

Once this is sorted try a more interesting rhythm such as the one below. Then sing along with your basic strumming working out where the words line up with the chord changes.

So with this information go through the basic one beat strum process as with Let It Be to first get comfortable with the chord changes. The chorus uses the same 4 chords as the verse but each now played once per bar for 4 beats each. Here the Dm chord is played for 4 beats and the F and G for 2 beats each.

This song also has a pre-chorus using the chords of Dm F and G. This means that sticking to the idea of strumming once per beat each chord will now also get 2 strums. In the verses for Scar the chords of C G Am and F change also change every 2 beats. This song by Aussie singer Missy Higgins uses the same chords as Let It Be but the phrasing of the words and the strumming rhythm is quite different. Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to meĪnd in my hour of darkness, She is standing right in front of me Don’t worry if you don’t sound as good as Paul McCartney! Once you’re OK doing this you can now make your strumming pattern a bit fancier. Once you’re comfortable with your basic strumming try and sing along working out what words line up with the chord changes. So for Let It Be you will strum 2 times each for C G Am and F etc. The simplest way to start strumming is to strum once per beat. The verses and chorus of this song are played for 2 beats each. This particular 4 chord progression is extremely common and used in 100s of songs. The 3 songs use the same 4 chord progression of C G Am and F. This means the 1st and the 3rd beat of the bar in a typical 4 beat per bar (4/4) rock/pop song.įor an example of this will analyse the following songs.

For most songs the chords change at the start of the bar or sometimes in the middle. The words will not necessarily line up correctly with the chord changes so it can take a bit of detective work to figure out when to change chords. Usually a song on a tab site will have the chords written above each line of lyrics. Here we will look at some popular songs and how to play their chord progressions. The challenge for a beginner guitarist is how to interpret these chords and play them in a way that resembles the song. The chord progressions on these tab sites are user submitted so may not always be 100% accurate however they’re usually pretty close. On the internet there are many guitar tab sites showing you the chords for almost any song you can think of. With these chords you can play thousands of songs. So you’ve learnt to play the main open string chords on the guitar A, D, E, G, C, F, A minor, E minor and D minor.
