How to play Lonely Stranger Eric Clapton Guitar Lesson

Improve your fingerpicking with this guitar lesson on how to play “Lonely Stranger” as recorded by Eric Clapton. 

This song is a unique hybrid of rhythm & blues, piano-style gospel chord progressions, and fingerpicking. 

Lonely Stranger" is a heartfelt ballad featured on Eric Clapton's iconic "Unplugged" album, released in 1992. The song showcases Clapton's ability to evoke deep emotions through his soulful guitar playing and heartfelt lyrics.

As part of the "Unplugged" session, "Lonely Stranger" stands out for its intimate atmosphere, recorded live in front of a small audience. The song reflects themes of longing, isolation, and the struggles of being a wandering soul in search of connection.

Clapton's delicate fingerpicking technique and subtle chord progressions contribute to the song's melancholic tone. In this post, I’ll share insights into his guitar style, and break this tune down step-by-step.

What key is Lonely Stranger in? 

“Lonely Stranger” is in the key of E major. 

Opening Blues Riffs

The song opens up with Eric Clapton riffing around with blues licks in the key of E. The primary scale being used here is the E minor blues scale. This can be played in the open position like this:

Those same strings and frets can be viewed like this as well:

6th string = 0, 3

5th string = 0, 1, 2

4th string =  0, 2

3rd string = 0, 2, 3

2nd string = 0, 3

1st string = 0, 3

The key of E is great for blues guitar because you can play a lot of open strings. Here is an example of a riff in this style using notes from the E minor blues scale. 

Clapton at the top of the song is just free-flowing through different phrases and licks in the key of E to set up the groove of the song which comes in next.

How do you play Lonely Stranger on guitar?

After the blues licks at the top of the song, Clapton comes in with this beautiful chord progression and groove that is all based on just 3 chords E, A/E, and Am6/9/E. Here’s how I would play each of these chord shapes.

E is just a standard open E chord like this: 

The A/E chord, which comes next is played like this:

And then finally the Am6/9/E would be played by just shifting one note in the A/E chord like this:

Now while these chords have more technical names in the video above, and also how I think about them is actually much simpler. For me, it is just an E, a type of A, and a type of Am.

So this could be thought of in Roman numerals as the I chord, to the IV chord, and then the minor iv chord.

E = I chord

A = IV chord

Am = iv chord 

The chords follow a 2 bar looping progression for the opening riff:

E, A/E (1 bar)

Am6/9/E, E (1 bar)

Groove

Now that you have those opening chords let’s next talk about the groove that flows through this entire song. Rhythmically the first chord in each measure is played on beat 1 while the second chord is syncopated and is played on the “and” of 2.

Here is an example of this rhythm in a Clapton-style turnaround chord progression. 

Rhythmically I would count out eighth notes like this:

1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +

E      C#m7

All throughout the song, this groove remains steady.

Fingerpicking: 

Clapton uses just his fingertips to play this song, no pick. Here is an example of how you can break up the chords using fingerpicking to create a groove in the style of this song. Begin by hammering into an open position E chord. First, play the 6th-string bass note, then hammer into the 1st fret on the 3rd string. This creates a bluesy inflection Clapton used throughout this entire album. From there play the open 2nd string and then move up to the A/E chord shape like this.

Then after a few more low E bass notes play the Am chord and shift back to the E chord like this:

Altogether it would go like this:

Verse

Next, the verse comes in after the intro and here Clapton uses a number of slash chords. 

A slash chord is a type of chord that incorporates a bass note other than the root note as the lowest pitch. Clapton used this technique all over the Unplugged record. These types of chords are represented by the chord symbol followed by a forward slash (/) and the bass note name. For example, like above we had an A/E, the slash indicates that the bass note is E, while the chord itself is A major.

Slash chords are commonly used to indicate inversions or alternate voicings of chords. They can provide a different harmonic texture or add a specific bass note to enhance the overall sound of the chord progression. The bass note can be played by either the guitarist's thumb or by fretting it with another finger while forming the rest of the chord.

You’ll need to know 7 more chords for the verse. These new chords are C#m7, F#7, G#m7, B, B/A, D/F#, and A/E. The A/E in the verse progression is played differently than the A/E used in the intro groove.

Here are these shapes:

Once the chord shapes feel comfortable try following this progression. Remember that we’ll use the groove from above playing 2 chords per bar. The First chord goes on the downbeat and the second chord goes on the “and of 2.”

E, A/E (1 bar)

C#m7, F#7 (1 bar)

G#m7, F#7 (1 bar)

B, B/A (1 bar)

That is the first half. Then the second half goes like this:

E, A/E (1 bar)

C#m7, F#7 (1 bar)

D/F#, A/E (1 bar)

Then from there, you tie in the opening groove progression:

Conclusion:

Learning to play Eric Clapton's "Lonely Stranger" on guitar is a great way to improve many aspects of our guitar playing. Throughout this blog, we explored Clapton's soulful style and fingerpicking progressions and grooves.

Clapton's Unplugged record holds immense importance for guitar players. It showcased his talent as both a blues artist and a songwriter, leaving a lasting impact on the guitar community.

Unplugged reminded us of the power in raw, emotional performances. It inspired countless guitarists to explore the acoustic realm and focus on expressiveness, dynamics, and storytelling through their instrument.

Clapton's ability to convey deep emotions through his guitar playing continues to inspire players at all levels. So keep practicing and for another great Clapton lesson check out “Crossroads” next!