How to play 'The River' by Bruce Springsteen

"The River" is one of those iconic Bruce Springsteen songs – which is saying something! It's hard to pick out just a few songs from someone with such a rich songbook, but 'The River' seems to be a great one for a lesson! It's also a good representative of the man and the band! :)

According to The Boss himself, he wrote "The River" to pay tribute to older folk music. You can definitely hear that strong influence throughout the tune! For the lyrics, Mr. Springsteen uses 'narrative writing.' Among other things, he became known for this writing style! In that sense, this song is all about exploring and embracing different voices and experiences. So, that's what we're doing here!

The chord structure in this song isn't terribly complicated. Still, there are some minor variations here and there that keep things interesting. For example, you can explore using the Cadd9 chord instead of the regular C chord for the verses and the intro.

The Rhythm and Strumming for 'The River' by Bruce Springsteen

The big thing in this song (and the reason I'm so excited to teach it to you all) is the picked fingerstyle he uses. It's kind of like a strum-picking technique. Sounds contradictory, doesn't it? Basically, the technique that Bruce uses adheres to a general picking pattern, but his wrist's motion looks like a strum. As you get up to speed with it, the "strum" becomes even more evident.

I've actually done a lesson on this picked fingerstyle where I break it down even further! Check it out. :)

The end result is a warm, gentle song with a level of intricacy woven into it.

ORIGINAL SONG