Song lesson
Both Sides Now — guitar lesson in Open D
A slow, kind lesson in the song Joni Mitchell wrote — taught in Open D tuning, with the guitar part broken into small pieces and real help for singing it at the same time.
The problem this lesson actually solves
Most people who write to me about this song can already make the chords. What stops them is the same three things every time: the guitar and the voice refuse to happen at once, the tuning looks intimidating written down, and every version online seems to be played faster than a human being could sing it.
So the lesson is built around those three problems, in that order — coordination, the fretboard, and the pace. Nothing is rushed, and nothing assumes you can read music.
Learning the tuning without fear
Open D (D A D F♯ A D) is what gives this song its ringing, unresolved quality. Strummed open it is already a chord, which means most of the shapes you need are one or two fingers. I show you how to get into the tuning string by string, what it should sound like when you have it right, and how to find your way back to standard afterwards. If tunings are new to you, start with the beginner-friendly guide to alternate tunings.
Seeing it, not decoding it
Alongside the video you get follow-along notation, tab and a moving fretboard view, so you can watch exactly where the fingers go, slow a passage right down, and loop the bar that keeps collapsing until it behaves. No standard-notation reading required — there is a whole free guide on that if you want the background first.
Playing and singing it together
This is the part most lessons skip. I walk through where the words sit against the chord changes, which lines to speak in rhythm before you sing them, and how to simplify the right hand until your voice has room. More on the method in how to play and sing at the same time.
What you get
- Video instruction, section by section, at a pace you can follow.
- Follow-along notation, tab and fretboard you can slow down and loop.
- Open D tuning walkthrough and the chord shapes the song needs.
- Guidance for singing it while you play.
- The printable illustrated Field Guide for this song — ready now, yours to keep and print.
- Ongoing access from your library, so you can come back to it whenever you like.
The Shepherdess Play + Sing Guide, a separate companion booklet, is still being finished. When it is ready it will appear in your library free — it is not part of what you are paying for today.
Who it's for
Adults coming back to the guitar after years away, people who have never played in an alternate tuning, and anyone who wants one beautiful song played properly rather than twenty played roughly. Beginner to intermediate.
"Both Sides Now" was written by Joni Mitchell. This is an independent instructional lesson offering my own teaching and arrangement guidance. It is not affiliated with, licensed by, or endorsed by Joni Mitchell or her publishers, and it does not include recordings of her performances.