Ed Sheeran: Photograph

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Summary: Photograph

This beautiful song from Ed Sheeran is a really cool one to learn as it includes some really beautiful arpeggio ideas, alongside some pretty easy to play open chords to strum along with. It's Ed Sheeran at his best, and Simone walks us through it!

The picking part: Cool chord shapes

The opening picking part is really cool, and basically uses two chord shape ideas that it switches between using a fingerpicking pattern. I think it is easiest to consider two main chord shapes with your fingers when picking through this as shown in the fretboard below: (they are both essentially E major with melody notes)

The Chords: 4 chord shapes

For the rest of the song we are using 4 chord shapes, including some barre chord shapes. The chords are as follows:

Rhythm: The main groove

For the groove we are playing the all downstrokes with palm muting. You basically play one chord per bar and you continue that downstroke rhythm throughout to create the 'driving' effect.


    Keep Learning: Barre Chords

    Many thanks for watching this video and visiting the website. If you love this tune, but find some of the chords quite hard to follow, check out our barre chord course right here on our website. This will help you learn these difficult shapes, and really help strengthen your fretting hand, ready for more difficult chords. We also learn the theory behind the chords and apply them to some great tunes! You can check it out here: Barre Chords Guitar Course.

Ready to move on? Remember to check out every lesson in this unit first – then try the next unit...

Shape of You

In this Ed Sheeran song lesson we cover all the parts that go together to build something that sounds amazing! It's a great track for anyone who uses a loop pedal as all the parts work really well together, and also has a simpler version for beginners.