Make Room Chords | Guitar Tutorial | Community Music

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Make Room Guitar Lesson:

Today we're covering the song Make Room, and the good news about this song is that it's really easy to play chord-wise but there's also a challenging part if you're looking for a challenge with finger picking, which is used as the signature lick of the song that goes along with the chords.

So we'll cover both in today's lesson. Check out the video above to follow along. As we start let's go ahead and look at the chart and see what's happening as a whole with the song. You can download the chart for free; just check out the link in the description. And while you're at guitarmann.com, you'll see a way that you can join become a member for one dollar and try out every single guitar course every single guitar lesson on the site.

So you can see some of the main info about the song. It's in the key of G, which is good news. That's easy easy to play. It's in 4/4, which is common time. Also this is another good indicator that this is a pretty easy. 

That's about one beat per second if you think about it; 60 beats per minute. So as far as the worship song itself as a whole, you'll see it's one progression of four chords that happens over and over and over in the song.

So once you learn these four chords, you're good to go, and I'm going to show you the normal way to play these chords as well as an alternate way to play. So let's jump into the chords!

The easiest way to play the G chord is to have your fingers on the bottom strings, with the middle on the very top. Aside from the G chord, you'll also have a D chord and an Am chord. The easiest way to go from an A minor to C chord in this case. Is to take the ring finger and move it to the third fret on the fifth string.

Sometimes in the key of G. I like to play C2 which is just G with those top two fingers moved down one string each. But in this case, it's easiest to keep things in place and then switch from an Am to a C chord. Now in the intro of Make Room, you may have seen that I've played an alternate D chord. I don't play a traditional D shape.

So take your C chord and just move it up two frets.

That creates just a little bit more of a haunting sound. You have a half step of notes in the progression of that D. And this song is kind of soft and it has a little bit of a haunting sound with that signature lick that we will cover in a few minutes.

So I like that D chord instead of just the normal D either one works just fine and then the a minor and C. It's pretty simple to play with your left hand. This is a great song If you're just starting out with guitar and trying out the G chord family.

To learn more about the G chord family, visit the Beginner Guitar Course. As far as your right hand, keep it as simple as possible and play "diamonds." or whole notes. So you just strum a G chord once and then switch to D and strum If you want even more of a soft sound for fingerpicking, this is what I would recommend: take three fingers and start on the second third fourth string and just keep them there for that and then use your thumb for the bass note of each chord. That will be your one strum per chord. Alternatively, you can keep rhythm with these three fingers. I'm just alternating my ring and middle with my pointer.

And you'll see too in this case. I'm just playing around with it. You can either play traditional G shape or you can open it up. as you play. And the same is true with the a minor. Also, I'm playing an A Minor 7. Sometimes again.

I like to just mix it up and not keep it the exact same especially when you have four chords going over and over you want to mix it up and provide a little variety to it again. Some of this is contextual. So what you play with your right hand is going to depend on if you have a band playing with you, a piano playing with you or another guitar.

So now let's move to the harder part, which is the finger picking part and these kind higher cords. Now I'm in the key of G. If you Capo 5 and play D shape chords the D chord family. This will complement they key of G and that's where some of these chords are going to come. We're gonna have to do a little bit extra to get the sound that we need.

For the first chord shape, try and barre with your pointer finger, which is on the 2nd fret, relative to the capo. Get at least the bottom three. You could get the bottom four if you wanted. Your ring finger is going to get the third fret on the fourth string. That's all you need. You only need your your ring finger and then barring those bottom three with your pointer.

But if you want to complete the shape just in case you accidentally hit the second string, you'll want it to kind of look like a d chord. So your middle finger can get right next door on the third fret as you're barring so that way you have a D shape, and then you're completing it with your ring finger. So that's your first shape. The middle finger is optional. Let's go ahead and talk about the right hand before we move to a different chord shape, because all these happen pretty quickly.

You're going to play the bottom string and you get to choose which finger you use for this the main thing with this pattern is that your thumb plays that the lowest note of the chord structure that you're playing. I like to use my ring finger, but if you want to use another finger, that's fine, too. So play the one string the little string and then you're going to alternate with your third string and your fourth.

That progression happens twice. Then it happens one more time, but this isn't a full rotation of what we just played. So you'll have two full rotations and then one more time that's going to work into a transition to the next chord.And then your transition is kind of tricky. You're going move your ring finger up one fret.

Your pointer stays where it is, and then right after that is your next shape. So we'll still start on the first string. And then you're going to have an A2 position. So you're really only need two fingers here ring and middle. So skip the first two. And then the other two are on the second fret same progression with your right hand here two full rotations and then kind of a half rotation that will go into a transition to the next chord shape. So it sounds like this.

Then for your transition notes for the next chord, you'll move your middle finger up two frets. That will be fourth fret relative to Capo and the D string and then that the G the third from the bottom is open. Then you're going to place your pointer finger down and this is what I was saying is the D slide shape.

So it's the same shape if that helps. So here you're starting on the second string instead of the first that's a difference with this chord shape.

What's interesting here is it's that you hold the same shape, but the picking pattern is different for this last chord. So it's the second string one, two, three second string one, two, three. So those are all the chords so far and then there's a lick here that turns the whole thing around back into the pattern again.

When you come back onto the second fret, you may want to do so with your pointer so you can bar right into your first chord so you can start the whole thing again, so I'm going to play kind of slowly and then I'll work up a little faster so you can hear the whole thing in context.

We're going to start again with that D chord shape and then you're right back to starting again with the same progression. I'll play the same thing just a little bit faster so you can hear it.

That's the full over view of this praise and worship song. That's the lick over and over you'll see in the intro. Also, you'll hear it just keep going and moving in to the verse.

In fact, the verse is a piano playing, but if you want to mimic it on guitar and that's the easiest way I've found to do it. There may be other ways to play it, but for me, that's the easiest. So give yourself some time learning the chord shapes since they're kind of unique.

Give yourself time, of course, with your right hand and learning that picking pattern.

So now you have all that you need to play the chords with the worship song Make Room.