Chords for How To Play John Martyn May You Never (1st section)
Tempo:
64.85 bpm
Chords used:
F
E
B
Abm
A
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Start Jamming...
For May You Never, we are in dropped D [Abm] tuning and capo at [Fm] the second fret.
So first of all to get into the tuning, we'll take the capo off for a moment.
[Eb] Dropped D tuning is a very simple tuning, [F] most of you will be familiar with it I'm sure.
We simply take the low E string, the sixth string of your [Dm] guitar, and we tune it down to the note D.
[Abm] Then we'll capo, when that's done, we'll capo back up to the second fret where John Martin plays [Gb] it on [Ab] the original [F] album.
And now we'll find if we play a normal D chord but include the [E] sixth string in the chord,
we get that lovely rich bass sound which is what we wanted.
What we'll do here is we'll [Ebm] take a look at the [F] chords that are involved in the song.
As usual with John Martin there are not very many.
And then we'll have a look at a standard accompaniment pattern that you can use throughout the whole song,
if [Bb] that's the way you want [Gb] to go, and it will be John Martin's basic accompaniment [E] pattern.
And finally then we'll look at a couple of little licks that he tends to throw into this song,
[F] which you can choose to put into your version [Ab] or not as you [F] want to.
Alright, the chords we've got of course are a D chord, a normal standard D chord.
And then if you're looking at your tab or your song sheet you'll see that the next chord you see is G over B.
To play that chord we leave the ring finger where it is and we move the first finger,
the middle finger can come away, the middle finger is not needed for this chord.
The index finger goes to the fifth string second [F] fret.
All these frets are from the capo of course, second fret from the capo.
[N] That's G over D, G over B, I'm sorry.
Then we've got an A [Bb] chord which you [F] want to play as a half bar,
covering the first four strings with your index finger at the second [N] fret.
And that's basically it, that there [E] is a chord on your song sheet that's called B minor [Abm] 6,
but in fact B minor 6 is exactly the same shape as G over B.
Don't worry about why it's given a different name, in this case it's really not that important.
It's the same [N] shape as G over B, you'll play it either the way we played it before,
or maybe as I do, [F] you might prefer to adjust the fingering for the point that B minor 6 appears,
middle finger and little finger taking those two notes.
But it's not important, whichever [A] fingering you find better.
[Abm] Those are all the chords you're going to see in this song.
So, let's look at our standard accompaniment pattern,
and then we'll get into the little riffs and licks and little subtle things that he puts in to make it [B] sound like John Martin.
Let's just grab a normal D chord.
The standard [G] accompaniment pattern is going to go essentially like this.
[E]
[Eb] So what we're doing there [F] is we're [E] picking the sixth string and strings 4, 3 and 2,
all together with our right hand, then slapping.
1, 2.
On [Abm] and 3 we'll [C] hit the sixth string again [E] twice.
On the and of 3 we'll play the same three strings.
Notice that on May You Never we don't play the first string very often in this song.
We do a couple of times, but not often.
Here we're playing strings again, 4, 3 and 2.
So far we have this.
1, 2 and 3 and.
On 4 we slap again.
[Gbm] And then on [Abm] the and of 4 we pluck [Bb] again [E] 6, 4, 3 and 2.
Notice that that is actually [Eb] a pushed chord.
It's the first beat of the next bar.
[F] It should be the first beat of the next bar, but it's pushed onto the and of 4.
So the next bar will let that ring across the first beat.
[Abm] So the next bar will start with the slap.
That's going to sound like this.
[E] 1, 2 and 3 and 4 and.
1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and.
1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and.
And so on and so on.
[B] That [Dbm] will be your standard [Abm] accompaniment pattern.
Wherever you hit a G over B chord, the bass note moves from the sixth [N] string to the fifth string, but everything else is [A] the same.
[Dbm] [A]
[F] And whenever you get an A chord, the bass note is the fifth string, but everything else is the same.
[Ab] We will see some variations that he plays [B] a lot on an A chord.
[N] Those are our three chords.
Really, you could play the whole song just from that.
[E] May you never [A] lay your head down [B]
without a [E] hand to hold.
May [Dbm] you [B] never make your bed out [E] of cords.
[Db] I don't know how easy it [B] was for you to follow that, but I was essentially [F] playing the pattern that we've just looked [E] at,
but changing chords as the chords change according to your tab or your song sheet.
[G] So, as I said, you can play the song just like that, and essentially we will, [F] but of course we're going to throw in as many or as few of the little licks that John Martin uses as we want to.
So what I'm going to do now is spend the rest of the time [Gm] on this video going through the little licks that he throws in.
[Abm] First of all, right at the very beginning, he starts [B] with this phrase, [A]
which [Db] you recognize immediately, of course.
[B] [F] And may I
The word and, this is free tempo, so the rhythm hasn't started yet.
The word and is the [B] fifth string open.
And
On the word may, [Abm] we're going to hold down the fourth string.
Now, it's all the way [Eb] up, it's the thirteenth fret of your guitar.
I could say [F] fret eleven, because it's the eleventh fret from the capo, which is what your tab says.
But you'll see the double dot fret on your guitar is the fret higher than the double dot fret.
That's the fourth [Dbm] string.
And the second string is on the double [F] dot fret, it's the tenth fret from the [B] capo.
You'll play strings four and two.
May
[F] Now slide that shape down two frets, to frets nine and eight from the [N] capo, and play those two, or if you want to, play the fifth string with those as [Gbm] well.
[B] You're
[E] And then we'll come into the rhythm itself, with [Eb] our accompaniment that we looked at a moment [E] ago.
[A] [N]
So first of all to get into the tuning, we'll take the capo off for a moment.
[Eb] Dropped D tuning is a very simple tuning, [F] most of you will be familiar with it I'm sure.
We simply take the low E string, the sixth string of your [Dm] guitar, and we tune it down to the note D.
[Abm] Then we'll capo, when that's done, we'll capo back up to the second fret where John Martin plays [Gb] it on [Ab] the original [F] album.
And now we'll find if we play a normal D chord but include the [E] sixth string in the chord,
we get that lovely rich bass sound which is what we wanted.
What we'll do here is we'll [Ebm] take a look at the [F] chords that are involved in the song.
As usual with John Martin there are not very many.
And then we'll have a look at a standard accompaniment pattern that you can use throughout the whole song,
if [Bb] that's the way you want [Gb] to go, and it will be John Martin's basic accompaniment [E] pattern.
And finally then we'll look at a couple of little licks that he tends to throw into this song,
[F] which you can choose to put into your version [Ab] or not as you [F] want to.
Alright, the chords we've got of course are a D chord, a normal standard D chord.
And then if you're looking at your tab or your song sheet you'll see that the next chord you see is G over B.
To play that chord we leave the ring finger where it is and we move the first finger,
the middle finger can come away, the middle finger is not needed for this chord.
The index finger goes to the fifth string second [F] fret.
All these frets are from the capo of course, second fret from the capo.
[N] That's G over D, G over B, I'm sorry.
Then we've got an A [Bb] chord which you [F] want to play as a half bar,
covering the first four strings with your index finger at the second [N] fret.
And that's basically it, that there [E] is a chord on your song sheet that's called B minor [Abm] 6,
but in fact B minor 6 is exactly the same shape as G over B.
Don't worry about why it's given a different name, in this case it's really not that important.
It's the same [N] shape as G over B, you'll play it either the way we played it before,
or maybe as I do, [F] you might prefer to adjust the fingering for the point that B minor 6 appears,
middle finger and little finger taking those two notes.
But it's not important, whichever [A] fingering you find better.
[Abm] Those are all the chords you're going to see in this song.
So, let's look at our standard accompaniment pattern,
and then we'll get into the little riffs and licks and little subtle things that he puts in to make it [B] sound like John Martin.
Let's just grab a normal D chord.
The standard [G] accompaniment pattern is going to go essentially like this.
[E]
[Eb] So what we're doing there [F] is we're [E] picking the sixth string and strings 4, 3 and 2,
all together with our right hand, then slapping.
1, 2.
On [Abm] and 3 we'll [C] hit the sixth string again [E] twice.
On the and of 3 we'll play the same three strings.
Notice that on May You Never we don't play the first string very often in this song.
We do a couple of times, but not often.
Here we're playing strings again, 4, 3 and 2.
So far we have this.
1, 2 and 3 and.
On 4 we slap again.
[Gbm] And then on [Abm] the and of 4 we pluck [Bb] again [E] 6, 4, 3 and 2.
Notice that that is actually [Eb] a pushed chord.
It's the first beat of the next bar.
[F] It should be the first beat of the next bar, but it's pushed onto the and of 4.
So the next bar will let that ring across the first beat.
[Abm] So the next bar will start with the slap.
That's going to sound like this.
[E] 1, 2 and 3 and 4 and.
1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and.
1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and.
And so on and so on.
[B] That [Dbm] will be your standard [Abm] accompaniment pattern.
Wherever you hit a G over B chord, the bass note moves from the sixth [N] string to the fifth string, but everything else is [A] the same.
[Dbm] [A]
[F] And whenever you get an A chord, the bass note is the fifth string, but everything else is the same.
[Ab] We will see some variations that he plays [B] a lot on an A chord.
[N] Those are our three chords.
Really, you could play the whole song just from that.
[E] May you never [A] lay your head down [B]
without a [E] hand to hold.
May [Dbm] you [B] never make your bed out [E] of cords.
[Db] I don't know how easy it [B] was for you to follow that, but I was essentially [F] playing the pattern that we've just looked [E] at,
but changing chords as the chords change according to your tab or your song sheet.
[G] So, as I said, you can play the song just like that, and essentially we will, [F] but of course we're going to throw in as many or as few of the little licks that John Martin uses as we want to.
So what I'm going to do now is spend the rest of the time [Gm] on this video going through the little licks that he throws in.
[Abm] First of all, right at the very beginning, he starts [B] with this phrase, [A]
which [Db] you recognize immediately, of course.
[B] [F] And may I
The word and, this is free tempo, so the rhythm hasn't started yet.
The word and is the [B] fifth string open.
And
On the word may, [Abm] we're going to hold down the fourth string.
Now, it's all the way [Eb] up, it's the thirteenth fret of your guitar.
I could say [F] fret eleven, because it's the eleventh fret from the capo, which is what your tab says.
But you'll see the double dot fret on your guitar is the fret higher than the double dot fret.
That's the fourth [Dbm] string.
And the second string is on the double [F] dot fret, it's the tenth fret from the [B] capo.
You'll play strings four and two.
May
[F] Now slide that shape down two frets, to frets nine and eight from the [N] capo, and play those two, or if you want to, play the fifth string with those as [Gbm] well.
[B] You're
[E] And then we'll come into the rhythm itself, with [Eb] our accompaniment that we looked at a moment [E] ago.
[A] [N]
Key:
F
E
B
Abm
A
F
E
B
_ _ _ _ _ _ For May You Never, we are in dropped D [Abm] tuning and capo at [Fm] the second fret.
So first of all to get into the tuning, we'll take the capo off for a moment.
[Eb] Dropped D tuning is a very simple tuning, [F] most of you will be familiar with it I'm sure.
We simply take the low E string, the sixth string of your [Dm] guitar, and we tune it down to the note D. _ _ _
[Abm] Then we'll capo, when that's done, we'll capo back up to the second fret where John Martin plays [Gb] it on [Ab] the original [F] album.
And now we'll find if we play a normal D chord but include the [E] sixth string in the chord,
we get that lovely rich bass sound which is what we wanted.
What we'll do here is we'll [Ebm] take a look at the [F] chords that are involved in the song.
As usual with John Martin there are not very many.
And then we'll have a look at a standard accompaniment pattern that you can use throughout the whole song,
if [Bb] that's the way you want [Gb] to go, and it will be John Martin's basic accompaniment [E] pattern.
And finally then we'll look at a couple of little licks that he tends to throw into this song,
[F] which you can choose to put into your version [Ab] or not as you [F] want to.
Alright, the chords we've got of course are a D chord, a normal standard D chord.
And then if you're looking at your tab or your song sheet you'll see that the next chord you see is G over B.
To play that chord we leave the ring finger where it is and we move the first finger,
the middle finger can come away, the middle finger is not needed for this chord.
The index finger goes to the fifth string second [F] fret.
All these frets are from the capo of course, second fret from the capo.
[N] That's G over D, G over B, I'm sorry.
Then we've got an A [Bb] chord which you [F] want to play as a half bar,
covering the first four strings with your index finger at the second [N] fret.
_ _ And that's basically it, that there [E] is a chord on your song sheet that's called B minor [Abm] 6,
but in fact B minor 6 is exactly the same shape as G over B.
Don't worry about why it's given a different name, in this case it's really not that important.
It's the same [N] shape as G over B, you'll play it either the way we played it before,
or maybe as I do, [F] you might prefer to adjust the fingering for the point that B minor 6 appears,
middle finger and little finger taking those two notes.
But it's not important, whichever [A] fingering you find better.
[Abm] Those are all the chords you're going to see in this song.
So, let's look at our standard accompaniment pattern,
and then we'll get into the little riffs and licks and little subtle things that he puts in to make it [B] sound like John Martin.
Let's just grab a normal D chord.
The standard [G] accompaniment pattern is going to go essentially like this.
_ [E] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
[Eb] So what we're doing there [F] is we're [E] picking the sixth string and strings 4, 3 and 2,
all together with our right hand, _ then slapping. _ _ _
1, 2.
On [Abm] and 3 we'll [C] hit the sixth string again [E] twice. _
On the and of 3 we'll play the same three strings.
Notice that on May You Never we don't play the first string very often in this song.
We do a couple of times, but not often.
Here we're playing strings again, 4, 3 and 2.
So far we have this.
1, 2 and 3 and.
On 4 we slap again.
[Gbm] And then on [Abm] the and of 4 we pluck [Bb] again [E] 6, 4, 3 and 2.
Notice that that is actually [Eb] a pushed chord.
It's the first beat of the next bar.
[F] It should be the first beat of the next bar, but it's pushed onto the and of 4.
So the next bar will let that ring across the first beat.
[Abm] So the next bar will start with the slap.
That's going to sound like this.
[E] 1, 2 and 3 and 4 and.
1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and.
1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and.
And so on and so on.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[B] That [Dbm] will be your standard [Abm] accompaniment pattern.
Wherever you hit a G over B chord, the bass note moves from the sixth [N] string to the fifth string, but everything else is [A] the same.
[Dbm] _ _ _ [A] _ _
_ _ _ [F] And whenever you get an A chord, the bass note is the fifth string, but everything else is the same.
[Ab] We will see some variations that he plays [B] a lot on an A chord. _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [N] Those are our three chords.
Really, you could play the whole song just from that.
[E] May you never [A] lay your head down [B]
without a [E] hand to hold.
May [Dbm] you [B] never make your bed out [E] of cords.
_ _ [Db] I don't know how easy it [B] was for you to follow that, but I was essentially [F] playing the pattern that we've just looked [E] at,
but changing chords as the chords change according to your tab or your song sheet.
[G] So, as I said, you can play the song just like that, and essentially we will, [F] but of course we're going to throw in as many or as few of the little licks that John Martin uses as we want to.
So what I'm going to do now is spend the rest of the time [Gm] on this video going through the little licks that he throws in.
[Abm] First of all, right at the very beginning, he starts [B] with this phrase, _ [A]
which [Db] you recognize immediately, of course.
[B] _ [F] And may I_
The word and, this is free tempo, so the rhythm hasn't started yet.
The word and is the [B] fifth string open.
_ And_
On the word may, [Abm] we're going to hold down the fourth string.
Now, it's all the way [Eb] up, it's the thirteenth fret of your guitar.
I could say [F] fret eleven, because it's the eleventh fret from the capo, which is what your tab says.
But you'll see the double dot fret on your guitar is the fret higher than the double dot fret.
That's the fourth [Dbm] string.
And the second string is on the double [F] dot fret, it's the tenth fret from the [B] capo.
You'll play strings four and two.
_ May_
[F] Now slide that shape down two frets, to frets nine and eight from the [N] capo, and play those two, or if you want to, play the fifth string with those as [Gbm] well.
[B] You're_
_ [E] And then we'll come into the rhythm itself, with [Eb] our accompaniment that we looked at a moment [E] ago.
_ [A] _ _ [N] _
So first of all to get into the tuning, we'll take the capo off for a moment.
[Eb] Dropped D tuning is a very simple tuning, [F] most of you will be familiar with it I'm sure.
We simply take the low E string, the sixth string of your [Dm] guitar, and we tune it down to the note D. _ _ _
[Abm] Then we'll capo, when that's done, we'll capo back up to the second fret where John Martin plays [Gb] it on [Ab] the original [F] album.
And now we'll find if we play a normal D chord but include the [E] sixth string in the chord,
we get that lovely rich bass sound which is what we wanted.
What we'll do here is we'll [Ebm] take a look at the [F] chords that are involved in the song.
As usual with John Martin there are not very many.
And then we'll have a look at a standard accompaniment pattern that you can use throughout the whole song,
if [Bb] that's the way you want [Gb] to go, and it will be John Martin's basic accompaniment [E] pattern.
And finally then we'll look at a couple of little licks that he tends to throw into this song,
[F] which you can choose to put into your version [Ab] or not as you [F] want to.
Alright, the chords we've got of course are a D chord, a normal standard D chord.
And then if you're looking at your tab or your song sheet you'll see that the next chord you see is G over B.
To play that chord we leave the ring finger where it is and we move the first finger,
the middle finger can come away, the middle finger is not needed for this chord.
The index finger goes to the fifth string second [F] fret.
All these frets are from the capo of course, second fret from the capo.
[N] That's G over D, G over B, I'm sorry.
Then we've got an A [Bb] chord which you [F] want to play as a half bar,
covering the first four strings with your index finger at the second [N] fret.
_ _ And that's basically it, that there [E] is a chord on your song sheet that's called B minor [Abm] 6,
but in fact B minor 6 is exactly the same shape as G over B.
Don't worry about why it's given a different name, in this case it's really not that important.
It's the same [N] shape as G over B, you'll play it either the way we played it before,
or maybe as I do, [F] you might prefer to adjust the fingering for the point that B minor 6 appears,
middle finger and little finger taking those two notes.
But it's not important, whichever [A] fingering you find better.
[Abm] Those are all the chords you're going to see in this song.
So, let's look at our standard accompaniment pattern,
and then we'll get into the little riffs and licks and little subtle things that he puts in to make it [B] sound like John Martin.
Let's just grab a normal D chord.
The standard [G] accompaniment pattern is going to go essentially like this.
_ [E] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
[Eb] So what we're doing there [F] is we're [E] picking the sixth string and strings 4, 3 and 2,
all together with our right hand, _ then slapping. _ _ _
1, 2.
On [Abm] and 3 we'll [C] hit the sixth string again [E] twice. _
On the and of 3 we'll play the same three strings.
Notice that on May You Never we don't play the first string very often in this song.
We do a couple of times, but not often.
Here we're playing strings again, 4, 3 and 2.
So far we have this.
1, 2 and 3 and.
On 4 we slap again.
[Gbm] And then on [Abm] the and of 4 we pluck [Bb] again [E] 6, 4, 3 and 2.
Notice that that is actually [Eb] a pushed chord.
It's the first beat of the next bar.
[F] It should be the first beat of the next bar, but it's pushed onto the and of 4.
So the next bar will let that ring across the first beat.
[Abm] So the next bar will start with the slap.
That's going to sound like this.
[E] 1, 2 and 3 and 4 and.
1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and.
1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and.
And so on and so on.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[B] That [Dbm] will be your standard [Abm] accompaniment pattern.
Wherever you hit a G over B chord, the bass note moves from the sixth [N] string to the fifth string, but everything else is [A] the same.
[Dbm] _ _ _ [A] _ _
_ _ _ [F] And whenever you get an A chord, the bass note is the fifth string, but everything else is the same.
[Ab] We will see some variations that he plays [B] a lot on an A chord. _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [N] Those are our three chords.
Really, you could play the whole song just from that.
[E] May you never [A] lay your head down [B]
without a [E] hand to hold.
May [Dbm] you [B] never make your bed out [E] of cords.
_ _ [Db] I don't know how easy it [B] was for you to follow that, but I was essentially [F] playing the pattern that we've just looked [E] at,
but changing chords as the chords change according to your tab or your song sheet.
[G] So, as I said, you can play the song just like that, and essentially we will, [F] but of course we're going to throw in as many or as few of the little licks that John Martin uses as we want to.
So what I'm going to do now is spend the rest of the time [Gm] on this video going through the little licks that he throws in.
[Abm] First of all, right at the very beginning, he starts [B] with this phrase, _ [A]
which [Db] you recognize immediately, of course.
[B] _ [F] And may I_
The word and, this is free tempo, so the rhythm hasn't started yet.
The word and is the [B] fifth string open.
_ And_
On the word may, [Abm] we're going to hold down the fourth string.
Now, it's all the way [Eb] up, it's the thirteenth fret of your guitar.
I could say [F] fret eleven, because it's the eleventh fret from the capo, which is what your tab says.
But you'll see the double dot fret on your guitar is the fret higher than the double dot fret.
That's the fourth [Dbm] string.
And the second string is on the double [F] dot fret, it's the tenth fret from the [B] capo.
You'll play strings four and two.
_ May_
[F] Now slide that shape down two frets, to frets nine and eight from the [N] capo, and play those two, or if you want to, play the fifth string with those as [Gbm] well.
[B] You're_
_ [E] And then we'll come into the rhythm itself, with [Eb] our accompaniment that we looked at a moment [E] ago.
_ [A] _ _ [N] _