Rush - Tom Sawyer - Guitar Tab

About Tom Sawyer

Few songs test a guitarist's rhythmic discipline quite like "Tom Sawyer." The opening synth figure is so well-known that the moment your guitar enters, every note is under scrutiny. The main riff sits in E minor and leans hard on tight, palm-muted power chords driven at 88 BPM, a tempo that feels relaxed until you try to keep it locked and groove with the syncopated kick drum beneath you. Alex Lifeson's part is less about flash and more about precision: the chords have to land exactly where the rhythm section expects them, or the whole machine falls apart. The extended mid-section instrumental stretch demands you stay focused through odd groupings that can easily throw off your internal pulse. Use the Practice Toolbar to loop those transitional bars slowed down until the syncopation feels natural rather than counted. Rush sit at the more demanding end of the Progressive Rock genre, and this track is a fair introduction to why.

• The guitar part relies on tight palm-muted power chords in E minor, where rhythmic accuracy matters far more than any single difficult technique.
• Alex Lifeson plays in E Standard tuning, so no retuning is needed, but the syncopated rhythm against the drums is the real challenge to internalize.
• Looping the mid-section instrumental passage at reduced speed with the Practice Toolbar will help you nail the odd rhythmic groupings before bringing it up to 88 BPM.