The Scientist chords

How to play The Scientist

Play The Scientist with Am, Fmaj7, C, Cadd9 and G shapes at capo 5, using standard tuning. This open-chord practice arrangement sounds in F. The verse changes once per bar, while the chorus holds Fmaj7 longer. The separate final G box gives you a place to practise the pause before moving on, without mistaking the section list for the complete song.

Match the capo to the chord names

The symbols above the boxes describe the shapes relative to the capo. Am sounds as Dm, Fmaj7 as Bbmaj7, C as F, Cadd9 as Fadd9, and G as C. Fit the capo close behind fret 5 and check the tuning again. A string pulled sideways or clamped too hard can go sharp even when the open guitar was in tune.

Removing the capo while keeping these shapes lowers the whole arrangement by five semitones. It does not preserve the F-centred pitch. Choose a comfortable singing key by moving the entire arrangement together. These diagrams are for standard E–A–D–G–B–E tuning; the separate fourths-tuning lesson linked by the teacher needs different fingerings.

Keep the third in the added-note chord

Our Cadd9 diagram is x-3-2-0-3-3. Its notes include C, E, G and D. The D is an added ninth, while E remains the major third. A Csus2 chord would remove that E, so the two names do not describe the same note set.

Justin’s easy lesson writes Cadd2 for x-3-0-0-1-0. That grip also contains C, D, E and G, so it belongs to the added-ninth family. This page uses its own catalog Cadd9 voicing, with a different distribution of the same chord tones. Do not assume the two diagrams should have identical frets. Both retain the third; neither becomes Csus2 merely because the added D sits close to a C in one grip.

Read the longer holds and the final pause

The verse practice line is Am–Fmaj7–C–Cadd9, one bar per chord. The indicated four repeats follow the easy lesson’s verse exercise. In the chorus, play Fmaj7–Fmaj7–C–Cadd9 twice. The repeated Fmaj7 symbol means another full four-beat bar of the same chord, not a quicker change or a new grip.

After that chorus unit, the next two boxes are G. Keep the first bar steady. In the final bar, the grid D . . . . . . . asks for one downstroke on beat one, then space for the remaining counts. Count the silent positions rather than shortening the bar. The player’s default 90 BPM is a practice setting here, not a claim about the recording. These section exercises do not map every instrumental passage and vocal repeat.

Compare the smaller Fmaj7 grips

The page’s Fmaj7 is x-x-3-2-1-0: four strings, with an open high E supplying the major seventh. Start the sweep on the fourth string and keep the first string clear. A plain F triad would lose that E, so treat it as an intentional colour change rather than the same chord under a shorter name.

The teaching lesson uses Fmaj7/C, x-3-3-2-1-0. It adds a C bass below the same F–A–C–E harmony. Our smaller grip has F as its lowest note, so the bass differs. Compare them slowly if you want to explore that change; begin with the diagram actually printed here. For Am, use x-0-2-2-1-0 and keep the low sixth string silent as well.

The capo, chord-family choices, section holds and final-bar pause were checked against JustinGuitar’s easy The Scientist lesson. The note-set comparison above explains how this page adapts those grips to its own diagrams.