How to Play You Are The Sunshine Of My Life - Stevie Wonder

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Published May 28, 2026

Tabs and other resources available, support me on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/mtguitar

In today's guitar lesson we learn how to play "You Are The Sunshine Of My Life" by Stevie Wonder. This song is a fascinating example of slash chords, or triads over various bass notes. Wonder was a master of jazz harmony and found a way to ingeniously throw these advanced techniques into a pop progression. We learn each chord and section with a bossa fingerstyle pattern. This will likely prove highly beneficial for your rhythm as it will force you to separate the thumb from the fingers while you groove along all of these wonderful chord progressions. Though there is a more advanced arrangement with a more active bass, I highly recommend starting with the more straight ahead approach as it will help train your fingers in a practical way.

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Video Chapters:
00:00 Demo
01:42 Lesson Introduction
02:24 Music Theory Breakdown
03:17 Slash Chords
05:29 Bossa Arrangement
06:39 Tuning
07:09 Intro - Bossa Pattern
10:12 Verse/Chorus - Bossa Pattern
11:25 Verse/Chorus - 1st Half
12:47 Playthrough of 1st Half
13:04 Verse/Chorus - 2nd Half
15:40 Playthrough of Verse/Chorus
16:26 Bridge
19:06 Playthrough of Bridge
19:49 A Note on the Modulation
21:14 Advanced Arrangement