THE FIRST port of call for learning this using online resources has to be the every youthful justinguitar.com the Tasmanian charmer with a corner in the youtube guitar lesson market – Justin Guitar Free Lesson why not- the guy has done us all a good service.
You’ll notice though that he down tunes his top string to E flat (the thinnest string tuned down one semi tone) and uses barre chords and I know that will throw many of my students, including the Clitheroe Guitar Group that I run on Tuesday nights – it’ll throw them. So it might be a hard place to start.
I’ve been playing for over 30 years and I didn’t bother starting there. I simply slapped the capo on the third fret and started using open chords – a G shape, a D suspended second shape and a large C , as I call it , with an extra finger fretting the bottom string (6th string). An Em in the chorus – are you with me on this yet?
You know what…I can’t find it anywhere on ultimate guitar for the way I play it and to be honest I just bang it out where I like to sing it, where it feels nice, where I can flow with my vocals and feel the emotion of the song.
Try it on any of these and see which you like…I realise not everybody even sings…the main thing is to achieve that driving eight timing which I describe as “1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and” a strum on every half beat of a four beat bar. Check out the alternatives by googling “coldplay yellow chords”.
Looks at this one. PLaying yellow using open G on capo 4 This is where I play it ( though don’t forget we can play together using different chord shapes but placing the capo on different frets). But why this lesson uses an up and down strum when the eighth timing, all down strums, all powering along, is really what makes this a sweet song to learn.
Really you need to come along on a Tuesday night and join us upstairs at the Ale House in Clitheroe in Lancashire in the north of England at 8pm. The craft ales and real ales at the bar downstairs at this independent micro pub are amazing. I can vouch for that because I’ve been drinking beer as long as I’ve played the guitar.
I charge £10 per person for lesson as I am full time teacher and musician.
Catch you soon.
Mike
Mike Kneafsey Guitar 