Yellowstone

Yellowstone is a Paramount TV series created by Taylor Sheridan — the writer behind Sicario, Hell or High Water, and Wind River. Kevin Costner plays John Dutton, a father fighting to protect his ranch — the largest in the United States — from land developers and a neighboring Indian reservation. Think The Godfather set in the American West, with stunning mountain backdrops, family feuds, betrayals, and unlikely alliances.

I love this opening theme and title sequence. Composer Brian Tyler gives it a slight Spanish character, which told me right away the chord progression would translate well to guitar. There are some beautifully dissonant chord shapes woven throughout that I found really compelling — and I’m excited to borrow a few of those ideas for my own music.

You can find more pieces like this in my 2 Minute Classical Guitar Archive.

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How to play the Yellowstone theme for guitar

The guitar tab for Yellowstone is beautifully written across two pages. Although there’s some Gustavo Santaolalla-esque trills in my arrangement — the piece is under two minutes — making it doable for beginner guitarists. However, I do recommend it for intermediate guitar players and up.

Enjoy, the guitar tab is available below:

The guitar tab is 2 pages long, and is comprised of a long verse passage that you’ll play twice. The repeated section is within the |: repeat :| brackets. The arrangement is simple:

Intro

Verse 2x.

I’ve also given you the names of the chord shapes, to help you play the guitar tab more efficiently (and learn your chord shapes ;)

[guitar tab] **Yellowstone: theme | fingerstyle guitar

The Yellowstone theme is played in standard tuning.