The Lumineers
Ho Hey chords
Ho Hey by The Lumineers is a beginner song in C, played with no capo. The whole sheet is 5 chords (C, Csus4, Am, G, F) across 4 sections: Intro → Verse → Chorus → Bridge. 3 of the 5 shapes are open chords. Shapes that use a barre: Csus4, F. It sits at roughly 80 BPM.
By Chiye · Updated
Hardest change in the sheet: C → Csus4, 10 times.
- Difficulty
- Beginnerbarre shape Csus4
- Key
- Cwith no capo
- Tempo
- 80BPM
- Tuning
- Standard (E A D G B E)low to high
- Chords
- 53 open, 2 with a barre
- Sections
- 4each with its own progression
Chords in Ho Hey
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 · ♩=80
Verse4/4 · ♩=80
Chorus4/4 · ♩=80
Bridge4/4 · ♩=80
Printable one-page chord chart
How to play Ho Hey
The intro and verse of this arrangement alternate C and Csus4, while the chorus adds Am, G and F. Start with the C to Csus4 pair before joining the longer chorus rows.
Open C is x-3-2-0-1-0. The Csus4 shown here is x-3-3-0-1-1: the D string moves from E at fret 2 to F at fret 3, and the high E moves from open E to F at fret 1. Keep the A-string root at fret 3. Simply lifting that finger removes the root and does not make Csus4.
Check both F notes separately. If an E still rings, the third has not been fully replaced and the chord is an added-fourth colour rather than this sus4. Return to C by restoring the D-string fret 2 and open high E.
Practise the chorus at a slower tempo, using the small F x-x-3-2-1-1 if a full barre is tiring. Keep the bass string appropriate to each chord and let short, controlled strums mark the pulse.
How to practise Ho Hey
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) → Am (x-0-2-2-1-0, beginner) → G (3-2-0-0-0-3, beginner) → Csus4 (x-3-3-0-1-1, intermediate, needs a barre) → F (1-3-3-2-1-1, intermediate, needs a barre)
3 of the 5 shapes are open chords, so start there and leave Csus4 until the others change cleanly.
Drill the changes this sheet actually uses
C → Csus410×Csus4 → C5×G → C4×Am → G3×
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
- Cevery section
- Csus4Intro, Verse
- AmVerse, Chorus
- GVerse, Chorus, Bridge
- FBridge
Climb the tempo ladder
Start at 48 BPM and move up only when a full pass is clean: 48 → 60 → 72 → 80 BPM. The tempo marked on this sheet is 80 BPM, and the last step is the one that always feels like a jump. Stay at 72 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 Ho Hey 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
C Csus4 Am G F
3 of 5 stay open
Fret 1
B Bsus4 Abm F# E
1 of 5 stay open
Fret 2
Bb Bbsus4 Gm F Eb
no open shapes left, all barre
Fret 3
A Asus4 F#m E D
4 of 5 stay open
Fret 4
Ab Absus4 Fm Eb C#
no open shapes left, all barre
Fret 5
G Gsus4 Em D C
5 of 5 stay open
Fret 6
F# F#sus4 Ebm C# B
no open shapes left, all barre
Fret 7
F Fsus4 Dm C Bb
2 of 5 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 Ho Hey clicks, these use the closest set of shapes, so the chords you just learned keep working.
More beginner songs to learn after this one: Sweater Weather, Payphone, The Scientist, 505.
These chords across the songbookHow often each chord in Ho Hey 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.
420bars of this chord across the songbook
70songs use this shape
Most often followed by G, 115×.
10bars of this chord across the songbook
1songs use this shape
Most often followed by C, 5×.
125bars of this chord across the songbook
35songs use this shape
Most often followed by F, 23×.
509bars of this chord across the songbook
77songs use this shape
Most often followed by D, 89×.
114bars of this chord across the songbook
29songs use this shape
Most often followed by C, 38×.