here are the Sunshine Of Your Love’s chorus chords:
| A | C/G G | A | C G/D |
| A7 | C5 G5 | A5 | A5 | D riff | D riff |
In my arrangement, the second verse adds a D7#9.
Chorus 2 is not the same as the first. Making subtle changes like this is what brings an arrangement alive, it looks like this:
| A7 | C5 G5 | A5 | C5 G/D |
| A7 | C G5 | A | A7 A7#9 |
The solo stays on the D longer, before we return to a verse again. This is followed by verse 3.
The final chorus repeats more times and stays on A for longer, like this:
| A | C5 G | A | C G |
| A | C5 G | A | C G |
| A | C5 G | A | A7 | A7 | A7#9 | D riff | D riff D7#9 |
Here’s a chord chart I made for you.
Sunshine Of Your Love Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro
Verse 1 and 2 don’t have a G7#9, only verse 3 does, I decided to put it in the chart for the verse as a whole, rather than leave it out.
For the chorus, there are more changes, they were catered for using 1, 2, 3 and end variations.
Should you want to download this chart, here’s a PDF: Sunshine Of Your Love Chord Chart PDF.
This chart was created using iRealPro, here’s a link to that file: Sunshine Of Your Love iReal Pro.
Below you find what is most important, to play that riff in as many areas as possible. you must do this to become free and able to improvise when playing Sunshine Of Your Love.
Sunshine Of Your Love TAB | Course Preview
My version of Sunshine Of Your Love is a combination of Cream‘s original and Spanky Wilson‘s cover.
I do wish I could have integrated Ella Fitzgerald‘s version as well but I guess you can’t win them all!
Using the main riff as a starting point, the chords have sometimes been extended to a dom7#9.
Spanky’s version uses this chord and since it is Jimi Hendrix’s signature chord, and Jack Bruce wrote this tune on the back of an early Hendrix gig in London, I kept that in.
To keep the arrangement interesting and build tension, the chords and riffs are varied by finding different shapes.
This type of approach is more likely to keep a song alive compared to using muscle memory and set parts like you would have to in a strict rock band. It also makes it more fun to jam with friends.
Perhaps most importantly, if you always play like this, writing parts for your songs becomes easier.
Above, you find a play–along TAB loop for example 1 when we play in the open position. Here it is as an image.
In the course, there are 9 more examples like this looking at different ways to play it, adding flourishes and trying different areas of the neck.
The chords are not that complicated, it is more a case of “what you do with it”. And to know “what to do with it”, you must have played it everywhere just like the lesson above demonstrated.
In the course, you get loops and TAB to practice all the variations, not just for the riff, but all sections of the song. We even learn how to adapt that legendary solo to the acoustic guitar.
Here’s a link to the 8 step-by-step guitar lessons: Sunshine Of Your Love – Guitar Lessons with TAB.
Sunshine Of Your Love’s solo was possible because Clapton changed strings!
Eric Clapton‘s solo on the original recording is fantastic. Using huge bends, he manipulates the minor and major thirds, as well as the bluesy b5 better than most.
In the mid-’60s when this was recorded, Eric had been pronounced a God in his native England. Nobody could believe their eyes as he played lightning-fast blues solos to adoring fans on the London live scene.
One of Eric’s secrets was that he swapped his 3rd string for one that was plain, just like the E and B naturally are. This gave him less tension and the possibility to bend further. Today this is of course standard on all electric guitars, at the time it was revolutionary.
As we learn this on the acoustic guitar, we can’t play those huge bends since our acoustic strings are (still) too heavy.
To solve this, the solo has been moved down the neck and instead of massive bends, we switch frets. Somebody should have pointed this out to Eric at the time!
In the advanced acoustic guitar course, four steps are spent on learning the Sunshine Of Your Love solo by starting slowly and nailing every note until it sounds like Clapton played it.
Notice how he references the melody of Blue Moon at the beginning of the solo, this and the play on straight vs swung demonstrates the musical humour Cream as a band possessed.
Sunshine Of Your Love Chords | Related Pages
Sunshine Of Your Love | 8 Step-by-step Guitar Lessons + TAB
The most difficult part of playing Sunshine Of Your Love is the solo. All those huge bends have to be changed to work on the acoustic guitar.
Learning the riff, the turnaround, and practising the blues scale is in comparison super simple, this is a proper classic with so much to teach us.
Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics
- Born Under A Bad Sign chords by Albert King
- Get Ready chords by The Temptations
- I Can’t Stand The Rain chords by Ann Peebles
- Piece of My Heart chords by Janis Joplin
- Soul Man chords by Sam & Dave
Eric Clapton tunes
As well as a member of bands like Derek & The Dominos, The Yardbirds, and Cream, Eric Clapton has successfully played sessions for more stars than any other guitar player.
His long career earned him three inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame.
Eric Clapton on the web
Cream tunes
The 60s British super-group that Eric Clapton joined after his time with John Mayhall and The Bluesbreakers was Cream.
Cream’s sound could be described as a hybrid of blues, pop, and psychedelic rock. Hits include Crossroads, Sunshine Of Your Love, Strange Brew, and White Room.
Cream on the web
Spanky Wilson tunes
Spanky Wilson is an American vocalist best known for her version of Sunshine Of Your Love, by Cream.
Wilson has shared the stage alongside many Soul and Jazz legends, including Marvin Gaye, Sammy Davis Jr., Jimmy McGriff, and Jimmy Smith.
Spanky Wilson on the web
About me | Dan Lundholm
This was a guitar lesson about Sunshine Of Your Love chords, by Dan Lundholm. Discover more about him and how you can learn guitar with Spytunes.
Most importantly, find out why you should learn guitar through playing tunes, not practising scales, and studying theory in isolation.
