Night Changes chords

How to play Night Changes

Play Night Changes by One Direction with capo 1, in standard tuning. Start with G, Em, Bm and D shapes for the opening verse changes, then isolate the chorus’s C-to-D movement. These exercises sound in Ab major and use four-beat boxes at 80 BPM. The later key change needs a separate raised version of the shapes; a loop will not make that change automatically.

Match the opening Ab-major version

The Musicnotes piano/vocal/guitar edition lists One Direction, 2014, Ab major, 4/4 and 124 BPM. Here the capo raises G to Ab, Em to Fm, Bm to Cm, D to Eb and C to Db. Check the capo position before comparing those sounding names with the shape names printed above.

Easy 2 Play Music’s own tutorial specifies capo 1 and the five-shape set G, Em, Bm, D and C. Our exercises slow the pulse to 80 BPM and use simple quarter-note downstrokes. That provides room to check the fretting hand before attempting the tutorial’s busier strumming. Read fret numbers relative to the capo, so a second-fret shape note lies at physical fret 3.

Give Bm time without losing the count

The opening drill is G–Em–Bm–D. The printed Bm is x-2-4-4-3-2, with a second-fret barre across the five playing strings. Start its strum on string 5 and keep the low E silent. The middle finger supplies the B-string third fret while the other fretted notes complete the minor grip. Test the first and fifth strings separately to check that both ends of the barre ring.

Each box here lasts four beats, even if you need more preparation for Bm. Lower the exercise speed instead of extending the preceding Em bar. In the printed Em, B and the top E are open; both become fretted notes in Bm. Lift and reshape the hand deliberately rather than trying to retain an open-string anchor that the next grip does not use.

Practise the chorus movement before adding its whole phrase

The second drill alternates C and D twice. This isolates a movement used in the chorus; it is not the entire chorus progression. Start C on string 5 and D on string 4. In shape pitch the low roots are C and D, sounding as Db and Eb with the capo. Listen for that step upward before adding a more continuous right-hand pattern.

In the printed grips, C uses x-3-2-0-1-0 and D uses x-x-0-2-3-2. There is no shared fretted position to leave anchored between them. Move the fingers as a group, keep the open D string clear and avoid catching both low strings on D. Count through all four beats of each expanded box; the recording’s vocal phrases and chord holds need their own performance timing.

Rehearse the later whole-tone lift separately

GuitarZero2Hero’s lesson explicitly covers the song’s key change. BMartinSounds’ own lesson description shows the later verse as A–F#m–C#m–E with capo 1. The whole progression rises two semitones, taking the sounding opening Ab to Bb. Do not interpret that lift as moving the capo while leaving every other instruction unchanged.

Set the transpose control to +2 to rehearse the raised verse drill: G becomes A, Em becomes F#m, Bm becomes C#m and D becomes E. The C-to-D drill becomes D-to-E. Keep capo 1 fitted and check the newly drawn barre grips before starting the loop. Reset returns to the opening key. These are separate section studies, with no automatic mid-song modulation, full chorus reconstruction or claim of complete recorded bar counts.