Chords for How to Play Bossa Nova Guitar - Jobim Style

Hey everybody, I'm Rick Beato.
In today's Everything Music, we're going to learn how to play bossa nova guitar.
_ Now, I'm going to teach you the exact chords of the tune Girl From Ipanema by Antonio Carlos Jobim.
These aren't chords that are simplified in any way.
These are the ones from the Astruj Gilberto Finest Hour record with João Gilberto and Stan Gatz.
The song actually consists of only seven [Em] chord shapes.
That's all you need to know to play the song exactly as it [F] appears.
And [N] one right hand bossa nova pattern.
The first chord shape we're going to learn is the first chord, which is the _ Ab6 9 chord.
And it goes like this.
Ab6 9, you need to bar your index finger across the D string and G string.
Put your third finger on the fourth fret of the B string [A] and your index [G] finger on the fourth fret of the low [Abm] E string.
_ Pluck it like that.
_ The [Em] second chord shape is Bb [A] minor 6.
It's the [E] minor 6 chord shape and it goes like this.
In this case, we're going to use Bb minor 6.
Your second finger sixth fret of the low E, index finger fifth fret of the D string.
Then your third finger goes on the sixth fret of the G and [Ab] your pinky on sixth fret of the B.
It sounds [Bbm] like this.
_ _ _ _ [C] The third chord shape is very similar to the Bb minor 6,
but you drop the index finger down one fret and it's Eb [Bb] minor 9 over Bb.
_ It's played like this.
The third chord shape, you move the index finger [B] down one fret from the Bb minor [Bbm] 6.
And you get Eb minor 9 over Bb.
Those are the only [Db] chord shapes in the A section.
[F]
Let's move on to the B [E] section.
The fourth chord shape is the first chord shape of the B [A] section, which is an [Em] A6 chord and it's played [A] like this.
_ A6 chord.
Second finger on the fifth fret of the low E, index finger fourth fret of the D,
pinky on the sixth fret of the G and ring finger [Fm] on the fifth fret of the [A] B string.
It sounds like [G] that.
The fifth chord shape is the dominant seventh chord shape, this chord form here
that there are three of in the song.
And it's played like this.
First finger on the third fret of the low E string,
second finger on the third fret of the D string, third finger on the third fret of the B,
and then the pinky up there on the fourth fret of the G string. _ _
_ _ _ [E] The sixth chord shape is the minor seventh chord with the root on the fifth string, in this case D minor 7.
And it's played like this.
You [B] have to bar your finger across here,
across the A string, really you can bar your finger across all the strings there at the fifth fret.
Put your third finger at the seventh fret of the D string, your middle finger at the [Ab] sixth fret [Dm] of the B string.
And you're just plucking those four strings.
_ [B] And the final chord shaped into a number seven is the dominant [E] seven flat five.
This is probably the most difficult, but it's not that hard to play.
[Ab] Second finger here on Bb, sixth fret, third finger,
sixth fret of the D string, pinky seventh fret of the G, and the index finger the fifth fret of the B string.
And it sounds like [Bb] this. _ _ _ _ _
Now all of these chords require you to pluck only the notes that you're fingering.
Okay, so the right hand, [B] these three fingers are played as a group and the thumb is [Eb] played as a group.
_ The bossa nova pattern is very simple.
It's this.
_ You play together,
you bring your fingers in together like this,
_ [Abm] and then you go. _ _ _ _
_ So it's thumb and chord together, _
[Eb] and then chord, _ [Abm] the upper part of the chord. _
_ _ _ _ So it's chord, chord, thumb, chord.
Chord, chord, thumb, chord.
The first one is a chord with all the notes with a thumb. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
So chord, chord, thumb, chord.
Chord, chord, thumb, chord.
When you listen to the recording, they'll make the pattern slightly more complex as the song goes on and they'll play it like this.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Occasionally in bossa nova, you'll get this too. _
If _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
you want to [N] get it more complex, you can actually incorporate all three patterns and improvise on it.
Now let me actually play the tune for you.
The A section starts out with the first chord, Ab6 9 [Ab] with a four bar [Abm] vamp like this, three, four. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ Three, _ four.
_ [Eb]
Then the A section starts.
So let me play [N] through without talking.
One, two, three, [Eb] four. _ _ _
_ _ _ [Bbm] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Gb] _ _ _ _ [Am] _
_ _ _ [Abm] _ _ _ _ [B] _
_ _ _ [Bb] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Bbm] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Gb] _ _ _ _ [Am] _
_ _ _ [Bb] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Dm] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Bb] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Ebm] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [B] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Ab] _ _ _ _ [Bb] _
_ _ _ [Ebm] _ _ _ _ [Ab] _
_ _ _ [Bb] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Bbm] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Gb] _ _ _ _ [Am] _
_ _ _ [Bb] _ _ _ _ [B] _
_ _ _ _ _ [E] So
To make it a little more complex, like I said, you can play it with this pattern [Bb] three, four.
So _ _ _ _ _ [Bbm] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Am] _ _ _ _ [Bb] _
_ _ _ [E] _ [B] _ _ remember all you need to do is [A] learn the seven chord [Eb] shapes and then learn the order of chords in the tune.
One of the things to remember [B] on the bridge, this is the only part that really gets tricky.
You start [A] the bridge out with this
_ A6 chord
[G] And then you move down to G7.
So you're going down a step
Then you move up [Dm] a fifth to D minor 7 and [E] then you go from D down to [D] Bb7
Then [Ebm] straight across to Eb minor [E] 7 then [B] diagonally to B7 [Fm] then up
F minor 7 [Bb] down a fifth _ [Ebm] Bb7b5 Eb minor [Ab] 7
_ _ Ab7b5 [E] and that's it.
That's all for now.
Please subscribe here to my EverythingMusic YouTube channel.
And if you're interested in the Beato book, which has
the whole chapter on bossa nova guitar, you can write to me at _ rickbeato1 at gmail.com. Thanks for watching.