I Wont Give Up chords
by Jason Mraz
- I Won't Give Up was written by Jason Mraz and Michael Natter. It was recorded in 2011 and the single was released on Jan 3rd, 2012 from the album Love Is A Four Letter Word.
- Music: Key of E Major in 6/8 time at ~ 136 bpm (♩)
- Chords: E, A/E, C#m, F#m, B, Bsus4, Esus4, D, Amaj7, D#dim
- Easier in D Major: play in the key of D Major with drop D tuning
- Drop D tuning: tune bottom E (string 6) downwards 1 whole tone/step.
- Chords in D Major: D, G/D, Bm7, Em, A, Asus4, Dsus4, C, Gmaj7, C#dim... all charts below including the Guitar TAB for the first 9 bars.
This in a snippet of the song featuring the TAB version of the first 9 bars leading into the song with Drop D tuning and Capo on 2.
Strings 1-6: E-B-G-D-A-D
I Wont Give Up
Capo on 2 if playing with the videoSong Key is highlighted - Transpose to any other key
G/D D D G/D D D G/D D D Asus4 A
Intro: 6/8 |-Riff| - | - Riff| - | - Riff| - | - Riff| | |
G/D D G/D D
1. When I look in-to your eyes It's like watch-ing the night sky
G/D D Asus4 A
Or a beau-ti-ful sun - rise There's so much they hold | |
G/D D G/D D
2. And just like them old stars I see that you've come so far
G/D D Asus4 A
To be right where you are How old is your soul? | |
G D Bm7 A
Chorus: I won't give up on us Even if the skies get rough
G D Asus4 A
I'm giv-ing you all my love I'm still looking up | |
G/D D G/D D
3. And when you're need-ing your space To do some nav-i-gat-ing
G D Asus4 A
I'll be here pa-tient-ly wait-ing To see what you find | |
G D Bm7 A
Chorus: 'Cause even the stars they burn Some e-ven fall to the earth
G D Asus4 A
We've got a lot to learn God knows we're worth it | |
Gmaj7 Em Gmaj7 Em
No, I won't give | up... - | - |
Em
Bridge: I don't wan-na be some-one who walks a-way so eas-i-ly
A
I'm here to stay and make the dif-fer-ence that I can make
Em
Our dif-fer-en-ces they do a lot to teach us how to use
A Asus4 A
The tools and gifts we got yeah, we got a lot at stake | |
C
And in the end, you're still my friend at least we did in-tend
For us to work we did-n't break, we did-n't burn
C#dim
We had to learn how to bend with-out the world cav-ing in
C C#dim A D Dsus4 D
I had to learn what I've got And what I'm not and who I |am - | |
G D Bm7 A
Chorus: I won't give up on us Even if the skies get rough
G D Asus4 A
I'm giv-ing you all my love I'm still looking up Still looking up
G D
Chorus: Well I won't give up (no I'm not) on us (giving up)
Bm7 A
God knows I'm tough (I am tough) e-nough (I am loved)
G D
We've got a lot (we're alive) to learn (we are loved)
A Asus4 A
God knows we're worth it (and we're worth it)| |
G D Bm7 A
Chorus: I won't give up on us Even if the skies get rough
G D A
I'm giv-ing you all my love I'm still looking up...
- Fingers 1, 2, 3, 4: Notes played
- Unmarked strings: Play open
- x: Don't play string
- Drop-D Tuning: Tune string 6 (bottom E) a 'whole tone' lower to D: (D-A-D-G-B-e)
- Because our bottom string is now D, it will alter the way we play certain chords with the inclusion of the 6th string - as the note 'D' is in the chord structure.
- Both D and Dsus4 include all 6 strings with Bm7 using the open D on the 6th string.
- Notice the Em chord - 1st finger on the 2nd fret making the leading note an E, as D is not in the chord structure (D + 2 frets = E).
G/D G/D (alt) D Bm7
e |---|---|-3-| e |-1-|---|---| e |---|-2-|---| e |-1-|---|---|
B |---|---|---| B |-1-|---|---| B |---|---|-3-| B |-1-|-2-|---|
G |---|---|---| G |---|-2-|---| G |---|-1-|---| G |-1-|---|---|
D |---|---|---| D |---|---|-3-| D |---|---|---| D |-1-|---|-3-|
A |---|-1-|---| A |---|---|---|x A |---|---|---| A |-1-|---|---|
D |---|---|---| D |---|---|---| D |---|---|---| D |---|---|---|
Frets 1 2 3 3 4 5 1 2 3 2 3 4
C Em Asus4 A
e |---|---|---| e |---|---|---| e |---|---|---| e |---|---|---|
B |-1-|---|---| B |---|---|---| B |---|---|-4-| B |---|-3-|---|
G |---|---|---| G |---|---|---| G |---|-2-|---| G |---|-2-|---|
D |---|-2-|---| D |---|-3-|---| D |---|-1-|---| D |---|-1-|---|
A |---|---|-3-| A |---|-2-|---| A |---|---|---| A |---|---|---|
D |---|---|---|x D |---|-1-|---| D |---|---|---|x D |---|---|---|x
Frets 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3
Dsus4 C#dim Gmaj7 Gmaj7 (alt)
e |---|---|-4-| e |---|---|---| e |---|-3-|---| e |-1-|---|---|---|
B |---|---|-3-| B |-1-|---|---| B |---|---|---| B |---|-1-|---|---|
G |---|-1-|---| G |---|---|---| G |---|---|---| G |---|---|-1-|---|
D |---|---|---| D |---|---|---|x D |---|---|---| D |---|---|---|-1-|
A |---|---|---| A |---|---|-3-| A |---|-2-|---| A |---|---|---|---|x
D |---|---|---| D |---|---|---|x D |---|---|---| D |---|---|---|---|
Frets 1 2 3 2 3 4 1 2 3 2 3 4 5
G/D G/D (alt) D Bm7
|-3-|---|---| e |---|---|-1-| e |---|-2-|---| e |---|---|-1-| e
|---|---|---| B |---|---|-1-| B |-3-|---|---| B |---|-2-|-1-| B
|---|---|---| G |---|-1-|---| G |---|-1-|---| G |---|---|-1-| G
|---|---|---| D |-1-|---|---| D |---|---|---| D |-3-|---|-1-| D
|---|-1-|---| A x|---|---|---| A |---|---|---| A |---|---|-1-| A
|---|---|---| D |---|---|---| D x|---|---|---| D |---|---|---| D
3 2 1 5 4 3 3 2 1 4 3 2 Frets
C Em Asus4 A
|---|---|---| e |---|---|---| e |---|---|---| e |---|---|---| e
|---|---|-1-| B |---|---|---| B |-3-|---|---| B |---|-3-|---| B
|---|---|---| G |---|---|---| G |---|-2-|---| G |---|-2-|---| G
|---|-1-|---| D |---|-3-|---| D |---|-1-|---| D |---|-1-|---| D
|-1-|---|---| A |---|-2-|---| A |---|---|---| A |---|---|---| A
x|---|---|---| D |---|-1-|---| D x|---|---|---| D x|---|---|---| D
3 2 1 3 2 1 3 2 1 3 2 1 Frets
Dsus4 C#dim Gmaj7 Gmaj7 (alt)
|-4-|---|---| e |---|---|---| e |---|-3-|---| e |---|---|---|-1-| e
|-3-|---|---| B |---|---|-1-| B |---|---|---| B |---|---|-2-|---| B
|---|-1-|---| G |---|---|---| G |---|---|---| G |---|-3-|---|---| G
|---|---|---| D x|---|---|---| D |---|---|---| D |-4-|---|---|---| D
|---|---|---| A |-3-|---|---| A |---|-2-|---| A x|---|---|---|---| A
|---|---|---| D x|---|---|---| D |---|---|---| D |---|---|---|---| D
3 2 1 4 3 2 3 2 1 5 4 3 2 Frets
Notes:
- Level Of Ease: Moderate depending on how you play it. Jason uses a capo on the 2nd fret and uses Drop D tuning on the 6th string.
- Drop D tuning simply means you tune the bottom E string (fattest string) down a whole tone (2 semitones) to D. The tuning from the lowest string to the highest string is D - A - D - G - B - E.
- I have kept the song as simple as possible so that most of you can play along. G/D means a G chord leading with a D Bass Note. If you are using Drop D tuning on your 6th string, make sure you don't finger the 3rd fret, 6th string(G) if you are playing a normal G chord, as you will play an F which will sound very ordinary. Simply leave the string open as it is a D note which is part of a G chord (5th). I have added an alternative chord position for G which Jason uses (see charts).
- The same applies to other chords which don't have a D note in their chord structure. If you are playing Bm as a barre chord, don't hit the bottom string. If you listen carefully, you can hear chords that don't sound right.
- If you don't use drop D tuning on the 6th string just play the all the chords as you normally would with G/D played as a normal G chord.
- Key Signature: E Major... 4 sharps - (F# C# G# D#)
- Key Signature with capo: D Major... 2 sharp - (F# C#)
- Time Signature: 6/8 This means there are 6 eighth-note/quaver beats per bar. This can also be counted as | 1 2 3 4 5 6 | or | 1& 2& 3& 4& 5& 6& |
- A dotted eighth-note rest at the start of the song is equivalent to 1 + 1/2 eighth-note rest, or 1 eighth-note + 1 sixteenth-note rest. So, if you count the bar as | 1& 2& 3& 4& 5& 6& | (6 eighth-notes / 12 sixteenth-notes), the 1& is an eighth-note rest, and the 2 is a sixteenth-note rest... you come in on the & after the 2.
- The notes leading up to the first full bar of music is called an anacrusis.
- In the Intro wherever you see 'riff', you can continue to play the D chord if you don't want to play the riff.
- The hyphen between 2 chords in a bar means the chords share equal beat counts in that bar, which in this case is 3 beats per chord (6/8 time), e.g., | Gmaj7 - Em | means 3 beat counts on Gmaj7 and 3 beat counts on Em.
- Use the Chord Transposer above if you want to play in any other key... you will need to adjust the bottom string back to E if you do this.
C#dim chord is an easy chord to play ... see charts.
What are the notes for a C#dim chord?
- Firstly you need to look at the notes in the C# Major Scale:
C# D# E# F# G# A# B# (all sharps) - Then you need to look at the chord formula for a diminished chord:
1 - b3 - b5 (root, minor third, diminished fifth) - Take the notes out of the scale required for the chord ( 1-3-5 ): C# E# G#
- Apply the formula (1 - b3 - b5): C#- E - G
Once you become familiar with the process and remember your formulas, you can go from step 1 to step 4 in no time at all.
- In the charts above, C#dim is shown as x4x020 leading with the tonic - C#.
- You can also play it as xx2020 (E-G-C#-E) which is like playing an A7 chord without the bottom A string.
- Even though you are not leading with the tonic - C#, it still sounds good and much easier to play.
- If you are strumming, it is very difficult to avoid strings 4 and 6 which is required for the x4x020 version of the chord.
