Hey There Delilah chords

How to play Hey There Delilah

Hey There Delilah uses D, F#m, Bm, G and A in this no-capo guitar study. Keep standard tuning and practise the full triads at 72 BPM, giving every box four beats. The D-major harmony is manageable, but the displayed F#m and Bm are barre chords. This page therefore treats the arrangement as intermediate and separates its chord-change exercises from the recording’s picked part.

Choose full triads before comparing the picked voicings

Six String Fingerpicking’s lesson identifies Tom Higgenson as the writer and Plain White T’s as the band. It also distinguishes the introductory D–F#m movement from the harder Bm and slash-chord passages. The songwriter credit here belongs to Higgenson; the recording artist remains the group.

Spy Tunes’ own chord analysis uses D5, G5 and several moving-bass shapes. This study deliberately expands D5 to D and G5 to G, adding the major third, and replaces D5/A or D5/C# with D, and Bm/A or Bm/C# with Bm. A5 becomes A. Those choices make a five-shape accompaniment exercise, but they change the voicing and bass. Full D is not another spelling of D5.

Keep the verse and first chorus separate

The intro alternates D and F#m. In the verse exercise, read D–F#m–D–F#m, then Bm–Bm–G–A, then Bm–A–A. Consecutive Bm boxes mark the source’s Bm to Bm/A change after removing its bass distinction. The final two A boxes similarly stand for A and A5. Play each box to the end even when your left hand does not move.

The first chorus repeats D–D–Bm–Bm four times and ends D–D. The paired symbols preserve the source’s separate bass events, with their durations expanded here. That ending belongs to the first chorus; it should not be blindly copied over every later passage. This page supplies separate section studies instead of claiming one short loop covers the complete recording.

Prepare two different barre shapes at fret two

F#m uses an E-minor-family barre grip rooted on the sixth string; Bm uses an A-minor-family grip rooted on the fifth. Although both barres sit at fret two, the other fingers must reorganise. Keep the sixth string silent for Bm. Practise releasing the extra fingers, finding the new bass string, then checking the top strings before returning to a steady count.

Do not describe a compact three-string shape as if it were the full diagram. Fewer strings can make the original picked texture easier to manage, but they require their own bass choices and fingering. Start by playing the displayed chord once, then listening for every note. Increase the tempo only when the last beat remains as relaxed as the first.

Learn the middle-eight exit without inventing a picking roll

The middle-eight study begins G–A–D–D–Bm–Bm twice, then finishes G–A–Bm–Bm–A–A. Practise that final six-change group separately: it is where the pattern stops returning immediately through D. Count the repeated Bm boxes and the two A boxes, rather than rushing them because the parent chord name stays the same.

The loop uses four plain downstrokes per four-beat box. It is a generic way to test changes, not a transcription of the recording’s thumb-and-finger pattern. The eight cells are eighth-note positions, not eight separate beats. Once the harmony is secure, use the linked lessons to study the compact picked grips and their actual rhythm; our player does not supply that note-level part.