I Miss Youby Randy Newman

Randy Newman is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, composer, and pianist known for his non-rhotic Southern-accented singing style, early Americana-influenced songs, often with mordant or satirical lyrics, and various film scores. 

His career earned him 22 Academy Award nominations (2 wins), three Emmys and seven Grammy Awards. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002 and to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013.

I Miss You, taken from his 9th studio album ‘Bad Love’ (1999), is probably his most personal song ever, written about/for his ex-wife. 

He performs it on a piano, as he usually does, and this lesson shows a way how to play it on guitar. The fingerpicking arrangement is a mixture of his playing, as well as some of his vocal melody lines. 

The original recording is in the key of D, but we break down the many chords and fingerings for each part of the song in the key of C, where the guitar is capoed on the 2nd fret. We also take a close look at the right hand as in how you could fingerpick your way through it, as well as how I personally might do it. 

We break down the progression, which has a few twists and turns, with for example a couple of time signature changes, in particular in the intro.

Please take note that it isn’t a beginners song, and one must be generally comfortable fingerpicking.