Learning "Sometimes I Like To Be Alone" — A Practical Guide
This is a Harry Nilsson song from 1969, originally on the album Aerial Ballet. It's one of those tracks that sounds simple on first listen but fights you the moment you try to play it. The chords themselves aren't brutal. What trips people up is the tempo changes, the vocal phrasing, and the way Nilsson handles the bridge. Here's how to actually get it right instead of just muddling through. The key is D major. Standard tuning. If you look at a chord chart online, you'll see D, G, A, Bm repeated in a pattern that basically never changes. That's the trap. The song isn't hard because of the chords. It's hard because Nilsson plays with the pocket throughout — he rushes the verses slightly and drags the chorus just enough to make it feel conversational. If you play it straight 4/4 like a metronome, it sounds like a corporate ukulele cover. Which nobody wants. I spent about three weeks trying to nail the bridge section in particular. The progression shifts to Bm for a bar, then jumps to G in a way that doesn't land on the one the way your muscle memory expects. My first workaround was to slow it down to 50% speed on a loop pedal and map out exactly where each chord change happened relative to the snare hit. Once I could see the grid, the transitions stopped feeling random. They weren't random, they were just intentionally off-kilter.
Chord Voicings That Actually Work
Open position chords will get you through the basics, but they sound muddy because this arrangement calls for some specific voicings. Here's what I end up using: D major: x-x-0-2-3-2 (the add2 sound Nilsson uses on the record). Don't strum the low D string on the bass — it clashes with the vocal line. G major: 3-2-0-0-0-3. Standard open G works too but the 3-fret bass note on the low E string gives it more definition when you're playing alongside a vocal melody that lives in a similar register.
Bm: x-2-4-4-3-2. Barre version. The open position Bm7 (x-2-2-3-2) sounds nice but it changes the character of the bridge. Nilsson uses the fuller barre chord for a reason — it darkens the mood shift before the chorus comes back in. A major: x-0-2-2-2-0. Fairly standard. Don't overthink it.
Get the Full Details
The Strumming Pattern
Most tutorials show a basic down-down-up-up-down-up pattern and call it a day. That's wrong for this song. The actual feel is closer to a shuffled 6/8 meter even though it's written in 4/4. Think of it in groups of three eighth notes: down, down-up, down, down-up. The second "down" in each group lands slightly ahead of the beat, which creates that forward momentum Nilsson is known for. If you're using a pick, hold it a bit looser than normal. Grip it between your thumb and the side of your index finger, not the pad. This lets the pick bounce off the strings naturally on the upstrokes and gives you that slightly loose, lazy feel that matches the lyric. A tight grip makes everything sound rigid and over-processed.
Vocal Phrasing Notes
Nilsson's vocal on this track sits about a half-step below his usual range for this period, which suggests he might have been recording in a slightly lower key than the standard transposition. The melody line for "Sometimes I like to be alone" starts on the fifth of the chord (A against D major) and resolves to the third (F#). That's why it sounds wistful rather than confident. When you're learning the vocal, don't force the A note. Let it hang for a fraction of a beat before dropping to F#. I found that recording myself with just the acoustic guitar and then listening back at 0.75x speed revealed gaps in my phrasing I hadn't noticed. Specific issue: the line "it's nice to be with somebody" — most people rush through "somebody" because it feels like filler. It isn't. Nilsson stresses it on the offbeat and it carries the emotional weight of the whole verse. Treat it like the important word it is.
Resources and Recordings
The original recording is on Aerial Ballet, 1969, RCA Victor. If you want to study the actual performance rather than a studio approximation, look for the 1971 live performances from The Midnight Special — the arrangement is slightly different but you can hear the guitar parts more clearly without the orchestral overdubs muddying the mix. For tab and chord charts, Songsterr has a decent crowd-sourced version but it's not perfectly accurate on the bridge timing. I'd recommend cross-referencing with the official sheet music from Hal Leonard if you can find it, or just learning by ear from the record. This song rewards ear training more than it rewards reading tablature.
Common Pitfalls to Avoid
Don't use a capo and try to match the vocal key by shifting everything. Yes, it's convenient. Yes, every YouTube tutorial tells you to put a capo on the second fret and play in C shapes. But capo on two changes the timbre entirely and makes the D add2 voicing sound thin. Play it in D with real fretting hand muscles. Your fingers will complain for about a week and then you'll stop needing the capo crutch. Also don't play the chords harder than necessary. Nilsson's guitar tone on this record is relatively clean and undistorted. Heavy picking or aggressive strumming destroys the intimacy of the arrangement. Light touch, let the chords ring, and don't mute the strings between changes unless the next chord specifically requires it. The song runs about 2 minutes 50 seconds. At the recorded tempo it's roughly 72 beats per minute with that shuffle feel I mentioned. Practice at that tempo from day one even if you can't quite make it work cleanly yet. Building muscle memory at 60 BPM and then trying to jump to 72 later is how you end up with sloppy transitions under pressure. Start at the target speed, slow down only if you absolutely need to for a specific section, and gradually build back up.
Some people have reported success with a hybrid picking approach — pick the bass note with the pick and finger the higher strings with the middle and ring fingers. It gives cleaner separation between the bass movement and the chordal texture. I personally prefer the traditional strumming approach because it's closer to the original feel, but hybrid picking is worth experimenting with if your fingers are small or you're having trouble with the barre chord changes.
