Here's a chart for the beloved Beatles tune, "In My Life," often found in the lists of top songs of the last century.
Fun Fact: The baroque harpsichord-sounding solo was composed and performed on piano by the Beatles' producer George Martin. He was unable to play it at full speed, so he recorded it at half-speed and then sped the tape up, so that the result sounds one octave higher. Love those studio shenanigans.
Beginners beware: This song features a Cm, a barre chord. Several common barre chords can be substituted with easier counterparts, but I know of no good substitution for Cm barred at the 3rd fret.
Enjoy.
Comments 5
When I was still struggling with Barre Chords, a more experienced friend suggested for an open Cm to play 3d fret on A string (C), 1st fret on D (D#), open g (G), 1st on B (C), 3rd on high E, (G). I think he just made this up by thinking about what notes you would need. I found it to be more difficult then just learning the barre cord, so that is what I did. I guess a more simple suggestion might just be for a beginner to play a C5 on the 3rd fret. In the end, learning barre chords is the best thing (and when you get them, you will wonder how you ever thought they were hard)
Author
Hey Rodney,
Great point about the power chord, and also certainly about the value of ultimately learning your barre chords.
The open chord you describe does make a great Cm chord, but I’m curious–how many fingers did your friend have, and were they jointed like normal, or more like tentacles? 🙂
Rob
Ha, he had the normal 4 fingers. he told me to use my index finger on the A string, middle on the d, ring on the b, and pinky on the high e. MAYBE the reason he told me this way was to subliminally teach me that barre chords are worth learning.
But that is giving this man way too much credit!
On another interesting note, while playing this song today, I found I liked playing the C major chord as a barre chord as well before going to the C minor.
I have always found the major chord to minor chord change in a song to be very cool. My first experience with this progression was in the Radiohead song “Creep”, and I have loved it since
Author
Great suggestion. I also like the major-minor change when the other notes in the chord voicing remain the same.