Chords for How To Play Jim Croce Time In a Bottle (Introduction only)
Tempo:
109.25 bpm
Chords used:
Eb
F
D
G
B
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Start Jamming...
Let's take a look at the intro to Jim Croce's Time in a Bottle.
We're in the key of D minor.
[B] So you just want a normal [C] first position D minor initially.
[F] Let's take this bar by bar.
I'm [Eb] going to play bar one first of all.
[D]
OK, this is all about arpeggios in the right hand.
We'll talk about the right hand in [Eb] a moment.
But the left hand first of all holds this [Ab] chord shape down.
[B] We're going to pitch four [D] and two.
And then we're going to come up the strings.
Three, two, [Dm] one.
And back down, two, three.
The song is in three [G] beats to the bar, so that's counting [D] one and two [Dm] and three and.
And that [A] feeling of three like that continues for most of the song in fact, with one [B] or two exceptions.
[Eb] Now a quick word about the right hand.
[F] I like to use all three fingers of [Ab] the right hand.
So I'm going to pinch thumb and middle [D] finger.
And then I'm going to come up the strings, index, middle finger, ring finger.
That's the kind of classical guitarist's [C] technique and a lot of fingerstyle folk guitarists too.
[Ab] Some guys prefer two fingers.
If you find that you [B] prefer two [Eb] fingers, feel free to do it.
[D] You could go pinch, thumb, index, middle, whatever way works for you.
[Ab] All right, let's go to bar two.
Now [Eb] we're going to introduce our first major stretch on this song.
[Eb] Some of you will be able to make this stretch with your thumb still hooked over the top here,
where we normally [B] have it when we play sort of folk acoustic guitar.
If you find this stretch is too much with [Db] your thumb here, you'll want to drop the thumb down the [Eb] back of the neck.
As you drop it down, feel the wrist of the left hand open up and the wrist rock forward.
That's creating the space [Db] to allow this little finger to curl to the fifth string, fourth fret, [Cm] while the D minor shape remains in place.
It doesn't matter that this finger will touch the fourth string and kill it.
That's okay, but you need to keep the D minor shape pressed down and add the fifth string, fourth fret as we play [Db] this.
[Dm]
That's bar [B] two.
[G] And then we're going [Db] five, three, [Dm] two, one, two, three, in the same rhythm as before.
[C] What's going to happen here is the bass is going to descend one semitone at a time.
[Eb] So, in order to do that on the next bar, we let the little finger come down to the [Eb] third fret, while the D minor chord stays in place.
At [Cm] least that's how I do it.
[Dm]
[B] If you find that's difficult to do, you could have your ring finger take that note on the fifth string, third fret,
and you could let your little finger then drop in to replace the D note on the [C] second string, third fret.
[F] [A]
Whichever way you prefer to finger that.
[F] [Eb] Now, the next chord is an interesting one.
He wants D minor over B.
In other words, he wants that bass to descend one more fret, but he certainly can't do that.
Nobody could.
So, he simply [F] takes the middle finger here, puts it on the fifth string, third fret,
[Eb] and doesn't worry that that leaves the third string now open instead of the second fret.
It sounds fine that way.
So he plays [G] five, three, two, one, two, three,
and doesn't worry that the third [D] string is open.
You can hear that clearly on the record if you [G] listen carefully.
[Eb] And then finally, D minor over B flat, except now again, he's just looking for the easiest possible fingering [Ab] here.
So the [B] middle finger comes away, [Eb] the index finger moves to the B flat note on the fifth string, first fret.
He doesn't bother to replace the third string, [Bb] second fret.
He leaves that open.
And again, five, [Gm] three, [Bm] two, one, two, three.
[D] That's the first [Ab] five bars of your tab.
Let's play those again, slowly.
[D]
[Dm]
[G] [Gm]
[Bm] And now we get this [Eb] beautiful phrase at bars six, seven, and eight.
I'll play them together [Bb] first.
[G] [Em]
At bar six, we were holding this shape down, [Eb] and certainly your thumb's going to be down the back of the neck here.
Keep it there.
Keep it in this position.
Play five and [Bb] two.
[Eb] Now, if you're using the right finger again, your middle finger is somewhere in the vicinity of the second fret.
[N] Let it drop onto the second string, second fret.
Let the other two fingers come away.
Play five and [A] two.
Don't let these fingers come too far.
Don't let this happen.
[F] Because these two fingers now need to go to the sixth string, third fret, and the third string, third fret.
Pinch those two.
Leave the middle finger where it [Gm] is if you can.
[Eb] Because at bar seven, you need this again.
Pinching five and two, the same chord you had played a moment [A] ago.
Jim Croce then puts the third string open into the texture.
[G] Put that in or not as you want.
Now you want the fifth string, second fret, [Db] and the second string, third fret.
[A] Again, the fingering [F] is really important here to allow the fingers to be in the right positions to play these notes.
So I've got index finger, ring finger [Bm] now.
Then [Cm] I'm going to relax that shape, bring [F] it up two frets on relaxed strings and drop it back down at frets four and [Db] five.
That was [F] bar seven.
So we've gone from bar six to bar [Bb] seven.
[Bbm] [A] [G]
[Db] Now [D] let the [Ab] index finger come away and the ring finger relax on [Eb] its string and come up to the eighth fret.
Let the middle finger drop in on the fourth [D] string, eighth fret, and pinch those two.
[F] [Eb] Now the middle finger comes down to the seventh fret, ring finger comes [Eb] away, index finger drops in on the second string, sixth fret.
Play four and two.
[E]
Middle finger [Ab] relaxes and comes down to the [F] fifth fret and the ring finger again drops in on the second string, [Eb] fifth fret.
Play those two.
[Em]
[Eb] And if you can, do a hammer-on pull-off of the second string six to five.
That's what Jim Croce [Em] does.
You hear that?
[Cm] And you're going to let that ring for a moment as there's a little pause in the record.
Let's come [E] back again from bar six [Bb] with the count.
One, [Eb] two, three, one [G] and two, [Db]
three, one, [F] two, [Em] three.
Don't worry about the count of the hammer-on pull-off, just let it ring for a moment.
[Eb] That is the introduction.
Next up we've got the verse and we'll come back and we'll look at that in
We're in the key of D minor.
[B] So you just want a normal [C] first position D minor initially.
[F] Let's take this bar by bar.
I'm [Eb] going to play bar one first of all.
[D]
OK, this is all about arpeggios in the right hand.
We'll talk about the right hand in [Eb] a moment.
But the left hand first of all holds this [Ab] chord shape down.
[B] We're going to pitch four [D] and two.
And then we're going to come up the strings.
Three, two, [Dm] one.
And back down, two, three.
The song is in three [G] beats to the bar, so that's counting [D] one and two [Dm] and three and.
And that [A] feeling of three like that continues for most of the song in fact, with one [B] or two exceptions.
[Eb] Now a quick word about the right hand.
[F] I like to use all three fingers of [Ab] the right hand.
So I'm going to pinch thumb and middle [D] finger.
And then I'm going to come up the strings, index, middle finger, ring finger.
That's the kind of classical guitarist's [C] technique and a lot of fingerstyle folk guitarists too.
[Ab] Some guys prefer two fingers.
If you find that you [B] prefer two [Eb] fingers, feel free to do it.
[D] You could go pinch, thumb, index, middle, whatever way works for you.
[Ab] All right, let's go to bar two.
Now [Eb] we're going to introduce our first major stretch on this song.
[Eb] Some of you will be able to make this stretch with your thumb still hooked over the top here,
where we normally [B] have it when we play sort of folk acoustic guitar.
If you find this stretch is too much with [Db] your thumb here, you'll want to drop the thumb down the [Eb] back of the neck.
As you drop it down, feel the wrist of the left hand open up and the wrist rock forward.
That's creating the space [Db] to allow this little finger to curl to the fifth string, fourth fret, [Cm] while the D minor shape remains in place.
It doesn't matter that this finger will touch the fourth string and kill it.
That's okay, but you need to keep the D minor shape pressed down and add the fifth string, fourth fret as we play [Db] this.
[Dm]
That's bar [B] two.
[G] And then we're going [Db] five, three, [Dm] two, one, two, three, in the same rhythm as before.
[C] What's going to happen here is the bass is going to descend one semitone at a time.
[Eb] So, in order to do that on the next bar, we let the little finger come down to the [Eb] third fret, while the D minor chord stays in place.
At [Cm] least that's how I do it.
[Dm]
[B] If you find that's difficult to do, you could have your ring finger take that note on the fifth string, third fret,
and you could let your little finger then drop in to replace the D note on the [C] second string, third fret.
[F] [A]
Whichever way you prefer to finger that.
[F] [Eb] Now, the next chord is an interesting one.
He wants D minor over B.
In other words, he wants that bass to descend one more fret, but he certainly can't do that.
Nobody could.
So, he simply [F] takes the middle finger here, puts it on the fifth string, third fret,
[Eb] and doesn't worry that that leaves the third string now open instead of the second fret.
It sounds fine that way.
So he plays [G] five, three, two, one, two, three,
and doesn't worry that the third [D] string is open.
You can hear that clearly on the record if you [G] listen carefully.
[Eb] And then finally, D minor over B flat, except now again, he's just looking for the easiest possible fingering [Ab] here.
So the [B] middle finger comes away, [Eb] the index finger moves to the B flat note on the fifth string, first fret.
He doesn't bother to replace the third string, [Bb] second fret.
He leaves that open.
And again, five, [Gm] three, [Bm] two, one, two, three.
[D] That's the first [Ab] five bars of your tab.
Let's play those again, slowly.
[D]
[Dm]
[G] [Gm]
[Bm] And now we get this [Eb] beautiful phrase at bars six, seven, and eight.
I'll play them together [Bb] first.
[G] [Em]
At bar six, we were holding this shape down, [Eb] and certainly your thumb's going to be down the back of the neck here.
Keep it there.
Keep it in this position.
Play five and [Bb] two.
[Eb] Now, if you're using the right finger again, your middle finger is somewhere in the vicinity of the second fret.
[N] Let it drop onto the second string, second fret.
Let the other two fingers come away.
Play five and [A] two.
Don't let these fingers come too far.
Don't let this happen.
[F] Because these two fingers now need to go to the sixth string, third fret, and the third string, third fret.
Pinch those two.
Leave the middle finger where it [Gm] is if you can.
[Eb] Because at bar seven, you need this again.
Pinching five and two, the same chord you had played a moment [A] ago.
Jim Croce then puts the third string open into the texture.
[G] Put that in or not as you want.
Now you want the fifth string, second fret, [Db] and the second string, third fret.
[A] Again, the fingering [F] is really important here to allow the fingers to be in the right positions to play these notes.
So I've got index finger, ring finger [Bm] now.
Then [Cm] I'm going to relax that shape, bring [F] it up two frets on relaxed strings and drop it back down at frets four and [Db] five.
That was [F] bar seven.
So we've gone from bar six to bar [Bb] seven.
[Bbm] [A] [G]
[Db] Now [D] let the [Ab] index finger come away and the ring finger relax on [Eb] its string and come up to the eighth fret.
Let the middle finger drop in on the fourth [D] string, eighth fret, and pinch those two.
[F] [Eb] Now the middle finger comes down to the seventh fret, ring finger comes [Eb] away, index finger drops in on the second string, sixth fret.
Play four and two.
[E]
Middle finger [Ab] relaxes and comes down to the [F] fifth fret and the ring finger again drops in on the second string, [Eb] fifth fret.
Play those two.
[Em]
[Eb] And if you can, do a hammer-on pull-off of the second string six to five.
That's what Jim Croce [Em] does.
You hear that?
[Cm] And you're going to let that ring for a moment as there's a little pause in the record.
Let's come [E] back again from bar six [Bb] with the count.
One, [Eb] two, three, one [G] and two, [Db]
three, one, [F] two, [Em] three.
Don't worry about the count of the hammer-on pull-off, just let it ring for a moment.
[Eb] That is the introduction.
Next up we've got the verse and we'll come back and we'll look at that in
Key:
Eb
F
D
G
B
Eb
F
D
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ Let's take a look at the intro to Jim Croce's Time in a Bottle.
We're in the key of D minor.
[B] So you just want a normal [C] first position D minor initially.
[F] Let's take this bar by bar.
I'm [Eb] going to play bar one first of all.
[D] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ OK, this is all about arpeggios in the right hand.
We'll talk about the right hand in [Eb] a moment.
But the left hand first of all holds this [Ab] chord shape down.
[B] We're going to pitch four [D] and two.
_ And then we're going to come up the strings.
Three, two, [Dm] one.
And back down, two, three.
The song is in three [G] beats to the bar, so that's counting [D] one and two [Dm] and three and.
_ And that [A] feeling of three like that continues for most of the song in fact, with one [B] or two exceptions. _
_ [Eb] Now a quick word about the right hand.
[F] I like to use all three fingers of [Ab] the right hand.
So I'm going to pinch thumb and middle [D] finger.
And then I'm going to come up the strings, index, middle finger, ring finger.
That's the kind of classical guitarist's [C] technique and a lot of fingerstyle folk guitarists too.
_ [Ab] Some guys prefer two fingers.
If you find that you [B] prefer two [Eb] fingers, feel free to do it.
[D] You could go pinch, thumb, index, middle, whatever way works for you. _ _ _
[Ab] All right, let's go to bar two.
Now [Eb] we're going to introduce our first major stretch on this song.
_ [Eb] Some of you will be able to make this stretch with your thumb still hooked over the top here,
where we normally [B] have it when we play sort of folk acoustic guitar.
_ If you find this stretch is too much with [Db] your thumb here, you'll want to drop the thumb down the [Eb] back of the neck.
As you drop it down, feel the wrist of the left hand open up and the wrist rock forward.
That's creating the space [Db] to allow this little finger to curl to the fifth string, fourth fret, [Cm] while the D minor shape remains in place.
It doesn't matter that this finger will touch the fourth string and kill it. _
That's okay, but you need to keep the D minor shape pressed down and add the fifth string, fourth fret as we play [Db] this.
_ [Dm] _ _ _ _
That's bar [B] two.
[G] And then we're going [Db] five, three, [Dm] two, one, two, three, in the same rhythm as before.
_ [C] What's going to happen here is the bass is going to descend one semitone at a time.
[Eb] So, in order to do that on the next bar, we let the little finger come down to the [Eb] third fret, while the D minor chord stays in place.
At [Cm] least that's how I do it.
_ [Dm] _ _ _
_ [B] If you find that's difficult to do, you could have your ring finger take that note on the fifth string, third fret,
and you could let your little finger then drop in to replace the D note on the [C] second string, third fret.
[F] _ _ [A] _
Whichever way you prefer to finger that.
_ [F] _ _ [Eb] Now, the next chord is an interesting one.
He wants D minor over B.
In other words, he wants that bass to descend one more fret, _ but he certainly can't do that.
Nobody could.
So, he simply [F] takes the middle finger here, puts it on the fifth string, third fret,
[Eb] and doesn't worry that that leaves the third string now open instead of the second fret.
It sounds fine that way.
So he plays [G] five, three, two, one, two, three,
and doesn't worry that the third [D] string is open.
You can hear that clearly on the record if you [G] listen carefully. _ _
[Eb] And then finally, D minor over B flat, except now again, he's just looking for the easiest possible fingering [Ab] here.
So the [B] middle finger comes away, [Eb] the index finger moves to the B flat note on the fifth string, first fret.
He doesn't bother to replace the third string, [Bb] second fret.
He leaves that open.
And again, five, [Gm] three, [Bm] two, one, two, three.
_ [D] That's the first [Ab] five bars of your tab.
Let's play those again, slowly.
[D] _
_ [Dm] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ [Gm] _ _ _
[Bm] _ _ _ And now we get this [Eb] beautiful phrase at bars six, seven, and eight.
I'll play them together [Bb] first. _ _ _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _
_ _ At bar six, we were holding this shape down, [Eb] and certainly your thumb's going to be down the back of the neck here.
Keep it there.
Keep it in this position.
Play five and [Bb] two.
_ _ [Eb] Now, if you're using the right finger again, your middle finger is somewhere in the vicinity of the second fret.
[N] Let it drop onto the second string, second fret.
Let the other two fingers come away.
Play five and [A] two.
_ _ _ Don't let these fingers come too far.
Don't let this happen.
[F] Because these two fingers now need to go to the sixth string, third fret, and the third string, third fret.
Pinch those two.
Leave the middle finger where it [Gm] is if you can. _ _ _
[Eb] Because at bar seven, you need this again.
Pinching five and two, the same chord you had played a moment [A] ago.
Jim Croce then puts the third string open into the texture.
[G] Put that in or not as you want.
Now you want the fifth string, second fret, [Db] and the second string, third fret.
[A] Again, the fingering [F] is really important here to allow the fingers to be in the right positions to play these notes.
So I've got index finger, ring finger [Bm] now.
_ _ Then [Cm] I'm going to relax that shape, bring [F] it up two frets on relaxed strings and drop it back down at frets four and [Db] five. _ _ _ _
That was [F] bar seven.
So we've gone from bar six to bar [Bb] seven. _
_ _ [Bbm] _ _ [A] _ _ [G] _ _
[Db] _ Now _ _ [D] let the [Ab] index finger come away and the ring finger relax on [Eb] its string and come up to the eighth fret.
Let the middle finger drop in on the fourth [D] string, eighth fret, and pinch those two.
[F] _ _ _ _ _ [Eb] Now the middle finger comes down to the seventh fret, ring finger comes [Eb] away, index finger drops in on the second string, sixth fret.
Play four and two.
[E] _ _ _ _
Middle finger [Ab] relaxes and comes down to the [F] fifth fret and the ring finger again drops in on the second string, [Eb] fifth fret.
Play those two.
[Em] _ _
[Eb] And if you can, do a hammer-on pull-off of the second string six to five.
That's what Jim Croce [Em] does.
_ _ You hear that?
_ _ [Cm] And you're going to let that ring for a moment as there's a little pause in the record.
Let's come [E] back again from bar six [Bb] with the count. _ _
One, [Eb] two, three, one [G] and two, [Db]
three, one, [F] two, [Em] three.
Don't worry about the count of the hammer-on pull-off, just let it ring for a moment.
[Eb] That is the introduction.
Next up we've got the verse and we'll come back and we'll look at that in
_ Let's take a look at the intro to Jim Croce's Time in a Bottle.
We're in the key of D minor.
[B] So you just want a normal [C] first position D minor initially.
[F] Let's take this bar by bar.
I'm [Eb] going to play bar one first of all.
[D] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ OK, this is all about arpeggios in the right hand.
We'll talk about the right hand in [Eb] a moment.
But the left hand first of all holds this [Ab] chord shape down.
[B] We're going to pitch four [D] and two.
_ And then we're going to come up the strings.
Three, two, [Dm] one.
And back down, two, three.
The song is in three [G] beats to the bar, so that's counting [D] one and two [Dm] and three and.
_ And that [A] feeling of three like that continues for most of the song in fact, with one [B] or two exceptions. _
_ [Eb] Now a quick word about the right hand.
[F] I like to use all three fingers of [Ab] the right hand.
So I'm going to pinch thumb and middle [D] finger.
And then I'm going to come up the strings, index, middle finger, ring finger.
That's the kind of classical guitarist's [C] technique and a lot of fingerstyle folk guitarists too.
_ [Ab] Some guys prefer two fingers.
If you find that you [B] prefer two [Eb] fingers, feel free to do it.
[D] You could go pinch, thumb, index, middle, whatever way works for you. _ _ _
[Ab] All right, let's go to bar two.
Now [Eb] we're going to introduce our first major stretch on this song.
_ [Eb] Some of you will be able to make this stretch with your thumb still hooked over the top here,
where we normally [B] have it when we play sort of folk acoustic guitar.
_ If you find this stretch is too much with [Db] your thumb here, you'll want to drop the thumb down the [Eb] back of the neck.
As you drop it down, feel the wrist of the left hand open up and the wrist rock forward.
That's creating the space [Db] to allow this little finger to curl to the fifth string, fourth fret, [Cm] while the D minor shape remains in place.
It doesn't matter that this finger will touch the fourth string and kill it. _
That's okay, but you need to keep the D minor shape pressed down and add the fifth string, fourth fret as we play [Db] this.
_ [Dm] _ _ _ _
That's bar [B] two.
[G] And then we're going [Db] five, three, [Dm] two, one, two, three, in the same rhythm as before.
_ [C] What's going to happen here is the bass is going to descend one semitone at a time.
[Eb] So, in order to do that on the next bar, we let the little finger come down to the [Eb] third fret, while the D minor chord stays in place.
At [Cm] least that's how I do it.
_ [Dm] _ _ _
_ [B] If you find that's difficult to do, you could have your ring finger take that note on the fifth string, third fret,
and you could let your little finger then drop in to replace the D note on the [C] second string, third fret.
[F] _ _ [A] _
Whichever way you prefer to finger that.
_ [F] _ _ [Eb] Now, the next chord is an interesting one.
He wants D minor over B.
In other words, he wants that bass to descend one more fret, _ but he certainly can't do that.
Nobody could.
So, he simply [F] takes the middle finger here, puts it on the fifth string, third fret,
[Eb] and doesn't worry that that leaves the third string now open instead of the second fret.
It sounds fine that way.
So he plays [G] five, three, two, one, two, three,
and doesn't worry that the third [D] string is open.
You can hear that clearly on the record if you [G] listen carefully. _ _
[Eb] And then finally, D minor over B flat, except now again, he's just looking for the easiest possible fingering [Ab] here.
So the [B] middle finger comes away, [Eb] the index finger moves to the B flat note on the fifth string, first fret.
He doesn't bother to replace the third string, [Bb] second fret.
He leaves that open.
And again, five, [Gm] three, [Bm] two, one, two, three.
_ [D] That's the first [Ab] five bars of your tab.
Let's play those again, slowly.
[D] _
_ [Dm] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ [Gm] _ _ _
[Bm] _ _ _ And now we get this [Eb] beautiful phrase at bars six, seven, and eight.
I'll play them together [Bb] first. _ _ _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _
_ _ At bar six, we were holding this shape down, [Eb] and certainly your thumb's going to be down the back of the neck here.
Keep it there.
Keep it in this position.
Play five and [Bb] two.
_ _ [Eb] Now, if you're using the right finger again, your middle finger is somewhere in the vicinity of the second fret.
[N] Let it drop onto the second string, second fret.
Let the other two fingers come away.
Play five and [A] two.
_ _ _ Don't let these fingers come too far.
Don't let this happen.
[F] Because these two fingers now need to go to the sixth string, third fret, and the third string, third fret.
Pinch those two.
Leave the middle finger where it [Gm] is if you can. _ _ _
[Eb] Because at bar seven, you need this again.
Pinching five and two, the same chord you had played a moment [A] ago.
Jim Croce then puts the third string open into the texture.
[G] Put that in or not as you want.
Now you want the fifth string, second fret, [Db] and the second string, third fret.
[A] Again, the fingering [F] is really important here to allow the fingers to be in the right positions to play these notes.
So I've got index finger, ring finger [Bm] now.
_ _ Then [Cm] I'm going to relax that shape, bring [F] it up two frets on relaxed strings and drop it back down at frets four and [Db] five. _ _ _ _
That was [F] bar seven.
So we've gone from bar six to bar [Bb] seven. _
_ _ [Bbm] _ _ [A] _ _ [G] _ _
[Db] _ Now _ _ [D] let the [Ab] index finger come away and the ring finger relax on [Eb] its string and come up to the eighth fret.
Let the middle finger drop in on the fourth [D] string, eighth fret, and pinch those two.
[F] _ _ _ _ _ [Eb] Now the middle finger comes down to the seventh fret, ring finger comes [Eb] away, index finger drops in on the second string, sixth fret.
Play four and two.
[E] _ _ _ _
Middle finger [Ab] relaxes and comes down to the [F] fifth fret and the ring finger again drops in on the second string, [Eb] fifth fret.
Play those two.
[Em] _ _
[Eb] And if you can, do a hammer-on pull-off of the second string six to five.
That's what Jim Croce [Em] does.
_ _ You hear that?
_ _ [Cm] And you're going to let that ring for a moment as there's a little pause in the record.
Let's come [E] back again from bar six [Bb] with the count. _ _
One, [Eb] two, three, one [G] and two, [Db]
three, one, [F] two, [Em] three.
Don't worry about the count of the hammer-on pull-off, just let it ring for a moment.
[Eb] That is the introduction.
Next up we've got the verse and we'll come back and we'll look at that in