In 1992 the legendary guitarist Eric Clapton released his edition of Acoustic MTV, a format that had become popular and had established musicians recording unplugged versions of songs from their careers.
When he did, he presented the world with a beautiful version of “Tears In Heaven”, a song that would become the main single on the album (the best selling of all Unplugged) and also present a very sad side to Eric Clapton’s life.
It was on March 20, 1991, that her son Conor, who was four years old, fell from the window of an apartment on the forty-ninth floor of a building in New York, where a friend of his mother, Lory del Santo, lived.
Conor’s death inspired the song that would become a hit in the early 90s but it was not the only tragic event that Eric Clapton went through at that time.
The entire work is based on descending bass progressions related to the harmonic structure commonly called “Canon de Pachelbel”. Sometimes these variations of the structure use chromatic descents widely used in Jazz and related to modal turns. At the end of the day, it is a work-related to the feelings before death.
The song begins in its main key: A major. Then you come to a bridge where this progression runs: Fa # m – C # / E # – Em6 – F # – Bm – E7sus.
To further understand Tears In Heaven music progression, discover and watch an All Bass Arrangement Of Tears In Heaven below: