Fleetwood Mac - Landslide - Guitar Lesson

Fleetwood Mac

1975 3:19

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About Landslide

Few fingerpicked guitar parts in Fleetwood Mac's catalog are as immediately recognizable as the opening of "Landslide." Written by Stevie Nicks and recorded for their 1975 self-titled album, the song sits in Open D tuning, which gives the chord voicings a resonant, ringing quality you simply cannot replicate in standard. The key of Eb major means the open strings sit a half-step below concert pitch, so every open-string note rings with a slightly dark, introspective color that suits the song perfectly. At 91 BPM the tempo is unhurried, but clean fingerpicking at any speed demands evenness across all fingers, and the rolling arpeggios here will expose any inconsistency in your right-hand technique. The chord changes under those arpeggios are the real challenge: your fretting hand needs to move smoothly without breaking the pick-hand pattern. Use the Practice Toolbar to loop the transitions slowed down until the left and right hands stay in sync before bringing it back to full tempo. This is a rewarding piece to work through carefully.

• The song uses Open D tuning, giving the chord voicings a fuller, more resonant sound than standard tuning allows.
• The fingerpicking pattern is the core technique to master: consistent right-hand alternation across strings at 91 BPM.
• Smooth fretting-hand chord transitions without disrupting the rolling arpeggio pattern is the main difficulty to practise.