Hate To Say I Told You So Guitar Lesson

First up, I have to indulge in a memory (sorry about this)… This was the first song I ever played in any band, and a massive shout out here to the epic "Day-To-Day", a band we made in high school with a group of guys who clearly loved the show "The Day Today". I had just started playing the guitar, and we had a second guitarist (the legendary James Carvey, otherwise known as "Carvo") who was a master of powerchords, helping me through the riff. Therefore, this song holds a special place in my heart, and I'm delighted that we have it here on the Club for you now!

PS. Big shout out to Matt, Luke, James and Fred if you ever read this!

Hate To Say I Told You So Chords

Let's kick off with the main riff, which is, of course, the verse and chorus for the song. The good news is that once you have this bit, you essentially have 95% of the song learnt, as it is only a few joining parts here and there to add afterwards.

So, the main riff consists of the chords | D5 C5 | F5 Bb5 | - We're therefore dealing with all power chord shapes. You have a choice at this point, then, as you can play the powerchords as two-string versions or three-string versions. It's completely up to you, and there is no right or wrong way, they both sound good. Here are those chords:

Each chord lasts just half a bar, so you need to get used to changing them pretty quickly. I would therefore spend the time working through the chord changes only, without the strumming for now. When you have the chords moving nicely, we can look at the rhythm part.

The Strumming Pattern

We have a very specific pattern to work with here, and it's all based around downstrokes. Franco demonstrates two versions, with the second being slightly more advanced as it has a 16th note section right at the end. Let's start with the ever-so-slightly easier version, that looks like this:

Notice how the chords are changed at very specific points, and that the "x" markers depict when to use the open strings as you're transitioning between chord shapes.

Now then, if you fancy the slightly harder version, check out this rhythm pattern:

You will notice that the pattern just has a quick upstroke, on the "a" of a 16th note at the end. You don't have to worry about being able to count this, simply try and get the vibe correct after listening to Franco perform it both slow and up to pace. The important thing to note is that you don't have to change your right-hand movement; you simply need to connect with the upstroke right at the end, which you normally don't as you're just doing downstrokes.

The other sections!

There are 3 other parts of the track we need to be aware of, the "pre-verse", "pre-chorus" and "post-chorus". All of these sections are very simple to play, it's just identifying where they are in the track. So, let's start with the pre-verse, which comes in just after the main riff has played around plenty of times in the intro. This is simply | D5 | D5 | D5 | D5 | but in the track it's a cool synth part. Live, you can see that The Hives use a Phaser pedal to get close to that sound. This is what we suggest you try if you have one… Alternatively, just strum all downstrokes, getting louder and louder to build towards a brief stop at the end of the 4th bar. The stop looks like this:

The other two sections are simply a G5 powerchord that you tag onto the pre-chorus and post-chorus. The pre-chorus, where the lead singer sings "hate to say I told you so", is simply | G5 | G5 | with the same downstroke strumming. Equally, the section at the end of the chorus, where he sings "do believe I told you so" is | G5 | G5 | G5 | (G5) | where the whole of the last bar is a break.

Conclusion

There we have it! A fantastic powerchord song that will keep you busy for a while. The difficulty is the speed and the consistent downstroke playing, but build this up over time, keep showing up to practice, and you'll get it! Speak to you soon.