If I could play like that I'd be so pumped that I could never just sit there talking about it. I get a couple chords out and I'm all jumping off the couch and doing spin kicks. I kicked over my step dad's ashtray and now they want me to sell my guitar on craigslist.

It still boggles my mind that while everyone else was playing blues-boogie rock and hard rock/early metal, 17-year old Johnny Marr came up with this guitar part. Such a creative guitarist.

Johnny Marr has a unique ability to develop incredibly catchy riffs on 3 strings.

Far and away THE BEST lesson for This Charming Man. The only lesson that plays it exactly like Johnny does. Love all the "geeky" detail involved in perfecting this. Its broken down perfectly. Thank you so much.

Back in the early ‘80s, I played in my first band: we were a cover band, doing songs by then- new bands, like The Police and U2, mixed with songs by older bands, like the Beatles. But we also did what was then called “college music” - music that didn’t get airplay on mainstream commercial radio, and which you could only hear on your local 5000w college radio station; songs by bands like X, Replacements, Pretenders, Translator, Smiths, Cure, Banshees, Magazine - I can’t remember all of them, but we had a huge repertoire, and gained a large following, being the only band doing that type of music in our city in central California. One of the songs we did was This Charming Man - which I absolutely loved! We played the song in F#, and I managed to make it sound “almost” like the original, but it never sounded quite right - until I slipped a capo on at the 2nd fret, and had an “aha!” moment, finding all of those open strings! It was always one of my favorite songs to play, and watching this video brought back a lot of great memories. Except for maybe 1 or 2 different voicings, I played it exactly like this. Thanks for your wonderful tutorials - I wish you and youtube were around back in 1983 - my styluses would’ve lasted longer, and my records wouldn’t have gotten so scratched!

This guy is a great teacher, so easy to follow his clear instructions and finally I can actually play this great tune!

I have been using this video trying to learn one of the greatest guitar pieces of all time I started watching this video when I was 8 years of age I am now 13 and just learned to play it last week thank you so much for this trutorial x

Man you need loads of creativity and personality to compose something so pleasing to the ears and so different from most guitarists. Johnny Marr is a freaking genious.

Please do heaven knows I'm miserable now.. Having trouble with other tutorials and would love to learn it from you... Thanks

An excellent tutorial at a great pace, and with great audio in 1080p! Couldn't ask for more :)

One of the finest guitar compositions in rock history in my view. Johnny Marr found something special with this one.

This guy gave me the best guitar lesson I've ever had

One of the best tutorials I've seen for any song, not just "This Charming Man." I had the bones of this down in 10 minutes after watching this. And you're totally right about the capo vs. tuning up. Much better chiming by tuning up rather than using a capo.

I didn't know Stephen Merchant was such a badass on guitar!!

Never been able to get this to sound right until now... you've obviously put loads of research into into learning this song...thank you very much.. brilliant!

whats the deal with that creepy dude to your left

I think johnny would be impressed. You nailed it, Adrian!

giving me charlie from lost vibes all jokes aside, everything was extremely well said and what makes it even more impressive is the lack of cuts/edits in the video

Pheww after one evening of repeating and repeating I almost got it up to speed with the recording. For now it's a great challenge! I think I'll have it down in a week or so. Thanks for the great tutorial!!

I dont normally comment on these things but that was REALLY good. What was really annoying was the fact that it was so simple in parts. First class indeed, really impressed. I'll check the rest of your videos!

Thank you so much for this tutorial. It had always been my dream to learn this song on guitar and thanks to your tutorial I am able to play it in its entirety 🙏🏼😭

This was the first song I learned to play from start to finish, with help from guitar pro. Was advised that I should learn something easier before attempting Marr stuff, but find learning other stuff easier now after almost exclusively focusing on Smiths tunes. Found your channel looking for Kid solo, but was pleasantly surprised to see your full tutorial. Going to spend a day this week and try and master Kid. Your videos are fantastic learning tools. Thanks!

May have commented before but this is by far the best tutorial for any song on KZfaq ....credit to you mate

Thank you so much for taking the time out to record this Adrian

Amazing tutorial! You are quite detailed and don't just rush through it for the sake of finishing the video. Well done! I really appreciate you taking time to explain this charming song so well!

This is the best lesson for this song available in this plataform. Amazing work friend.

amazing lesson. note perfect. took a while to lock it in. who can believe Jonny Marr wrote this at 17years old? hats off. nice one Adrian!

Took me two years, on and off, but I can finally come back to the video and play it along with you. Thanks!

great work. I finally nailed it after much sweating. sounds so chimey on my Rickenbacker!! Love it!!

I have been interested in this song for quite some time now and have recently got into The Smiths and their work. This was the first Smiths song I had ever heard and I love it so damn much. Great lesson! You're a top teacher.

Hi Adrian, another great tutorial. I've been loving this song since I first taped it off the John Peel session back in 83 but never made the highlife connection before but you're spot on. Always something to learn...

All the dislikes on this video are because they gave up and got frustrated because this is one of the best tutorials for such a complex song ever.

Thanks so much...one of my favorite songs from an exceptionally gifted artist. Props for working so hard to teach us all...I am diving in and have the some work to do!

This is a fantastic lesson. I've been learning relative pitch for the past year and have been sussing out chords and songs for training but this lesson is so thorough and well explained I just sat back and took in the content. Brilliant!

Only just seen this - there are a thousand tutorials on this song out there and this is quite simply the best. Used to play it and forgotten it completely and this got me back on it! Thanks for taking the time, loved it and brilliant tutorial. JP

Very true what you say. JM is one of those musicians who work for the song, not to show off, as it always should be. Excellent tutorial, by the way.

Also, I love your mention of the African highlife style. As someone fairly new to guitar i'm having trouble following most of the tutorials online, but since you seem to do it best maybe you could outline some highlife basics. Thanks Adrian!

This is the one of the best tutorials of all. Even alongside Johnny Marr’s own Headmaster Ritual tutorial. Brilliant.

This was so helpful, thank u so much! I’ve been trying to learn this song forever and finally I’m able to play it

This is a great lesson, thanks so much for this. If you ever get the time I'd love to hear you break down more Smiths songs!

Adrian, thank you. Spent an afternoon on it and nearly got the intro. Amazing teacher so clear. I am Jonny Marr. Ok, maybe not lol

brilliant - thanks for the effort - a great tutorial for a great song

Been checking out most of the videos on your channel. Your an excellent teacher. Top notch stuff. I love the extra notes, tabs and how accurate you aim to get.. Took me about a week to get this song down but its definitely made me a better guitarist and your other videos have moved me along as well. Plan on going through a lot of them. Keep up the awesome work.. You should get paid to do this.. Il get my bassist and other guitarist to learn their parts and once I can sing and play at the same time (will take some time) adding this to our setlist!!!! Thanks bud!! also loved sound and vision + search and destroy

Great lesson! I thought I would never be able to play it, but you changed my mind. Thank you!

Fantastic clear and accurate lesson. There are more open string notes than I had realised!

Having a lot of fun learning this song/lick! Excellent presentation and tone from the tele.

I.literally love you I've been playing just normal simple chord songs for like 4 years on and off and I was like yeah I'm gonna try something out of my comfort zone and this seemed impossible you play it with such ease but I'm getting there because of you im so so happy thank you :'( you are wonderful

I'm glad that you a) talk about the chordal construction, instead of just reading out tab and b) acknowledge the High Life influence, not that it was ever really a secret

Wow! Excellent tutorial and insight into this song. I learned to play this song from another You Tube tutorial a while ago but it just didn't sound right. You've cleared up many of the minute details that version was missing. Thank you!

Really good lesson mate, nicely broken down and very accurate

Your tutorials are top-shelf. Thank you for sharing. There’s actually no need to retune your guitar for this song. Johnny does it with a capo on the second fret. Cheers, Adrian!

Fabulous lesson, thanks! Being desperate to learn this a long time

Revisiting your lesson today after quite awhile. Brilliant study of it. Thank you very much

You give some quality lessons there Adrian. Good production quality and clear concise delivery make these lessons very easy to follow.

Your lessons are always excellent - you choose great material, and you explain really clearly. Thanks to you I’ve “broken into” some songs and solos I had presumed were beyond me, including this one! Thank you very much!

Really well done...had it down in no time thanks to you after dreaming of playing this for years. Thank you!!

I´ve always wanted to play this, but thought it would be impossible - now I´ve learned it within a few days thanks to you. Thank you, you´r e a super - teacher

Spot on! This tutorial definitely comes in my top one of all guitar tutorials on youtube.

wooo i have been playing this slightly different for years since there was not a proper video on how to play it back when i learned it. This is perfect!!

Thanks so much for this. It took me a few days to learn but now got it. The hardest part for me was the transition to those 2 major 7 chords. Great to find your site with loads of other tracks. How about doing a Sundays song?

The Smiths are one of my all t8me favourites and I thought out of my league to play. Thanks to this lesson that’s changed! Thanks heaps Adrian.

Great instructional vid. Not a huge smiths guy but had to learn this riff. So glad I found this clip. Thank you!

Great stuff! More Smiths please!

Wish I had found this Master Teacher 11 years ago. First 6 string was bought then and 24 hours later it went on the wall along with my frustration.

Finally someone who can play and plays it correctly!!🙏🙏🙏

why have 87 people downvoted this? you have this down to a tee mate.

Gotta say, you are a fantastic teacher. And it's nice to see someone teach this version as opposed to the acoustic hatful of hollow version. Thanks.

Thanks for the great tutorial! Appreciate the patient clarity.

Many thanks for posting this. I've played this song fairly similarly to how you play it but after viewing your tutorial I picked up a few nuances I had missed. Great stuff!

Thanks ever so! You've taken the pain and the strain out of learning.

Thank you for this fantastic lesson

The most sophisticated pop guitar I think /i've ever heard. I know Prefab Sprout and Andy Summers had a lot of chord flair too but this song is so layered and broad.

Just wanted to thank you for this brilliant tutorial. Really helped me get to grips with one of my favourite tunes!

Absolutely loved this lesson. many thanks Andy

Thank You Adrian. This is the definitive lesson,brilliant job.

That was great. So much better than other videos. You really broke the song down in an easy to understand and playable format. Kudos.

This video is honestly the best one I’ve seen and I’ve learnt it from you! Thank you so much!

Love your tone on this and your precision

This lesson is gold! Ive always wanted to be able to play at least the intro. Thanks for this.

dude I love you ,cogent,crisp and clear I hope my son learns something from you ,He is five and digs the Smiths.Thank you

Amazingly great lesson... thanks!

What a super cool tune and a great instructor. Thanks

Adrian, I love your unassuming demeanor while being such a boss player. I can play some shred style stuff but always found a level of “simplistic” genius in players like Johnny Marr that often gets overlooked. So glad you appreciate it too. Your vids are ace my friend

More praise - very helpful and clear lesson.

finally, a guitar lesson that shows you their version of the song in full before teaching!

Outstanding teaching skills! Thanks sooooo much regard from Copenhagen

Really really excellent tutorial! Very thorough, & easy to follow. Thanks so much!

Cheers mate. Love this song and learnt it thoroughly. Great teacher.

This is one of the best "how to play" videos I have ever seen.

Excellent lesson and info! Clear and concise. Thank you. Cheers.

that is a smashing guitar....smashing lesson as well

Fantastic lesson and a wealth of knowledge, as always. Thank you!

Thanks for the lesson! This is great, fun to learn something jangley and bright for a change!

Never thought I'd be able to play this in a million years, but this tutorial has helped bring out my inner Marr! Another amazing lesson from Adrian.

man.. this is amazing.. thank you for your awesome channel and incredible gift of teaching.. you are very didatic and patient! incredible

awesome!! love the way you explain this. been working on Mark Knopfler for a while and cant wait to get into this now. Excited!!

The best tutorial out there, you get every last detail! Thanks so much I’ve finally learned this :)

Quality lesson! I've always wanted to be able to play this, gonna give it a go. Probably take me until xmas 🥴 Thanks 👏🙌

Its amazing how many different versions of this are online that are not what JM plays.

Thank you for this. Really good, level-headed presentation