How to play Yellow by Coldplay
Yellow is simply the most popular song by the most popular band of the 21st Century, Coldplay. And that is saying something because this is a band that has 10+ songs with over 1 billion streams on Spotify, and similar numbers on YouTube. From their debut album Parachutes, Yellow is a hypnotic song that works on all steel string guitars and, with a capo at the 4th fret, is a great track to play along with.
Chords: G G4 D D2 C Em
Pick or Fingers? a pick will give you the right tone and attack to emulate the sound of the original, especially on electric guitar.
Acoustic or Electric? as long as its steel strings it will sound great. Less pleasing on nylon strings; you need the jangle of the steel strings.
Does Yellow need a capo? Yes, if you want to play along with the Coldplay original you need the capo on at the 4th fret. This means that whilst the chart is written in G Major, the recorded version is in B Major because of the 4th fret capo.
Shaping the down-stroke rhythm : Songs that feature the kind of constant quaver rhythm we hear in Yellow need good dynamics control to shape articulate the song’s structure. The TAB sample in the intro gives you the model for how to treat the verses and chorus; play the full chord on the beat followed by the bass note, or the lower couple notes of the chord on the upbeats. Think of this as “strong-weak-strong-weak” etc. Decrease the intensity of the strums in the verse, then increase it for the chorus.
What does ‘ad lib embellishments’ mean? The embllishments are the chords G4 and D2. They are not used exactly the same way through the whole song and, you could add in C2 and D4 to create variation. Embellishment chords are often used in a semi-improvised manner but remember, don’t overuse them; a little bit goes a long way!
Relevant pages in Modern Guitar Chord Styles 1 : to learn more about the chords and rhythms needed for Yellow go to pages 5, 8, 10, 12, 14, 24 - 25 and 36 - 37.
1
Need a bit of help?
Modern Guitar Chord Styles 1 is the perfect companion for our song guides. It will teach you how to read the rhythm slash notation used in our charts (and in professional theatre and studio charts) and is specially designed to help beginners speed up their chord changes, master strumming patterns, and many other techniques.