In this Sorry guitar lesson by Justin Bieber we will be taking you through the chords and cool little melody for the song. We use this as a perfect excuse to practice our barre chords, as it's just 4 chords for the whole of the song!
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Dan Holton
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Ok so its fair to say that this isn't the most "guitar fantastic" song in the universe… But it's a great song to apply a lot of the knowledge we work on in our courses, especially barre chords. As the song is in the key of Eb major / C minor, we use a lot of "flat" chords, meaning that open chords (without a capo) are out of the question.
Yes, we could go and get a capo and do it that way, but why not push yourself to learn those barre chords. For those of you who would like the capo version, skip to the bottom of the blog post where I'll outline how to do that! With all that said, let's dive in…
Sorry Guitar Chords
The first thing to note is that there isn't actually any guitar in this track at all… Has that ever stopped us guitar players before though?! Never! The majority of the track simply loops three chords, | Ab | Cm | Bb | Bb | - The lines here indicate one bar each, meaning that the Bb chord is played for 2 bars overall. We're playing all of these chords as barre chords, like this:
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These barre chords are not easy! I want you to remember that, and keep reminding yourself as you work through the track. Give yourself plenty of compassion as you attempt to get the chords better and better, as they will take time!
Dan Holton
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Barre Chord Courses
If you've never done bare chords before, we have two courses ready to go for you! Of course (no pun intended), if you are following a pathway where this song was recommended, just stick to that!).
As for the rhythm for this track, well that's completely up to you! We give you complete free reign here, as there is no guitar in the track. Ollie jumps from a simple 1 strum per bar vibe, to a slightly cooler upbeat, 16th note groove. I've drawn them out for you below, but please feel free to do as you like, there are no rules here. Simply play what you think fits.
The Chorus
The one and only change to the chord pattern we've drawn up above is the chorus part, which moves to the F minor chord. The chord chart is | Fm | Fm | Ab | Bb | - It only does this bit once and then you are back into the main part of the song. You therefore need to listen out for when this section pops up in the track, and move to the F minor as it does. This is a great exercise in ear training!
With that you have every part of the song… Easy peasy! Well, that is unless you are still learning barre chords, in which case this will feel pretty tough!
The cool melody & scales!
Another part of the song which is worth learning, is that cool little melody or riff. This riff is great to play over the final Bb chord of the verse, and requires you to jump from a barre chord to the lick in rapid time. There's your challenge if you're pretty good with the barre chords already!
As for the theory behind the melody, we're using the Eb major pentatonic box 5, as the key is Eb major and the closest pentatonic shape to the Bb major chord Ollie plays is that 5th box. It looks like this:
Once that is learnt, why not try your hand at a bit of improvisation across the neck. We'll draw out 2 pentatonic scales for you below in Eb major, but if you've been studying ay of our lead guitar courses, use the knowledge you have to expand on that and try out some of your favourite licks!
The Capo version.
If you really want to use open chord shapes instead of a capo, no problem! We have you covered. All you need to do is pop your capo on the 8th fret and play | C | Em | D | D | for the verse, and | Am | Am | C | D | for the chorus! Voila! I very much hope that helps.
Enjoy working through this track guys, and I look forward to chatting to you again soon!
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