Did you know George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Roy Orbison teamed up to from a supergroup in late 80s? In this week's lesson I'll teach you how to play their (second) biggest hit – which many of you have requested over the past few years!

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LESSON #582
​Handle with Care by Traveling Wilburys

In today's new lesson I'll teach you how to play Handle with Care, the 1988 hit The Traveling Wilburys – whose ranks included Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, George Harrison, Tom Petty, and Jeff Lynne.

This is an incredibly fun song to play, as it features a catchy walk-down riff and several uses of pushed chord changes — giving things an interesting rhythmic feel.

In my lesson, I’ll walk you through the main riff step-by-step, talk about strumming, and give you a handful of other tips to help you pull this one off.

Be sure to follow along with my practice notes, zoomed play-along videos, and a recommended lyric sheet – which you can find over on my lesson webpage »​

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Recorded Versions of Handle with Care

Curious to hear the official version of this song? Here you go:

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And here's a 2002 live version performed by Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, and Dhani Harrison during a tribute to George Harrison:

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Finally, here’s a personal favorite version of mine, with Jenny Lewis and M. Ward covering the song. For my money, I think this song works better as a duet – as going between 3 singers (Harrison → Orbison → Dylan & Petty) feels a bit much to me.

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Other Lessons to Help with Handle with Care

Here’s a recent lesson I made where I teach a few strummy walk-downs in the Key of G. This includes the exact same walk-down used in the intro & verse to this song — which is in fact used in many other songs as well! If you want to spend more time with it, check this out:

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The chorus to this song is a great place to use percussive strumming, which you can hear me do in my playthrough. Hint: you’ll want to add the percussive slap on the backbeat, which is the 2 and 4 counts.

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When editing this video, I noticed you can see my pick almost sticking to my thumb — allowing my index finger to briefly lose contact with the pick. If you’re curious how this is happening, check out this video — where I talk about (1) the type of pick I use, and (2) how to go about strumming with a light touch.

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When I teach the intro riff, during step #4 I talk about picking individual strings while still keeping your strumming hand moving. Here’s a video I made talking about that exact technique — in case you need some guidance!

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Lastly, we have the diminished chord I mention in the pre-chorus. If you’re curious about the chord formula guide I briefly show on screen, which explains how diminished chords are formed, my cheat sheet below has you covered:

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LAST BUT NOT LEAST...
​Roy Orbison's Oh, Pretty Woman

I have plenty of lessons for Tom Petty and Bob Dylan tunes — but today let me show you my sole Roy Orbison lesson from a few years back.

I spent a lot of time practicing Oh, Pretty Woman – and am quite proud of it! Here's the video, which comes from lesson #441:

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And a couple years earlier, I'd come up with 4 different ways to play the intro riff. If you're looking for something bite-sized to practice, I think you may dig this one – from lesson #183:

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I'd love to fill in some George Harrison gaps in my library eventually. Here Comes the Sun and My Sweet Lord in particular. If you'd like to see lessons for these songs sooner than later, let me know by replying to this email!

To close out, let me give my THANKS to all of you who have requested this song over the years! It feels great to finally scratch it off my long list of favorite songs to learn. I hope you enjoy the lesson!

Catch you in the next one ✌️

–David

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