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Thank-you, Dave.
This is one of my all-time favorite Pink Floyd acoustic guitar songs. "Breathe" is the first song on the "Dark side of the moon" album, which just celebrated its 50th anniversary on March 1, 2023. This song is fairly easy for most beginner guitar players who have been playing for a few months. There are a couple of "jazz" chords and only two "barre" chords. The rest are open string chords.
Advanced Beginner Lesson
(Find the list of chords for this song below)
The progression starts off in a slow 4/4 time with one measure of the "Em9" chord, followed by one measure of the "A7" chord. This pattern repeats for several measures.
NOTE: Watch my video on the section where David Gilmour occasionally plays a sort of "blues" thing during the measure of "A7".
Intro/Verses
4/4 ||: Em9 | A7 | Em9 | A7 :||
The next part starts off with one measure of the "CM7" chord, followed by one measure of the first "barre" chord: "Bm".
Then, we have one measure of an "FM7", followed by the next measure where we only play the (second barre chord) "G" for the first two beats.
This is followed by the "D7#9" chord for the third beat in the measure.
The last (fourth) beat in that measure will have the "Ebm9" chord.
Bridge
4/4 | CM7 | Bm | FM7 | G G D7#9 Ebm9 |
(Then you go back to the beginning of the song.)
These are the two patterns in the entire song. It is a relatively short song (3-4 minutes).
Also, be sure to watch the last part of the video where I explain the section where Gilmour climbs up to the 14th fret during the "A7" measure in the verse.
With some honest, steady practice, this song can be learned in a few days. It's a slow enough tempo to allow you to make the chord changes clearly in time.
The following is a list of the chords I play in the video, in linear order format (strings 654321 - these numbers represent the frets where you will place your finger and in the order from string 6 to string 1. "x" means you do not play that string. "0" means that it is an open string note).
List of chords as they appear in the song:
Em9 - 024000
A7 - x02020 (slide to secondary chord - x04030
(High fret chords): A7 - x 0 14 0 14 0 , x 0 12 0 12 0 , x 0 11 0 10 0
CM7 - x32000
Bm - (barre) x24432, or you can use xx4432
FM7 - x33210
G - (barre) x55433
D7#9 - x5456x
Ebm9 - x6454x
I am open to new ideas and requests for video lessons (paid subscribers only). Thank-you again for taking the time to watch my videos. I hope you enjoy your private video guitar lessons.
See you next time. ~ Dave
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