What A Wonderful World chords

Arrangement Details:

• Key Signature: F Major - 1 flat (Bb)
• Time Signature: 4/4 — Four quarter-note beats per measure
• Tempo: Slowly
• Metronome: ♩ = 72
• Voice Range: C4 - D5
• Chord Types in This Arrangement:
  • Major chords: F, Bb, Db
  • Minor chords: Am, Dm
  • Dominant 7th chords: A7, C7
  • Minor 7th chord: Gm7
  • Major 7th chord: Bbmaj7
  • Augmented chord: Faug
    An augmented triad (F–A–C♯)
  • 6th chord: Bb6
    A major triad with an added 6th (Bb–D–F–G)
  • Diminished 7th chord: F#dim7
    Fully diminished seventh (F#–A–C–Eb)
  • 11th chord: C11
    Dominant 11th (C–E–G–Bb–D–F)
  • Slash chords: C/E, C/G, Dm/F
  • Altered chords: Am7b5 (half‑diminished), C7b9 (dominant with altered 9th)
• Helpful Tips:
  This song includes a vast array of chords, some simple and some may be foreign to many of you. However, once you learn these chords, you will find they are not so hard, and in some cases fairly easy.
  You will love the sound of many of these chords. The arrangement is beautiful, and it is no wonder that many guitarists turn to jazz after playing songs like this.
  
  
• Triplets:
  This song is played slowly with the guitar picking in triplet time.
  
  A triplet means three evenly spaced notes played in 1 beat.
  
  The time signature is 4:4 time therefore the count in each bar is
  | 1 2 3 4 | or | 1+ 2+ 3+ 4+ | where 1 beat in this case is 1+, etc.
  
  Because the guitar is playing in triplet time, the count per bar is
  | 1++  2++  3++  4++  |.
  Listen closely, and take note of the guitar finger-picking.
  
  
• Chord charts have been included for players wanting to play open chords in the first position with the exception of B♭maj7, C11, C7-9, and Gm7.
  All chord positions are located on the first 3 frets so you don't have to go very far when moving from one chord to the next.
• These chords can be played in several positions, so if you like being a 'kamikaze' player, you can play these chords wherever you like.
• If you have trouble with any other chords, go to the 'guitar chords' page and choose any chord type you need to learn or revise.
• This is a great song for jazz guitarists with some nice open chords which jazzists will really appreciate. You can play barre chords, but the open chords sound very nice, especially if you are finger-picking.
• Wherever you see 2 chords with a hyphen between them, it means the beat count is shared equally, so in this case where the time signature is 4/4, the first chord is played for 2 beats and the second chord is played for 2 beats, e.g., | F - B♭ | indicates 2 beats on F and 2 beats on B♭.
• b5, b9 and aug chords can also be written as -5, -9, and + chords:
  • Am7-5 = Am7b5
  • C7-9 = C7b9
  • F+ = Faug
• Wherever you see slash chords such as C/E, C/G, or Dm/F, the note after the slash tells you which bass note to play.
  
  • Dm/F → a Dm chord with F in the bass
  • C/G → a C chord with G in the bass
  • C/E → a C chord with E in the bass
    
    The upper chord stays the same — only the bass note changes, creating smooth movement between chords and adding musical interest.
• C/E can technically be played as 032010, which is just a standard C chord with the low E added on the 6th string. That note is usually omitted in open‑position C shapes, but it still counts as a valid C/E voicing.
  
  However, in this progression it doesn’t sit as well after Dm, because the low 6th‑string E creates a heavier, less focused sound. That’s why the voicing xx2010 works better here — the bass note E is on the 4th string, omitting strings 5 & 6 altogether. This keeps the bass line clean and controlled, giving you the smooth stepwise movement you want.

Song Details:

• Songwriters: Bob Thiele, George David Weiss.
• Lyrics Begin: I see trees of green, red roses too, I see them bloom for me and you,
• Genre: Pop, R&B
• Featured Artist: Louis Armstrong
• Single:
  Recorded: August 16, 1967 (New York)
  Released: September 1967
  B-side: Cabaret
• Album: What a Wonderful World
  Released: 1968

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