John Denver
Leaving on a Jet Plane chords
Leaving on a Jet Plane by John Denver is a beginner song in G, played with no capo. The whole sheet is 4 chords (G, C, D, Am) across 3 sections: Intro → Verse ×2 → Chorus. Every shape is an open chord, so nothing here needs barre strength. It sits at roughly 80 BPM.
By Chiye · Updated
Hardest change in the sheet: G → C, 12 times.
- Difficulty
- Beginnerno barre needed
- Key
- Gwith no capo
- Tempo
- 80BPM
- Tuning
- Standard (E A D G B E)low to high
- Chords
- 4all open shapes
- Sections
- 3each with its own progression
Chords in Leaving on a Jet Plane
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
Verse× 2 · 4/4 · ♩=80
Chorus4/4 · ♩=80
Printable one-page chord chart
How to play Leaving on a Jet Plane
Leaving on a Jet Plane is really two songs that share one engine: G, C and D run almost the whole tune, so the only thing you have to memorise is where each phrase stops. The verse ends on a D that hangs across a full extra bar before G comes back, and that hang is exactly where beginners rush. Count it out loud — one, two, three, four — and let the chord ring rather than jumping back early.
The chorus uses the same G, C and D shapes as the verse, so the practice is in timing rather than adding chords. G and C do not share both low-string frets: G has A at fret 2 and an open D, while C has A at fret 3 and D at fret 2. Build each grip deliberately, then shorten the gap between them while keeping the strum even.
Use slow quarter-note downstrokes with a light upstroke on beat three; this song does not want a busy right hand from you. Set the metronome to 65 and loop the verse line alone until the D-to-G return stops feeling like a surprise. When that is solid, add the chorus, then run intro, verse and chorus as one piece. Only after ten clean minutes at 65 should you push toward the recorded 80. If your Am feels weak, spend two minutes changing C to Am on its own, eyes closed, and listen for the open B string ringing through both shapes.
How to practise Leaving on a Jet Plane
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
G (3-2-0-0-0-3, beginner) → C (x-3-2-0-1-0, beginner) → D (x-x-0-2-3-2, beginner) → Am (x-0-2-2-1-0, beginner)
4 of the 4 shapes are open chords, so nothing here needs barre strength yet.
Drill the changes this sheet actually uses
G → C12×C → D4×C → G4×D → G1×
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
- Gevery section
- Cevery section
- Devery section
- Am
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 Leaving on a Jet Plane 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
G C D Am
4 of 4 stay open
Fret 1
F# B C# Abm
no open shapes left, all barre
Fret 2
F Bb C Gm
1 of 4 stay open
Fret 3
E A B F#m
2 of 4 stay open
Fret 4
Eb Ab Bb Fm
no open shapes left, all barre
Fret 5
D G A Em
4 of 4 stay open
Fret 6
C# F# Ab Ebm
no open shapes left, all barre
Fret 7
C F G Dm
3 of 4 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 Leaving on a Jet Plane clicks, these use the closest set of shapes, so the chords you just learned keep working.
More beginner songs to learn after this one: Payphone, The Scientist, 505, Linger.
These chords across the songbookHow often each chord in Leaving on a Jet Plane 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.
509bars of this chord across the songbook
77songs use this shape
Most often followed by D, 89×.
420bars of this chord across the songbook
70songs use this shape
Most often followed by G, 115×.
323bars of this chord across the songbook
58songs use this shape
Most often followed by G, 52×.
125bars of this chord across the songbook
35songs use this shape
Most often followed by F, 23×.