Born to Run is the iconic and EPIC song that became Bruce Springsteen's biggest anthem of all time. In this tutorial, I teach you how to play the chords, the authentic-sounding accompaniment strategy ALL of the amazing details. You are going to LOVE this one!

Lyrics and Chords printable for Born to Run

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Born to Run is the iconic Bruce Springsteen hit from his 1975 studio album Born to Run. It was a huge hit in the US, but was met with little initial success overseas. The song is frenetic and programmatic and feels very complicated (to say the least!). In fact, there are several repeated concepts throughout the bulk of the harmony is a standard I - IV - V - I progress in the key of E major.

In this Born to Run piano tutorial, we follow the usual four step protocol for learning to sing and play songs, but the song is so EPIC that we will be adding a few extra steps. This tutorial will be challenging, but it is 100% worth it!

In this tutorial, we follow the usual four step protocol for learning to sing and play songs.

Step #1: Learn the intro/hook

Step #2: Learn the chords

Step #3: Learn the accompaniment strategy TRESILLO

Step #4: Learn the "extras"

Step #5: Learn the bridge

Step #6: Put it all together

Step #1: Learn the chords to Born to Run

Lyrics and chords to Born to Run

Need to learn chords?

Chord voicing strategy

For the rest of the written tutorial, check out The Versatile Musician!

Put it all together

Remember that you can (and should!) customize this to fit your skill level. If the chord inversions are too challenging for you, then play them all root position. If you want to level it up, try altering the groove or adding some solo fills.

Try to avoid getting stuck in the little details! The goal is for you to learn to sing and play more songs - not drown in a pool of perfectionism. Have fun - it’s only music!

Black background with a photo of Brenda Earle Stokes singing into a microphone sitting at a keyboard. Turquoise lettering reads "Let's Learn Songs"

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