Learn how to play the classic Give A Little Bit by Supertramp from Guitar Control instructor Darrin Goodman. Be sure to get the free tabs to go along with this classic tune.
Introduction
Hey everybody how’s it going? This is Darrin with GuitarControl.com bringing you this video lesson. Today I want to teach you some riffs and chords from Give A Little Bit by Supertramp. So I think this is a really cool song and kind of a childhood memory for me; I was hearing this song on the radio when I was a kid so I thought this would be a good one to show you guys. So be sure to click on the link in the description for the tabs and let’s get close up and take a look at How To Play Give A Little Bit By Supertramp.
Give A Little Bit Chords
All right so the song basically just has a couple of parts and it’s just kind of repeated over and over again. So we start off here we got this like kind of intro part here and the first chord we have is A7; so the A string is open and I’m on the second fret of the D string and I’m using my first finger and then the G string is open and then I’m in the second fret of the B string with my second finger and the high E is open. Then we have regular D major. So just one thing really quick, a lot of times I’ll play A7 with these fingers, but in this case I’m using my first and second just because it’s going to make it easier for the chord transitions. So we have A7 and we have D major; so if you you’re doing it this way you just move these fingers up one set of strings so now your first finger is on the second fret of the G string and your second finger is on the second fret of the high E string and then your third finger will go onto the third fret of the B string and you strum starting with the open D string. Then we have G major; so third fret of the low E string with my second finger, second fret of the B string with my first finger, the D and G strings are open, I’m on the third fret of the B string with my third finger and the third fret of the high E with my fourth finger. So for this first part those are all of the chords that we’ll be using. So this starts off it’s got the first measure and you rest on the first, well there’s a half note rest and then it’s a dotted eighth note. So it’s kind of weird as far as the count, but if you just kind of get the feel for it and you do that twice, actually you do it three times; so on the third time you come back to the A7 and we go to G and back to A7. So that’s like the first four measures… and then that’s where the vocals would come in. All right so that’s all like the intro and then when it goes into the verse and it’s just kind of the same thing… All right then from there it goes into a bridge section.
Bridge
So for this bridge section of How To Play Give A Little Bit By Supertramp we’ve got some new chords we’ve got to look at. So we have B minor; so you just take your first finger and barre it all the way across the first five strings on the second fret and your second finger onto the third fret of the B string, third finger onto the fourth fret of the D string and fourth finger onto the fourth fret of the G string. Then we have E suspended four (Esus4) and E major. So if you just take your E major chord; first finger is on the first fret of the G string, second fingers on the second fret of the A string and third finger is on the second fret of the D string, you strum all six strings that’s E. So for Esus4 you just keep this shape, but put your fourth finger down onto the second fret of the G string. So the transition on this it goes from Esus4 to E; so that’s why when you want to keep that first finger down like you’re doing E. Then we have a G again and we already did that. And then we have E11 over A (E11/A). So it’s a complicated sounding name, but not too bad of a chord; so your first finger is on the third fret of the B string and your second finger is on the fourth fret of the D string and you just strum starting on the A string. Then we have A7 and we already did that. Then we have an E minor over A (Em/A); so what we’re going to do is we’re going to move from here, we’re just going to move our second finger up so a half step so now we’re on the fifth fret of the D string and then your third finger will go on to the fifth fret of the B string and you still just strum the first five strings… All right, so we have the B minor and it’s one two three and four and, and on the end of four we’re just going to strum just the first two or three strings open as a transition to the Esus4… to the E and at the end of that measure we do the open strings again to transition to a G… Now on this G we strum the G on the downbeat of one as a quarter and then on the downbeat of two we strum it again, but it’s an eighth note and then on the & of two we do two 16th notes, open A string hammer-on to the second fret and then back to the G. So starting on the B minor… and then open again to the E11/A. So again you could do it with your first and second finger, but the reason I like to do this is because then it makes it easy to go back to the A7 because that’s what comes after it, so we’ve got… to E11/A to the Em/A… back to E11/A… back to A7 and then a D. So this is starting on measure 16 and we have the E11/A and it’s kind of hard to count because this is a dotted eighth note and then a 16th note and then an eighth note and then to A7… back to the D, which is going to lead you right back into that same… So like I said it’s like really repetitive and just kind of the same formula and it’s mostly kind of driven off of the vocal melody. So that whole bridge section… So that’s basically all the parts other than where it goes into a saxophone solo and it has like this big key change, but we’re not going to go into that part of it because the idea behind this is just an acoustic rendition that you can play by yourself so you would just skip that part entirely and you just kind of play through the sequence. Some parts of this are really easy and some parts are a little bit more challenging. The transitioning takes a little bit of practice and as you can hear by the way I was playing it that I could use a little practice with it myself. Like I said it’s a it’s a great song and I hadn’t really even thought about it for a long time, but I thought it’d be a good one to show you guys just to give you some new chord ideas and just something fun to play and sing along with if that’s your thing.
Conclusion
Alright so I hope you enjoyed that and got something out of it. If you like this lesson be sure to give me a thumbs up and leave a comment down below if you have any questions or anything about this or other guitar related topics. If you haven’t already done so please subscribe to the channel and hit that notification bell so you don’t miss any of the content that we upload throughout the week. Alright so that is all I have for you today. Thanks for watching How To Play Give A Little Bit By Supertramp and have a great day.
