Learn "Breathe In The Air" by Pink Floyd on Electric Guitar!

Hey, how you doing? It's Justin here today for an awesome electric guitar tune! We'll check out Breathe In The Air by Pink Floyd.

💡 Sound Setup – If you're a gear geek like me, check out the video to see all my gear and the settings. :)

I also have a simplified beginner version, which makes for a good sing-along. It's well worth knowing how to play it on acoustic. Let's start by looking at that incredible intro. :)

Breathe In The Air by Pink Floyd – Intro

The first chord is Em9 (024000). Finger 1 goes down on 5:2 (string 5, fret 2), and finger 4 plays 4:4 (string 4, fret 4). We will do an up rake here – a slow upstrum nearer the bridge than usual. You should get a crunchy, metallic sound. This happens on beat 1 in the first bar and beat 2 in the others.

On beat 3, we go into a picking pattern. Play a downstrum on string 6. Then, on the 3e+a, do an up-pick on string 2. On 4e+a, do the same on string 2.

Remember the picking for the 16th notes. We use down strums or down picks on beats and "and" s, and up strums or up-picks on "e" and "a." So, using upstrokes on the final two notes in the pattern will help you keep solid time.

Now we switch to an A chord (X02220), using finger 1 to barre fret 1. We pick:

1 e + a 2 e + a 3 e + a 4 e + a
5     4 3 2           2*  2     (2* means 2:3)

Then we switch back to Em9. Pick 6:0 on beat 1, then do an up rake on beat 2. Now we use the same picking pattern as the previous Em9, only this time we play string 1 and then string 2.

We return to A and pick strings 5, 4, 3, and 2 with the same rhythm as the previous bar of A. Then we play a fill.

Hit the open A string on the "+" after 2. Play 4:2 with finger 2 and slide up to 4:4. Form the shape XX4030 with fingers 2 and 1 and pick strings 2, 3, and 4.

Now form an A7 chord (X02020) and pick strings 2 and 3. Some people like playing A7 with fingers 2 and 1, but it doesn't feel pleasant, so I go for fingers 2 and 3. Play around and find what works for you.

The rhythm for this bar is 1 e + a 2 e + a 3 e + a 4 e + a. Note that we play the final two notes with an up-pick because they come on the "a" and the "e."

🤔 Learn as is? There are several variations of this rhythm in the song. It's up to you how closely you want to play it. There is value in learning songs just as the artist played them: you have to listen closely, learn new licks and ideas, and challenge your technique. But the final goal is to make music, so don’t spend years fretting over which rhythm is the right one!

Breathe In The Air by Pink Floyd: Second Bar of Eight

Two eight-bar sequences of Em9 to A make up the intro. There are a couple of variations over the A in the second eight bar.

The first bar of A has another fill. Pick the open A string, slide finger 2 from 4:9 to 4:11, form the shape X 0 11 0 10 0, and pick strings 4, 3, 2, 3, 4. Now grab X 0 12 0 12 0 with fingers 3 and 4 and pick strings 2, 3, and 4. Then switch to X 0 11 0 10 0, do an upstream from string 2, grab X09080, and do the same. This rhythm is 1 e + a 2 e + a 3 e + a 4 e + a.

On the following A, there's another cool riff. Pick the open A string, then slide finger 2 from 4:12 to 4:14. Now form the shape X 0 14 0 14 0 and pick strings 2 and 3. Then hit the A string again, form the chord X 0 12 0 12 0, then pick 4, 2, 3. Hit the A string again, grab X 0 11 0 10 0, and pick string 4, then string 2. The rhythm here is 1 e + a 2 e + a 3 e + a 4 e + a.

After those genius variations, we go back to the usual patterns on Em9 and A.

Breathe In The Air By Pink Floyd: Second Section

Enter CMaj7! Grab a CMaj7/G chord (332000). You can use fingers 3, 4, and 2 or 2, 3, and 1. Strum the chord on beat 1, pick string 6 on beat 3, then play strings 1 and 2 on 3 e + a 4 e + a.

Then we go to a Bm7 barre chord (X24232). Play the barre with finger 1 and use fingers 2 and 3 for the other two notes. Use the same pattern as the CMaj7/G: strum, bass note, string 1, then string 2.

🎸Barre Chords: Check out my complete Barre Chord tutorial for perfect barre-chord technique.

The next chord is an FMaj7 (133210). I use the thumb for 6:1 (string 6, fret 1), finger 3 for 5:3 and 4:3, and fingers 2 and 1 for the other two. But I suspect David would play 1X3210, using finger 3 to play 4:3 only.

Then, we move the whole shape up two frets to get G6 (3X5340). Strum the G on beat 1, then move to the next chord, D7#9 (X5456X), on beat 3. Use finger 2 on 5:5, 1 on 4:3, 3 on 3:5, and 4 on 2:6.

On beat 4, we switch to the next chord: D7b9 (X5454X). To get there from D7#9, lift off finger 4 and barre fret 4 with finger 1. We switch back to Em9 on the next bar.

Breathe In The Air by Pink Floyd – Extra Tips

Whenever you learn a tune like this, aim to take more from it than the basic technique and structure. There are some awesome tricks you can incorporate into your playing.

For example, the A chord variations use 6th intervals from the D Major Scale. This is a common trick used for building melody lines. See the TAB below for all the 6th intervals in D on strings 4 and 2:

|-----------------------------------|
|-0--2--3--5--7--8--10--12--14--16–-|
|-----------------------------------|
|-0--2--4--5--7--9--11--12--14--16--|
|-----------------------------------|
|-----------------------------------|

🧐 Theory: D to B is the first 6th interval in D Major (D E F# G A B C# D): D (4:0) is the 1st scale degree, and B (2:0) is the 6th scale degree. The next 6th is built from the 2nd and 7th degrees: E (4:2) and C# (2:2). Continuing like this, we get the sequence above.

Apart from all the theory, these 6ths sound wicked over A7. Try them out!

There's loads of room for experimenting here. Once you master the original guitar part, change the patterns and add your own riffs. Have loads of fun with this one, and I'll see you for more real soon. :)

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