Transcribing Notes From John Neil (Head Transcriber)
Learning to Fly – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – Song Breakdown
Melody
Not many people can get away with repeating 4 chords over and over for pretty much an entire song. Tom Petty surely can. I think it works because the chords are sorta like a never-ending circle – the chords Am G F C work as well as F C Am G, so it continues and continues. Also, the vocal pattern breaks it up with its call-answer type thing (which becomes more evident when the backing vocals come in). The vocal range is C3 to F4, with lower note(s) as pickups to lines, which I don’t count because those can be pretty much any low note.
Download the Melody Music Here
Keyboard
Benmont Tench is credited as playing synthesizer, and it sounds like he’s just laying down a dark pad following the chords. I made the keyboards electric piano playing the chords, with some rhythms in there to spice things up a bit – with all the guitars going on in the recording. This should also glue things together like the original pad was most likely meant to do.
Download the Keyboard Sheet Music Here
Lead Guitar
As is with many Tom Petty songs, there are many guitar tracks, both electric and acoustic. The Lead and rhythm are a blend of electric guitars, and the strum (& ukulele) take care of the acoustic guitars. I have the lead guitar doing more of the twangy stuff, and solos (which use a slide ring – if possible). In the main picking lines, it sounds like there are multiple guitars playing slightly different notes. I tabbed what seems prominent. And in the choruses, a 12-string joins in. I tabbed the higher string of that part mostly. And for downstrokes, I indicated “per discretion,” as it looks like Mike Campbell just does what seems natural live.
Download the Lead Guitar Tab Here
Rhythm Guitar
I have the rhythm guitar doing mainly the palm muted 5 chords on 8th notes, with the exception of the solo section when it picks up the twangy stuff from the lead guitar.
Download the Rhythm Guitar Tab Here
Strum/Ukulele
This is the main strum of the song, which consists of multiple tracks, so I combined them into this part. The ukulele follows this as well.
Download the Strum Tab Here
Download the Ukulele Tab Here
Bass
A pretty basic driving part, played with a pick, and slightly palm muted.
Download the Bass Tab Here
Drums
It almost sounds like this is done with sequenced drum samples, or a drum loop of the kick, snare & hi-hat with everything else overdubbed. No matter what happens, the hi-hat continues, even when both hands are busy — it could be that he moves to step hi-hat for those parts, but it doesn’t really sound that way. So, I tabbed this out as close as I could get to this.
Download the Drum Music Here
Download the Lead Sheet Here
