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Pink Floyd - Breathe - Guitar Lesson

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Key Em minor
Pink Floyd - Breathe guitar lesson video
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The Dark Side of the Moon album cover
The Dark Side of the Moon
1973 2:50
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Pink Floyd Progressive Rock 1973 Em minor
Capo Advisor 0 Em minor · Original key

About Breathe

Few songs reward slow, patient guitar playing quite like "Breathe" from Pink Floyd's 1973 record The Dark Side of the Moon. The heart of the guitar part is David Gilmour's floating, chord-melody approach: clean, spacious chord voicings sit under a pedal steel-influenced lead tone, and the whole thing breathes with the kind of unhurried feel that is surprisingly hard to maintain if you rush it. The key is E minor, which opens up some resonant open-string possibilities worth exploring as you work out your voicings. What catches most players off guard is not any individual note but the overall restraint: every phrase needs room around it, and digging in too hard or rushing the rhythm kills the mood immediately. Use the Practice Toolbar to loop the opening chord sequence slowed down until that relaxed, behind-the-beat feel sits naturally in your hands. Focus on your pick attack, keeping it light and even throughout.

  • The guitar tone relies heavily on clean amp settings with careful pick dynamics, so practising softly is as important as learning the notes.
  • Gilmour's lead lines use a pedal steel-influenced string-bending style, meaning smooth, controlled bends with solid vibrato are central to capturing the sound.
  • The chord voicings in E minor leave space for melodic movement on top, so practising them as chord-melody shapes will deepen your understanding of the part.

How to Play Breathe

Key: Em minor · Tempo: 69 BPM

Loop each section and focus on clean, even timing rather than speed, with the metronome at 69 BPM.

Fender Stratocaster
Guitar

Fender Stratocaster

Gilmour's 1969 Black Strat is his primary instrument, offering glassy neck pickup tones perfect for his singing bends and the warm, rounded character that defines Pink Floyd's melodic solos without harsh brightness.

Fender Telecaster
Guitar

Fender Telecaster

This workhorse guitar provided Gilmour with a brighter, more cutting tone for rhythm work and alternative textures, offering the snap and clarity needed for Pink Floyd's diverse sonic palette across studio and live performances.

Gibson Les Paul Standard
Guitar

Gibson Les Paul Standard

Gilmour's 1955 Les Paul Goldtop, fitted with original P-90 pickups, delivers the thick, gritty midrange essential for iconic solos like Comfortably Numb's outro, providing tonal weight and sustain that Strats cannot match.

Gibson Les Paul Custom
Guitar

Gibson Les Paul Custom

Though less documented than the Goldtop, this model would offer similar thick, sustained tones with enhanced versatility through multiple pickup switching, supporting Gilmour's need for varied textures within complex Pink Floyd arrangements.

Fender Twin Reverb
Amp

Fender Twin Reverb

Gilmour used Twin Reverbs for their exceptional clean headroom and built-in reverb, creating spacious, shimmering textures that complement his delay-heavy effects chain and define Pink Floyd's atmospheric, three-dimensional soundscapes.

Dunlop Cry Baby Wah
Pedal

Dunlop Cry Baby Wah

The Cry Baby opens Gilmour's effects chain, allowing expressive vocal-like phrasing on solos, integral to Pink Floyd's emotional delivery and creating dynamic dynamic tonal sweeps that enhance the band's psychedelic and progressive character.

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