Tabs Man Who Sold The World

How to Play David Bowie's The Man Who Sold The World on Guitar

Most people learn this song wrong because they treat it like a standard E-open chord strummed with a pick. It isn't. The recording uses an open D tuning (D-A-D-A-D-F#) or a very close approximation, and the picking pattern is what makes the whole thing sound right. Fingerstyle is non-negotiable here. If you're using a pick you'll get the rhythm wrong within the first bar and never recover. I learned this in 2009 from a battered tab book that had the tuning listed as just "open D" without any explanation of how the fingering actually maps to that tuning. I spent two weeks thinking I was playing it correctly until someone pointed out that the bass notes were completely off. The tuning itself is the first thing to lock down.

Tabs Man Who Sold The World

Standard tuning will work if you're willing to play it like a barré-heavy folk song, but it loses half the character. Here's the proper tuning: Low E string tuned down to D A string stays at A D string stays at D G string tuned down to A B string stays at B High E string stays at D That gives you D-A-D-A-D-Fwhich is the chord you strum open and it's basically D6 with no third on top. The recording sounds a bit darker than a standard D major, which is exactly why the tuning matters.

The Chords You Actually Need

The entire song is four chords. Four. But the voicings are specific and if you swap one out for a simpler version you'll notice immediately that it sounds hollow. D minor — fret the high E string at the 1st fret with your index finger, then hammer-on from the 3rd to the 4th fret with your ring finger. That's the signature riff. Your middle finger holds the D string at the 2nd fret. That's the whole shape. One shape, repeated, just moving the bass note around. Here's the tab for the main riff:

e|---1-3-4---1-3-4---| B|-------------------| G|-------------------| D|-----2-------------| A|-------------------| D|-------------------| The A/Cis just that same shape slid down one fret. D minor becomes D minor with the bass on C#. Then the Bm7 shape is identical but moved down two more frets from the original position. It's a moving bass line, the chord shape barely changes. That's the whole trick. The left hand is almost lazy here.

The Progression and Structure

Verse goes Dm — A/C— Dm — A/C— Bm7 — F — C — G. That's it. The verse loops that. The chorus opens with the same Dm riff but then goes Dm — G — Dm — G and feels more open because you're holding the G chord longer and letting it ring. Tab for the verse progression strumming pattern — down, down-up, up-down-up. Keep it sparse. This isn't a song that needs volume, it needs space between the notes. The original track has a lot of room noise and reverb. You don't need a pedal for this, just play clean and don't mash the strings. Here's the chorus riff in tab form:

e|---1-3-4---1-3-4---| B|-------------------| G|-------------------| D|-----2-------------| A|-------------------| D|-------------------| Same shape. Same movement. The chorus just changes the chord underneath it to G.

The Bridge

This is where most people mess up. The bridge is Dm — A/C— G — Dm and it's played slightly slower, more deliberately. The G chord here is an open G but you want to let it ring through the transition back to Dm rather than lifting your fingers cleanly. A little bleed between the chords makes it sound right. Early on I kept getting a buzzing sound on the G string when I slid from the Dm shape into the A/C#. Turns out I was muting the G string unintentionally with my picking hand because I was using too much wrist and not enough finger isolation. The fix was ridiculous simple: I stopped trying to palm-mute the low strings and just let them ring. The open tuning handles the damping for you if you're not fighting it. Once I stopped choking the strings, the buzz disappeared and the whole thing sounded like something you'd actually hear on the album. First, don't rush the tempo. The song sits at around 72 BPM and if you speed it up it falls apart because the bass movement becomes muddy. Second, don't use a capo. Some players put a capo on the 5th fret and play in standard tuning shapes and while it's passable live it doesn't match the recording at all and you lose the resonance that makes the open strings work together. Third, don't use heavy distortion. This song is cleaner than most people remember. A little warmth from a tube amp or a soft overdrive pedal is fine, but anything harder sounds grungy in the wrong way.

You can absolutely play this song in standard tuning. It's doable. You'll use a lot of barré chords and the sound will be thinner. The Dm shape becomes a Dm/E or a Dm add9 depending on how you voice it. The A/Cbecomes a weird Cminor shell voicing that requires your pinky. It works for a campfire version but it doesn't capture the harmonic richness of the open tuning. If you're doing a cover and the audience just wants to hear the melody, standard tuning is fine. If you care about the texture, tune it properly. There are a bunch of tab sites with this song and most of them are wrong about the tuning. Tabsite and Ultimate Guitar both have versions but check the tuning at the top of the tab before you trust it. The correct tuning is DADGBD. If a tab says standard tuning, it's either an arrangement or it's incorrect. I keep a personal reference copy saved locally because the online versions change or disappear. The actual audio reference you should use is the 1970 Mercury Records pressing of The Man Who Sold The World, not the Nirvana cover. The Nirvana version is faster, fuzzier, and in a completely different tuning. If you're trying to play Bowie's version, listen to Bowie's version. The song appears on the album The Man Who Sold The World, released November 1970. Writing credits go entirely to Bowie. The chord progressions and tuning are straightforward once you hear them in context, which is why practicing along with the record is more useful than any tab book you'll find. The picking hand does more of the work than the fretting hand here. Get the right tuning, keep your fingers relaxed, and stop trying to play louder than the song needs.