Everybody Hurts (R.E.M.) Guitar Lesson with TAB

In this guitar lesson, you'll find a tune with a clever key change and modal interchange. To play it, all you need to do is learn the three bits of TAB provided!

Everybody Hurts | TAB

Let’s work out how to play Everybody Hurts chords using TAB. The verse is just I – IV in the key of D. Since there is no 3rd in the G, we must call the G chord a G5. Here’s TAB.

The chorus is a II – V, another super common chord progression (check my top 10 chord progression list and find both the verse and chorus progressions on it!)

Also, compare Everybody Hurts chords with Mad World’s chords, they are identical. Here they are displayed using TAB, notice how it’s the same pattern as the G chord had in the verse.

Should you want some variation, you could include the bass line into this chorus pattern, here’s what that looks like using TAB.

Everybody Hurts TAB, chorus with bass line.

Finally, the middle 8. Now we are leaving beginner territory as there are barre chords here. If you want to find a way around that, use power chords instead.

These are Everybody Hurts Middle 8 section’s chords.

| F# | F# | Bm | Bm | F# | F# | Bm | Bm |
| F# | F# | Bm | Bm | C | C | G | G |
| C | C C/B | Am | Am N.C |

There are a few things happening here. We start with the mediant major, that’s chord IIIx in my book, which should have been F#m in the key of D. Bm is chord VI.

The C – G – C – Am is a key change from D to C.

My favourite part about this is that it ends on an Am chord, stops, and then starts in D major. We could see this as a modal interchange where the Am has gone from being chord VI in the key of C, to chord Vm in the key of D.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to come up with a part that works for this middle 8, in the context of all the other parts.

Everybody Hurts TAB | Related Pages

Everybody Hurts | Chords + Lyrics

You can learn how to play Everybody Hurts by R.E.M. using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, TAB, and the original recording.

| D | D | G5 | G5 |
When your day is long…

Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics

When you can play the TAB for Everybody Hurts, try these five tunes from the songbook.

R.E.M. tunes

Formed in 1980, R.E.M. spent a decade on the road honing their craft before they took over the world with the album Out Of Time.

Their best tunes include The One I Love, Shiny Happy People, Losing My Religion, Drive, Man On The Moon, and Everybody Hurts.

R.E.M on the web

About me | Dan Lundholm

Dan Lundholm wrote this guitar lesson and TAB for Everybody Hurts

This guitar lesson by Dan Lundholm features TAB and covers Everybody Hurts. Discover more about him and how you can learn guitar with Spytunes.

Most importantly, find out why you should learn guitar through playing tunes, not practising scales, and studying theory in isolation.