Father and Son chords

How to play Father and Son

Father and Son by Cat Stevens uses G-major shapes without a capo in this guitar study. Work through G, C, D/F#, Am7, Em, Am, D and Bm in standard tuning. Each displayed change receives four practice beats at 72 BPM. The three exercises cover the intro and the first two phrases of the father and son sections, giving you a manageable comparison of their harmony.

Choose the 1970 song and a bounded exercise

The official Yusuf / Cat Stevens album page places the song on the 1970 album Tea for the Tillerman. This page follows that song, rather than treating a later live date or the 2020 re-recording as its original release. Cat Stevens is credited here as both writer and performer.

Lauren Bateman’s own teaching chart supplies the changes selected for these exercises. Its intro alternates G and C. The father opening moves through G–D/F#–C–Am7, then G–Em–Am–D; the son opening begins G–Bm–C–Am7 and continues G–Em–Am7–D. Learn those short passages separately before joining them to a singer’s phrasing.

Keep the descending bass in G to D/F#

G to D/F# lets the bass move from G down one semitone to F#. The slash names the bass note, not a second chord to play after D. In the displayed grip, listen for F# as the lowest sounding note and keep any muted string silent. Check the bass alone, then add a light brush across the remaining sounding strings.

Plain D still gives D, F# and A, but its open fourth-string bass removes this particular G–F# step. It can be a temporary change exercise when you cannot reach D/F#, provided you hear what changed. Keep the original symbol visible in your reference and return to the intended bass when the hand can land without squeezing.

Hear why the son’s Bm changes the opening

Compare the second box of each opening exercise. D/F# contains D, F# and A, whereas Bm contains B, D and F#. Two notes are shared, but B replaces A and the bass changes. That difference is worth hearing slowly; the son’s section is not simply the father’s line sung louder over identical harmony.

Bm uses the full barre shown in the chord rack. Test the second string and the top string separately, then release unnecessary pressure between attempts. Am7 and Am also need separate attention: x02010 leaves the third string open as G, while x02210 produces A on that string. Both begin on the fifth string. Do not sweep the sixth string into either shape.

Separate four-beat practice from the song’s changing bars

Count one, two, three, four for every box and use one downstroke on each number. The eight-cell grid represents eight eighth notes; its blank cells are spaces between attacks. Row breaks add no pause. The intro here contains eight expanded changes, while each character exercise contains another eight.

The source sometimes puts two or more changes inside one bar and marks later passages in 5/4 and 3/4. Those passages are outside these opening studies. Our uniform four-beat boxes deliberately lengthen the changes, so they cannot be used as a recording-synchronised timeline. After the grips settle, return to the complete teaching chart to learn its phrasing and meter changes. The signature intro notes and solo are not transcribed on this page.