Accompanying Songs on Guitar: How to Play Songs With Chords

Short answer: Looking for guitar songs with chords to play along with? Besides the chord shapes, you need three things: the ability to read a chord chart above the lyrics, to change chords on the beat, and a simple strumming pattern. A capo lets you match the pitch to your voice. Start with a song that has three or four chords.

How to place the individual chord shapes is covered in the guide to guitar chords for beginners. You can find songs to start with in the guide to easy guitar songs. On this page you read how to use those chords to accompany a song, with or without singing.

What do you need to accompany a song?

To accompany a song you need three or four chords, a steady rhythm and a chord chart. Most beginner songs use only open chords. These are the most important ones, in tab notation from the low E string to the high e string (x = don’t strum, 0 = open string):

Chords in songs tend to come in fixed groups. Once you know a group, you can play a lot of songs right away:

A well-known example is Let It Be by The Beatles, which revolves largely around C, G, Am and F. You can find more songs by the band in Beatles songs on guitar. Why these chords sound so good together is explained in which guitar chords go together.

Reading a chord chart above song lyrics

In a chord chart, the name of the chord is written above the syllable where you change. You keep playing that chord until a new chord appears above the lyrics. Here is an example with a line I wrote myself:

G           C
I bike home in the rain
D         G
and sing a song to myself

You start on G, change to C on the word “in”, to D at the start of the second line and back to G on “song”. This is how you read a chart like this:

• Changing on the syllable: the chord starts exactly on the syllable beneath it. That is usually the first beat of a measure.
• No new chord, no change: you keep playing the same chord, even across several lines.
• Labels and repeats: intro, verse, chorus and “2x” show how the song is built.
• Slash chords: with G/B, the bass plays a B. If you don’t know that shape yet, just play G.

Without lyrics, a song is often written as a measure chart: | G . . . | C . . . | D . . . | G . . . |. Each bar line is a new measure and each dot is a beat. How to make a chart like this yourself is explained in making chord charts for your own songs.

Recognizing the chords in a song

If the chords aren’t written anywhere, you can often find them yourself: most songs use the chords of a single key. Here is how to go about it:

1. Find the root. Hum the last note of the song and find that note on the low strings. That is usually the key.
2. Try the group for that key. If the song is in G, try G, C, D and Em from the table above first.
3. Listen to the bass. The bass line often changes exactly when the chord changes.
4. Choose major or minor. If a section sounds cheerful, try the major chord. If it sounds sad, try the minor version.
5. Check with a chord site. Compare what you found with a chart online, but trust your ear: not every version is correct.

A good exercise is to play along with the radio or a playlist: for each song, first look for the first chord. How that works is explained in playing along with songs on the radio. If you want to understand why chords come back in a fixed order, read about chord progressions.

Changing on the beat with a simple strumming pattern

Change chords on the first beat of the measure and keep your strumming hand moving as you do. Let your hand swing up and down like a pendulum: down on the beat, up on the “and” in between, even when you don’t touch the strings. That way you stay in time automatically.

Build up the strumming pattern in three steps:

In step 3 you skip beat 3: your hand does move down, but doesn’t touch the strings. If the change doesn’t happen in time yet, let the last upstroke before the change fall on the open strings. That gives you a moment to move your fingers, and in a song you hardly notice it.

Play the pattern with a metronome at a slow tempo first, and only speed up once the changes go smoothly. More exercises for the changes themselves are in switching faster between guitar chords.

Adjusting the pitch with a capo

With a capo you raise the pitch of a song without having to learn different shapes. Each fret makes the song a half step higher. If a song says “capo 2”, put the capo on the second fret and play the shapes as they appear in the chart.

This is how you find the right spot for your voice: sing the chorus, usually the highest part, and the lowest line of the verse. If it sounds too low, move the capo up a fret. If it’s too high, put it lower or take it off. You can find more explanation in using a capo.

If the song needs to be lower instead, you transpose: you shift all the chords by the same number of steps. From C to D, for example, C becomes D, G becomes A, Am becomes Bm and F becomes G.

Playing along with singing

When you add vocals, the easiest way to begin is to play the chords so often that you no longer have to think about them. Only then does your voice come in. Build it up like this:

1. Play the whole song with just a downstroke on beat 1 of each measure.
2. Hum the melody softly along with it.
3. Speak the lyrics rhythmically while you play.
4. Sing the lyrics, still with the simple strumming.
5. Then add the full strumming pattern.

Give yourself the starting note before you come in: play the first chord and hum the first note. That way you don’t start too high or too low. You can find more tips in accompanying yourself on guitar. Suitable songs to begin with are in easy songs to sing and play on guitar.

Further reading

• Easy songs with 3 chords: songs you can practice with right away.
• Improving your timing when singing with guitar: for when your voice and your hand drift out of time.
• Learning to play barre chords: the next step if you want to play F and Bm in full.

Frequently asked questions about playing songs with chords

How many chords do you need to play songs?

Three or four chords will take you a long way. Many pop songs, for example, revolve around G, C, D and Em, or around C, G, Am and F.

How do you know when to change chords?

In a chord chart you change on the syllable where the new chord is written above. That is usually the first beat of a measure. Count out loud at first, and you will hear where the change falls.

What does capo 2 mean in a song?

It means you put the capo on the second fret and then play the shapes as they appear in the chart. The song then sounds two half steps higher than the shapes you play. A G shape, for example, sounds like A.

What do you do if a song has a chord you don’t know?

Look for an easier variant, such as Fmaj7 instead of F. With a slash chord like G/B, just play the first part. If that still doesn’t work, use a capo to choose a key with shapes you do know.

What is the difference between an open chord and a barre chord?

With an open chord, one or more strings ring open, as in E major (022100). With a barre chord you press down several strings at once with your index finger, as in F (133211). That lets you slide the same shape up and down the whole neck.

How do you learn to sing and play guitar at the same time?

First play the chords until they come automatically, with a simple strumming pattern. Then hum along, speak the lyrics rhythmically and only after that really sing. Add the full strumming pattern last.