You’ve Got A Friend | TAB
Since it is the Carole King version singers want, I’ve adapted the piano chords for guitar, rather than work out how James Taylor played it.
Here’s what I felt worked for the intro of You’ve Got A Friend, using TAB.
When the instrumental section comes in, it is almost identical to the intro, only the last bar has a small change, like this:
In both these sections, we have some nice extensions on the G chord in add9 and add4. I say add4 as we also have a 3rd soon after, rather than saying Gsus4, then G, then Gadd9 and G. So it’s a way to write fewer chords.
Let’s look at the verse, this is the most complex section.
There’s plenty to point out here but in order to avoid writing a novel, just go through each bar slowly and make sure you can see all intervals.
Compare bar 3 to bar 11, one chord differs. The B7 eventually becomes a Bm7. In terms of playing this (fingerstyle) most of the time when it’s three strings, play with a finger strum, rather than a pluck with three fingers.
Here’s the chorus.
The chorus is simpler than the verse, both in terms of extensions and patterns.
Finally, here’s the middle 8.
The F chord is outside the key, it’s a bVIIx chord, or we could think of it as borrowing from the neighbouring key of C.
The A7 is a IIx chord, the rest are all in the key of G.
On a final note, the outro is the first two bars of the intro.
You’ve Got A Friend TAB | Related Pages
You’ve Got A Friend | Chords + Lyrics
Learn to play You’ve Got A Friend by Carol King using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, a chord chart, and the original recordings.
| Em | B7/F# | Em B7/F# | G B7/F# Em Em/D |
When you’re down and troubled and you need some lovin’ care…
Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics
Carole King tunes
Starting out as a songwriter, Carole King wrote some of the best tunes heard in the ’60s, culminating with her 2nd solo album Tapestry in 1971.
Her best tunes include Will You Love Me Tomorrow, The Loco-Motion, Pleasant Valley Sunday, You’ve Got A Friend, and (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.
Carole King on the web
James Taylor tunes
James Taylor got his first break when he was signed by The Beatles record label Apple to release his debut album.
Tunes include Fire and Rain, Sweet Baby James, You’ve Got A Friend, and How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You).
James Taylor on the web
About me | Dan Lundholm
This guitar lesson by Dan Lundholm features TAB and covers You’ve Got A Friend. 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.