John Legend’s isn’t just for piano players – Let’s adapt his hit ballad for guitar with these All Of Me chords! Show
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Let’s Learn John Legend’s All Of Me Chords!When we first begin learning to play the guitar, we have a tendency to limit ourselves to songs that were written and recorded on the guitar. Sometimes we hear an amazing song on the piano and think, “I’d love to play that song, if only there were a way to figure out the guitar chords.”
Sometimes songs are written on the piano in a key that is terrible for guitar in the sense that none of the chords are very guitar-friendly.
All Of Me Chords: Songwriter & BackgroundBefore John Legend was Mr. Chrissy Teigen, he was John Roger Stevens, attending high school at the age of 12 and then majoring in English literature at Penn State University. He worked as a consultant while writing, producing, and recording his songs.
“All of Me” is from Legend’s 2013 album Love in the Future. He wrote it about Teigen, who was then his fiancée. It must have worked, because in the video below, you can see a little bit of their wedding. It reached number one in the US in May 2014, knocking Pharrell Williams’s “Happy” off the spot. Success at the number two spot in the UK followed, and it has been an enduring worldwide hit since.
All Of Me Chords For BeginnersAs pretty and intricate as this song sounds when Legend plays it, it’s not very complicated from a musical perspective. That means there isn’t a large number of chords to deal with, which is always good news for beginning guitarists.
Using these chord shapes makes All of Me not only a beautiful song to play and sing, but also a good chord-changing exercise. Em (022000) (If you don't understand the above image please read our article "How To Read Guitar Chordboxes In 60 Seconds". It will make everything clear!) C (xxx010) G (xx0003) D (xx0230) Am (x02010)
For Example: Play the Em chord and then change to the C chord every four beats. Count to four, hitting the new chord when you say one. Pro-Tip: Practicing chord changes can help you to work on multiple skills at once, improving your playing more quickly.
Learn the 12 EASIEST beginner chords with our famous FREE guide✓ Stop struggling. Start making music. ✓ Learn 12 beginner-friendly versions of every chord. ✓ This is our most popular guide and it will improve your chord ability quickly. Our Guitar CoursesBecome a better guitarist: Click here to check out our guitar courses All Of Me Chords: Full Chords & Alternative ShapesIf you have been a guitarist long enough to have a handful of chords you can easily play, this tune is great for working on the skill of getting through an entire song without stopping. You can work up a beautiful arrangement of this song with basic open chords, and there are only five All of Me chords to deal with: Em (022000) C (x32010) G (320003) D (xx0232) Am (x02210)
Legend’s piano arrangement of the All of Me chords incorporates some modifications to those chords, adding a little color here and there. We can do this on the guitar by using different shapes for the same basic chords. Here are a few suggestions: Emadd9 (024000) Cmaj7 (x32000) Dsus2 (xx0230) Asus2 (x02200) The chord names are slightly different, reflecting the notes added to the basic chord when you use the above shapes, but the basic character of the chord remains that same.
You can use those alternative shapes as replacements for the basic All of Me chords, or you can choose where to substitute them throughout the song. All Of Me Chords: The Song In Three SectionsNow that you’ve got the chords of this song in whichever shapes you choose, let’s take a look at each section of the song. VerseThe introduction and verse of the song is a cycle of four chords. The verse is where the singing begins, “What would I do without your smart mouth,” and ends at “but I’ll be alright.” Check out the verse progression below. Play each of these All of Me chords for one measure, (four beats). Em C G D The verse lasts through four cycles. This progression is so familiar! There are loads of songs hiding there, including the chorus of Toto’s “Africa.” Try getting that one out of your head! Pre-ChorusA song’s pre-chorus is a departure from the verse that leads your ear into the chorus. Not all songs have them, but you can tell when they do.
Am Am G D ChorusAs with a lot of songs, you can tell the chorus is happening because that’s where the title of the song appears. The chorus here begins, “‘Cause all of me loves all of you,” with lovely soaring vocals. When you get to the chorus, you’ll start with this progression, twice. G G Em Em Am Am C D The chorus continues with “‘Cause I give you all of me.” You’ll play these chords twice before returning to the verse. Em C G D Download our lead guitar cheat-sheet to make things easierIt can be disorientating for guitarists to understand which scales work with which keys. With this in mind, we created a cheat-sheet; a key and scale-finder that you can use again and again. Our Guitar CoursesBecome a better guitarist: Click here for our guitar courses All Of Me Chords: The KeySongwriters make choices about the key of their songs with a lot of different things in mind. Piano songwriters tend to use keys with flats when they want a warmer sound.
That does not mean that we guitar players have to sacrifice the key of the song, however! Keep reading! There are two ways to change the All of Me chords from the key of G to the key of Ab.
The chromatic scale, in flats, goes like this: A – Bb – B – C – Db – D – Eb – E – F – Gb – G – Ab Count the half-steps between the key you’re in and the key you want, and put your capo on that fret.
All Of Me Chords: RhythmNeil Young once said, “The easy stuff, that’s the hard stuff.” Nowhere is this more evident than in trying to play a slow song without having it grind to a halt. Strum the All of Me chords once per measure with a simple rhythm, and it becomes a great way to practice chord changes, but the song begins to sound less like a love ballad and more like a dirge.
The first upstroke should be laid back to accompany the rhythm: Down, down-up, -up, down-up You can also try a fingerpicking pattern for the All of Me chords, which emulates Legend’s lacy piano playing style in the recording. There are only two absolutely mandatory things about beginning fingerstyle:
Here’s a fingerstyle pattern you can use with the All of Me chords to get yourself started: All Of Me Chords: Song StructureIf you’ve got the All of Me chords down and you’ve practiced each part, you’re ready to put the entire song together. Taking the time to learn each piece of the song separately means that by the time you can play the whole thing, you’ve also got it memorized!
Here is the song structure for the All of Me chords, summarized so that you can easily remember it. Intro: Em C G D x1 Verse: Em C G D x4 Pre-chorus: Am Am G D x2 Chorus: G G Em Em Am Am C D x2, then Em C G D x2 Verse Pre-chorus Chorus Pre-chorus Chorus Tag: Em C G D x2
Experiment With This Chord Progression!You can easily take your playing to the next level by experimenting with familiar chord shapes as we’ve done with the All of Me chords. One of our favorite resources for really expanding our chord vocabulary is this Jazz Guitar Chord Bible. Use it to enhance your guitar arrangements of any song you’ve learned! Recommended ResourcesIf you’ve enjoyed this lesson, we have other places for you to go next! Continue on your path with these lessons:
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