Ray Charles
Georgia on My Mind chords
Georgia on My Mind by Ray Charles is an intermediate song in C, played with no capo. The whole sheet is 8 chords (C6, Cm6, C, E7, A7, Dm7, G7, F) across 3 sections: Intro → Verse → Ending. 4 of the 8 shapes are open chords. Shapes that use a barre: C6, Cm6, Dm7, F. It sits at roughly 72 BPM.
By Chiye · Updated
Hardest change in the sheet: C6 → Cm6, 2 times.
- Difficulty
- Intermediatebarre shape C6
- Key
- Cwith no capo
- Tempo
- 72BPM
- Tuning
- Standard (E A D G B E)low to high
- Chords
- 84 open, 4 with a barre
- Sections
- 3each with its own progression
Chords in Georgia on My Mind
Frets read low E to high E, x means leave that string out.
Chord sheet
One chord per bar in this practice sheet. Follow the time signature shown beside each section; dots mark the remaining counts in the bar. Tap a bar to hear its chord, or loop the section to practise the changes.
Chord accompaniment only. Follow the section notes for this arrangement’s timing. Songs whose words are public domain →
Intro4/4 · ♩=72
Verse4/4 · ♩=72
Ending4/4 · ♩=72
Printable one-page chord chart
How to play Georgia on My Mind
The intro in this C-key arrangement compares C6 and Cm6 before moving to Dm7 and G7. C6 is x-3-2-2-1-0, while Cm6 is x-3-1-2-1-3. The third falls from E to Eb on the D string; the G string stays at fret 2. The high E also changes in these particular voicings.
The verse links E7, A7, Dm7 and G7 before returning to C. Their roots move by descending fifths, but the bass strings change: low E for E7, open A for A7, open D for Dm7 and low E at fret 3 for G7. Pick the bass separately to learn the route.
A7 only needs the D and B strings at fret 2, leaving the G string open. Barring all three middle strings at fret 2 would give A major instead. Practise A7 to Dm7 as a new grip, keeping each chord for a full cell in the sheet.
Use a slow, quiet accompaniment and let the open strings ring where the diagrams permit. Join the intro to the longer verse only after its major-to-minor sixth change is clear.
How to practise Georgia on My Mind
Four steps computed from this sheet: the order the shapes are easiest to learn in, the changes that really occur in the progressions above, where each chord turns up, and the tempo ladder up to the speed marked here.
Learn the shapes easiest first
C (x-3-2-0-1-0, beginner) → E7 (0-2-0-1-0-0, beginner) → A7 (x-0-2-0-2-0, beginner) → G7 (3-2-0-0-0-1, beginner) → C6 (x-3-2-2-1-0, intermediate, needs a barre) → Cm6 (x-3-1-2-1-3, intermediate, needs a barre) → Dm7 (x-x-0-2-1-1, intermediate, needs a barre) → F (1-3-3-2-1-1, intermediate, needs a barre)
4 of the 8 shapes are open chords, so start there and leave C6 until the others change cleanly.
Drill the changes this sheet actually uses
A7 → Dm73×Dm7 → G73×G7 → C3×C → E72×
These counts come from the progressions on this page, so they are the changes you will actually play, not a generic list of pairs to practise.
Know where each chord turns up
- C6Intro, Ending
- Cm6Intro
- CVerse, Ending
- E7Verse
- A7Verse, Ending
- Dm7every section
- G7every section
- FEnding
Climb the tempo ladder
Start at 43 BPM and move up only when a full pass is clean: 43 → 54 → 65 → 72 BPM. The tempo marked on this sheet is 72 BPM, and the last step is the one that always feels like a jump. Stay at 65 for longer than feels necessary.
Practise each section's chord changes slowly, then play the sheet through at a steady tempo without pausing between sections.
Playing Georgia on My Mind with a capo
This sheet needs no capo. Each card shows what you would finger at that capo position so the song still sounds exactly as written. Useful when the shapes above are awkward, or when you want to sing it higher without learning new chords.
No capoas written
C6 Cm6 C E7 A7 Dm7 G7 F
4 of 8 stay open
Fret 1
B6 Bm6 B Eb7 Ab7 C#m7 F#7 E
2 of 8 stay open
Fret 2
Bb6 Bbm6 Bb D7 G7 Cm7 F7 Eb
2 of 8 stay open
Fret 3
A6 Am6 A C#7 F#7 Bm7 E7 D
5 of 8 stay open
Fret 4
Ab6 Abm6 Ab C7 F7 Bbm7 Eb7 C#
1 of 8 stay open
Fret 5
G6 Gm6 G B7 E7 Am7 D7 C
8 of 8 stay open
Fret 6
F#6 F#m6 F# Bb7 Eb7 Abm7 C#7 B
no open shapes left, all barre
Fret 7
F6 Fm6 F A7 D7 Gm7 C7 Bb
3 of 8 stay open
Working out a different key? The capo calculatordoes the same arithmetic for any chord set.
More songs built on the same chords
If Georgia on My Mind clicks, these use the closest set of shapes, so the chords you just learned keep working.
More intermediate songs to learn after this one: Father and Son, Shallow, The One That Got Away, Treat You Better.
These chords across the songbookHow often each chord in Georgia on My Mind turns up across all 104 songs on this site, and what it most often moves to next. The counts come from the sheet library itself, not from theory.
13bars of this chord across the songbook
2songs use this shape
Most often followed by Cm6, 3×.
3bars of this chord across the songbook
2songs use this shape
Most often followed by Dm7, 2×.
420bars of this chord across the songbook
70songs use this shape
Most often followed by G, 115×.
31bars of this chord across the songbook
10songs use this shape
Most often followed by A7, 4×.
49bars of this chord across the songbook
15songs use this shape
Most often followed by Dm7, 10×.
29bars of this chord across the songbook
6songs use this shape
Most often followed by G7, 13×.
33bars of this chord across the songbook
13songs use this shape
Most often followed by C, 11×.
114bars of this chord across the songbook
29songs use this shape
Most often followed by C, 38×.