Sam Smith: Dancing With a Stranger | fingerstyle guitar
Photo by alexey turenkov on Unsplash

Dancing With a Stranger

I’ve been teaching this song to my students recently, and it’s become a bit of an earworm for me. I’ve long been a Sam Smith fan. In some instances, Smith does have a whinny tenor — but most of the work is a dazzling display of vocal control, runs, and phrasing. I had to get Dancing With a Stranger on to my guitar — if just to get it out of my head.

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How to play Dancing With a Stranger | fingerstyle guitar

This guitar tab is beautifully written across 3 pages. While I’m not playing any difficult guitar shapes, I recommend this piece for intermediate guitar players an up. The chord positions are easy, but you’ll have to be agile with the little clusters of notes. Enjoy, the guitar tab is available below:

My order of play looks like this in accordance with the guitar tab:

Verse #1, Chorus 2x, Post Chorus #1

Verse #2, Chorus 2x, Post Chorus #2.

**Sam Smith: Dancing With a Stranger | fingerstyle guitar

My arrangement of Dancing With a Stranger is played in standard tuning.

However, the actual key of song would have you place a capo on the 1st fret. I find that it also sounds really good with a capo on the 2nd fret (which make the fret board easier to read as well).

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