Shawn Mendes: Because I Had You

Free guitar lesson

Back to course index

Summary: Because I Had You

This is another guitar driven from his debut album "Shawn Mendes". As well as the main riff that loops throughout the song, there are also some nice effect driven guitar fills and parts that can be quite rare to hear in modern pop music. It's a really great song to learn for beginners who are learning powerchords as well!

The Chords: The main loop

We are mainly playing 4 chords, which are being used as powerchords mostly (which means we don't use the major or minor 3rd). The main loop consists of just three chords: E5 / C5 / G5 / G / Em / C5 / G5 / G /. You can see all of these chords below:

The Chords: Pre Chorus & Chorus

For the next section we use a B powerchord and C powerchord, which we loop back and fourth twice, like B5 /// C5 /// B5 /// C5 ///. We then move into the chorus which is very similar to the verse, but we add the D powerchord on the third loop round (in place of the G major chord). Simone runs through this clearly at 07:15 in the video! Here are the chords:

The Extra Parts: Cool Lead Fills

If you are interested in getting some of the lead fills together, then here they are! This song is based around the key of G major, so any fills Shawn Mendes plays are using the G major or G major pentatonic scales. Check out the video from 08:50 to see the lead licks, and use the scale shapes below to match up to them, or if you want to improvise over the track with your own lead licks!



    Keep Learning: Power Chords!

    If you love the sound of this track but struggle with some of the power chord shapes you may want to try our beginners electric course where we cover these chords in great detail! It's a ful course, and totally free (As is everything on the site). You can find it here: Power Chord Guitar Lesson Course.

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

Why

This laid back track is all about the main set of piano chords, that present a really cool challenge as guitar players... Where can we play these lush sounding chords on the acoustic? Well, Simone takes you through how to play the chords and there are definitely some challenging shapes, so warm up and get ready!