The piece “Lágrima”, translated as “Teardrop”, is a piece written by Spanish guitarist and composer, Francisco Tárrega. This classical piece is ideal for advanced beginner to intermediate guitarists using a fingerpicking technique.

In this lesson, we’ll cover the guitar arrangement for Lágrima including tabs. Grab your guitar and let’s get started!

Music symbols to review

Here is an overview of some of the music symbols used in the piece.

/ or \ = diagonal lines between two notes represent a slide (only pick the first note and slide/move your fretting finger to the next note).

Rit = ritardando (gradually make the tempo slower).

D.C. al Fine – Go back to the beginning of the piece (D. C.) until the end (fine).

If you need help reading this piece, check out this simple guide to understanding music symbols.

Note on barre chord symbols

You might see barre chords written as C.1, C.2, etc… to represent the Spanish word “cejilla” which means barre. I replace this with B.1, B.2, etc… to represent a barre on a certain fret.

Note that these symbols don’t always require barring all strings, so check the notation to see which string the barre starts on. The dashed lines indicate how long to hold each barre.

Song form

The form of this piece is A, A, B with a key change in the B section starting on measure 9. The song starts in E Major and transitions to E minor in the B section.

Lágrima – guitar arrangement

One of the challenges may be the barre chords in certain spots throughout the piece. If needed, this other lesson gives you 5 tips to get better at playing barre chords on guitar.

By the way, you can get the PDF of this song below.

To learn other songs by Francisco Tárrega, check out Adelita, Malagueña, or his arrangement of Moonlight Sonata.

Get the free guitar practice guide here!

See the resource tab for more sheet music with guitar tabs.

All the best,

JG Music Lessons