And today I will teach you the song "Thinking out Loud" from Ed Sheeran

To make this lesson I used as a reference an acoustic version of the song sang by Ed Sheeran

using only an acoustic guitar

Because for us to play it its better since it fits so nicely in voice and guitar only

And because in the studio version there is electric guitar and other instruments as well

One more detail

I will teach it in the same tune as it is in the acoustic version

Therefore, it will be 1 tone under te original studio version

Before showing you the chords, let's take a look at the tuning

The E (6th) string will be D

The A (5th) string at G

The D (4th) string at C

The G (3rd) string at F

The B (2nd) string at A

And the E (1st) string will be D, again

After lowering one tone in each string, we are ready to play the song

one thing

those who want to play with the studio version, the one from the videoclip and such

just learn it the way I will teach here, then tune back your guitar to the standard tuning

Ok?

To play the 1st part, we are using the following chords

D major, which can be played without pressing the first string since we are not using it. Like this.

Next D/G#

G major

Can be done using only finger 2

and A major with finger 1

Remember, those are only "shapes" from the chords since the guitar is not tuned in standard

Let's go then, first part will be like this

I'm gonna play the fingering once then I show the details

Well, we are going to use the right hand thumb to hit the E, A, and D strings

and for the chord's trembles: the index and middle fingers

1st chord, D major, like this

Notice that at the beginning the index finger is released

Then I play the 3 strings at the same time then hammer it in the 3rd string to form D major

hit it and then hammer on without playing again with the right hand

then punch

Indicated by the "x" in the tabs

then we play the D/F# like this

No mystery. The detail is

in the tabs it requires us to play 3 strings

but because we only use the index and the middle fingers, we just pull them up. Look.

Afterwards, there is G major. Played just once.

A hit. A punch.

To finish off, in the A major, we start by playing with three fingers at the same time

then thumb,

and one stroke

To perform this 'stoke' we whip down using index and middle fingers. Like this.

Attention to this Hammer On that we play using the 3rd finger at the 4th fret, on G string.

I also put these "X" in the tabs because

we use the movement from the Hammer On to stroke the bass strings using the Thumb

Notice

To finish off, there is one more hit on the A sting.

Alright. After practicing each chord separately

we add them all together to form this fingering pattern

which will be repeated the whole Part One

I am playing it twice here but in the song it is played several times.

Check it out

pre-chorus chords

The pattern here is similar to the one I just taught. Look.

I am playing the whole fingering here, then I will show you part by part

To keep things organized, I will divide it in 4 parts

The first one is like this

Here we keep the same idea from Part 1

Thumb hits bass strings

and we use these two fingers to hit the chord's trembles

At E minor from the beginning, we play like this

Well, here we just have to pay attention to the last but one hit

that's where we hit down the strings like this

thus, you will practice the E minor like this

At A7, we play just one time and then give it a little stroke

and at the last chord, the D major, we play like this

Begin playing normally

then a little stroke downwards

and a note at D string to close.

The 2nd part is equivalent to the 1st one. The difference

is that we keep pressing the A7 at the end, instead of switching to D. Look.

Now part 3, also very similar.

This part is just like the 1st one, the difference is that

instead of D major, we play B minor. Check it out.

Lastly, part 4.

Here we begin playing just like the other parts, at E minor, nothing changes. Look.

To finish off, we play down 5 times on A7.

Done. Now you practice each part separately, then add them all up to play the pre-Chorus.

At the Chorus, we go back to the fingering of Part 1

in the same sequence, repeating.

with just one novelty at the very end.

I am gonna play the Chorus once, then I'll show you what's different.

Well, as I told you, at the Chorus we will repeat the pattern used to play the 1st part of the song

By the way, it is what we play virtually all the time

Here at the Chorus it is played 4 times. I'll show you once, but while playing, notice that it repeats...

After playing this sequence 4 times, we'll play the last part like this

Well, also, no mystery here.

We play one time each chord, but this time

We'll use the index, middle and ring fingers to play the chords' trembles.

which are these 3 strings here. Look.

Only at D major we use back the pattern idea from the pre-Chorus

strike, bass, little stroke,

and one more hit on D string

After the Chorus, we have nothing to learn anymore.

You already know everything you need to play the song.

Second Part is like Part 1, only with different lyrics.

likewise at pre-Chorus 2.

Just pay attention at the ending, where we repeat the last part of the Chorus.

the little 'fading', using one-hit chords from Bm to D major. Remember?

I am gonna play the last Chorus for us to practice together

and to play the whole song, go back to the begging of this lesson and play along with me. Alright?

Let's go then. The ending is like this:

To watch more video Lessons and learn more songs,

go to 'CifraClub'

Any questions, leave a comment here

Alright? Thanks, and 'till the next one!