Shallow

Shallow, by Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper, is a performance from their new film, A Star is Born — also directed by Bradley Cooper. While I haven’t seen the movie yet, Bradley Cooper sounds really good. One has to wonder if he might be able to parlay this into an actual music career — like Kris Kristofferson from the original 1976 version.

I normally don’t get into actors playing music — but Kris Kristofferson, Kevin Costner, and Jeff Bridges have been exceptions.

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How to play Shallow (instrumental) for acoustic guitar

I love the opening guitar line and verse sections of Shallow — but I must admit — I’m not sold on chorus section. Although, Lady gaga’s performance is amazing and the song as whole is growing on me.

Beyond the intro section, I wanted to incorporate elements of the vocal into the guitar part. I like it better that way, as it makes for a less repetitive guitar line.

I managed to condense this whole guitar tab neatly on two pages. My order of play looks like this in accordance with the guitar tab:

Intro, Verse #1 – 2x, Verse #2 – 2x, Interlude – 2x

Verse #1 – 2x, Verse #2 – 2x (skip final trill)

Chorus #1 – 2x, Chorus #2 – 2x

Bridge

Chorus #1 – 2x, Chorus #2 – 2x, End

My strumming pattern for the chorus section is D DU UD for every four dot (. . . .) symbol under the guitar tab. D means down and U means up. For the chords with only two dots (. .) I’m just playing the chord twice with two down strums.

With all of this being said, strumming should be intuitive and organic. If you’re able, please do your own thing as it will sound better.

Enjoy, the guitar tab is available below:

Shallow is played in standard tuning.

A Star Is Born: Shallow (instrumental acoustic guitar)

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