While My Guitar Gently Weeps

While My Guitar Gently Weeps is a song written by George Harrison of The Beatles for their double album The Beatles (also known as The White Album). The song was ranked #135 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest songs of all time and #7 on their list of the 100 greatest guitar songs of all time.

Author(s): Publisher: Code: UL517

Main Category: Accessories Main Instrument: Any

2026-08-19

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While My Guitar Gently Weeps

The song was ranked #135 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest songs of all time and #7 on their list of the 100 greatest guitar songs of all time.

Inspiration for the song came to Harrison when reading the I Ching, which, as he put it, "seemed to me to be based on the Eastern concept that everything is relative to everything else...opposed to the Western view that things are merely coincidental." Taking this idea of relativism to his parents’ home in northern England, Harrison committed to write a song based on the first words he saw upon opening a random book. Those words were “gently weeps”, and he immediately began the song. As he said:

"I wrote While My Guitar Gently Weeps at my mother's house in Warrington. I was thinking about the Chinese I Ching, the Book of Changes... The Eastern concept is that whatever happens is all meant to be, and that there's no such thing as coincidence - every little item that's going down has a purpose." — Groege Harrison

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While My Guitar Gently Weep was a simple study based on that theory. I decided to write a song based on the first thing I saw upon opening any book - as it would be a relative to that moment, at that time. I picked up a book at random, opened it, saw 'gently weeps', then laid the book down again and started the song.s — George Harrison

George Harrison – double-tracked vocal, backing vocal, acoustic guitar, Hammond organ
Paul McCartney – backing vocal, piano, organ, bass
John Lennon – electric guitar
Ringo Starr – drums, tambourine
Eric Clapton – lead guitar

Common Keys: Am, First Melodic Interval: P5 ↑ M2

The Curt Sheller Jazz Trio

World One Recording at 2014 Philadelphia Folk Festival

Performance Notes

For the slash chords, the Am/G, Am/F# and Am/F. You can just stick with the basic Am chords. The note after the slash is a descending bass line that we can not get in a ukulele with a high fourth string.

Additional Resources & Links

While My Guitar(uke) Gently Weeps - Curt Sheller (me)
While My Guitar Gently Weeps by Jake Shimabukuro — Jake's well deserved world success was accelerated after this video was shot by Jason Tagg for his show Midnight Ukulele Disco in Strawberry Fields in Central Park. This video on>YouTube has received over 15 million views.
Eric Clapton — Concert for George ()
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
: Jake Shimabukuro , playing a ukulele in place of the guitar portions of the song, on the album Gently Weeps.