Ed Sheeran Photograph Guitar Youtube

From rock grooves like “Blow” to celtic-inspired folk songs like “I See Fire, ” Sheeran really has run the whole gamut when it comes to songwriting.

The Photograph chords are easy to play even as a beginner, and in today’s lesson we’re going to give you an extensive walkthrough of exactly how to play this heartbreakingly beautiful ballad.

We’re going to look at capo positioning, how to play each chord and how to approach the different sections of the song.

Ed Sheeran Photographs Guitar Lesson Free Tab. Free Guitar Lesson Online

Some of the best pop songs only contain a few chords, and although they may sound complex from the outside at first listen, many of them are easy to play.

Depending upon who you ask around the internet, there are a few ways you could play these chords due to the use of a capo.

For the sake of making the Photograph chords super-easy to play, we’re going to be locking our capo in at the 2nd fret.

Ed Sheeran 'photograph': Lyrics, Meaning, Official Music Video

If you haven’t used one before, all you have to do is pull the clamp open and lock in straight down the middle of your second fret.

Capos bring out the use of the CAGED system, which teaches us how to master specific chord shapes that can be used repeatedly in different keys across the fretboard.

If you want an in-depth look at the CAGED system before you continue, click here and we’ll talk you through all of it in one lesson.

Photograph Ed Sheeran Guitar Tutorial Lesson Acoustic

Ed Sheeran makes great use of percussive elements in his music, and one of the techniques he employs to accomplish this is palm muting.

Palm muting happens when we place the side of our hand against the bridge of the guitar and softly mute the ends of the strings.

If you’ve got palm muting down and you’re ready to put some chords underneath it, keep scrolling and let’s dive into the D major shape that we’ll be using.

Photograph Ed Sheeran Instrumental

(If you don't understand the above image please read our article How To Read Guitar Chordboxes In 60 Seconds. It will make everything clear!)

With our capo set at the second fret, let’s start with our first chord – the D major shape (making an E major chord).

Once you’ve done that, add in the ring finger at the 5th fret on the B string, and finally your middle finger on the E string at the 4th fret.

Pro Tip: Use arpeggios to check each string individually for whether you are unintentionally muting them or not. Photograph Chords III – The B Power Chord Shape (C# Power Chord)

Typically when you see the transcription for the Photograph chords on a site like Ultimate Guitar, you’ll most likely see it transcribed as a full B minor chord.

But we know some of you aren’t ready to tackle barre chords yet (and that’s okay!), so we’re going to adapt a slightly different version to make it easier.

All you have to do is make a power chord shape at the fourth fret on the A string of your guitar, and let the B and E strings ring open.

The one catch with this power chord shape is that you’ll have to do a bit of wrist rotation to find the right angle to make the open strings sing without being obstructed by your fret hand.

Pro Tip #2: Take some time to work this out with each of the Photograph chords before you continue to the next. Sounding out chords can be difficult in the beginning, but we won’t master them if we skim over them.

At this time, it’s a good idea to start putting some practice into the mix. Now that we’ve got our D major and Bsus4 shapes down, take a minute to practice the both of them back-to-back with palm muting.

Even though this is technically a B major chord, because of the capo we can use the same shape as A major and get away with it with all the same notes.

Although we haven’t gone through the song structure yet, it’s a good idea to practice all of these chords together as we move along.

Before we continue on to learning the last of the needed Photograph chords, let’s take a minute to play these three chords one after the other. This will give us a chance to work on movement.

Pro Tip: Use your index finger to lead from one chord to the next in order to make your transitions a bit easier to manage.

The final of these four chord shapes that we need is a G major shape that gives us the sound of A major with the capo at the second fret.

This is the only one of the Photograph chords that uses all six strings, so we’re going to need to spread our fret hand out a bit more for this last one.

Add your index finger at the 4th fret on the A string, and leave the two middle strings (D & G) open.

Finally, your ring finger can get added at the fifth fret on the B string, and your pinky finger on the same fret at the high E.

You’ve successfully made it far enough to have mastered all four Photograph chords – that’s awesome! Now it’s time to look at the technical side of things and discuss beat structure and song structure.

This song has a very definite pulse to it, and it’s important to pay attention to that in order to figure out the best way to play along to this tune.

We’re going to rest the side of our picking hand against the bridge of our guitar to produce a dampened, semi-muted tone. We’re also going to use downpicking to articulate the Photograph chords.

1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8

Doing this while palm muting is easy – just dig in with your pick on those particular beats and you’ll find yourself pulsing along to the groove in no time.

That’s all we need to know in order to start putting this whole song together, all we need now is to structure our Photograph chords into sections.

One of the huge perks of this song is that it gives us huge insight into all the ways we can mix up four chords in new ways to create different song sections.

Let’s quickly break down the structure of the whole song by sections, so we know which progressions to come back to and when.

Remember to prioritize downstrokes and palm muting as well as proper beat accents in order to make the most out of these four versatile chords.

Pro Tip: It’s always worth singing along to a song as you learn it in order to place the chords in their most appropriate spot. If you don’t feel like singing, you can always hum too.

You’ll find very quickly that these chord shapes are found everywhere in popular music, and so it’s important to hang on to them for future reference.

If you enjoyed this lesson on learning Ed Sheeran’s Photograph chords, you’ll love everything else we’ve got in store for you below: 

Learn how everything fits together quickly, easily and effectively. We share ninja tips (for instant fun!) but also timeless fundamentals that will deepen your understanding.

Posted by zodaries14

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