Coldplay
Yellow chords
Yellow by Coldplay is a beginner song in B, played with a capo on fret 4. The whole sheet is 6 chords (G, D, C, Em, Dm, Cmaj7) across 5 sections: Intro ×2 → Verse ×2 → Chorus ×2 → Bridge → Outro. Every shape is an open chord, so nothing here needs barre strength. It sits at roughly 87 BPM.
By Chiye · Updated
Hardest change in the sheet: G → D, 4 times.
- Difficulty
- Beginnerno barre needed
- Key
- Bwith a capo on fret 4
- Tempo
- 87BPM
- Tuning
- Standard (E A D G B E)low to high
- Chords
- 6all open shapes
- Sections
- 58 steps in the recorded form
Chords in Yellow
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.
Lyrics are not reproduced for this song: they are still in copyright and this site has no licence to publish them. The chords, structure, strumming and sing-along timing are all here. Songs whose words are public domain →
Intro× 2 · 4/4 · ♩=87
steady eighth notes, no dynamics yet
Verse× 2 · 4/4 · ♩=87
same loop as the intro, keep it quiet
Chorus× 2 · 4/4 · ♩=87
open up, let the C ring through the D
Bridge4/4 · ♩=87
build one bar at a time
Outro4/4 · ♩=87
back to the intro volume, one last time
Printable one-page chord chart
How to play Yellow
This arrangement uses standard tuning and a capo at fret 4. G, D, C and Em shapes sound as B, F#, E and G#m. Learn the open grips first, then follow each section’s printed row and repeat count.
The intro uses G, D and C. The verse adds a return to G and a Cmaj7 variation, while the chorus and bridge use their own orders. Cmaj7 is x-3-2-0-0-0: compared with C, release the B-string fret 1. With the capo, that open B-string note sounds as D#.
The outro’s Dm sounds as F#m, the minor v chord borrowed from B minor. It is not a minor iv chord; that would be Em in sounding pitch. Open D and Dm both use D, A and D on their lower strings, while the high E changes from fret 2 to fret 1. Refinger the upper triangle to make that change cleanly.
Keep the verse quiet and let the chorus grow in volume without accelerating. Practise the outro separately so Dm lands clearly. These diagrams belong to the standard-tuning setup shown here; an altered tuning changes the pitches under the same frets and needs different fingerings.
How to practise Yellow
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 recorded speed.
Learn the shapes easiest first
G (3-2-0-0-0-3, beginner) → D (x-x-0-2-3-2, beginner) → C (x-3-2-0-1-0, beginner) → Em (0-2-2-0-0-0, beginner) → Dm (x-x-0-2-3-1, beginner) → Cmaj7 (x-3-2-0-0-0, beginner)
6 of the 6 shapes are open chords, so nothing here needs barre strength yet.
Drill the changes this sheet actually uses
G → D4×C → G2×D → C2×C → Em1×
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
- DIntro, Verse, Chorus, Bridge
- Cevery section
- EmChorus, Bridge
- DmOutro
- Cmaj7Verse
Climb the tempo ladder
Start at 52 BPM and move up only when a full pass is clean: 52 → 65 → 78 → 87 BPM. The recorded feel is around 87 BPM, and the last step is the one that always feels like a jump. Stay at 78 for longer than feels necessary.
Every section here uses the same set of shapes, so there is no section to single out. Whatever you can play once, you can play all the way through.
Playing Yellow with a capo
This sheet is written with a capo on fret 4. 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 capo
B F# E Abm F#m Emaj7
2 of 6 stay open
Fret 1
Bb F Eb Gm Fm Ebmaj7
no open shapes left, all barre
Fret 2
A E D F#m Em Dmaj7
4 of 6 stay open
Fret 3
Ab Eb C# Fm Ebm C#maj7
no open shapes left, all barre
Fret 4as written
G D C Em Dm Cmaj7
6 of 6 stay open
Fret 5
F# C# B Ebm C#m Bmaj7
no open shapes left, all barre
Fret 6
F C Bb Dm Cm Bbmaj7
2 of 6 stay open
Fret 7
E B A C#m Bm Amaj7
3 of 6 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 Yellow clicks, these use the closest set of shapes, so the chords you just learned keep working.
More beginner songs to learn after this one: The Scientist, 505, Linger, Teardrops on My Guitar.
These chords across the songbookHow often each chord in Yellow turns up across all 90 songs on this site, and what it most often moves to next. The counts come from the sheet library itself, not from theory.
458bars of this chord across the songbook
67songs use this shape
Most often followed by C, 80×.
274bars of this chord across the songbook
51songs use this shape
Most often followed by G, 41×.
384bars of this chord across the songbook
59songs use this shape
Most often followed by G, 122×.
129bars of this chord across the songbook
34songs use this shape
Most often followed by C, 30×.
19bars of this chord across the songbook
8songs use this shape
Most often followed by Em, 4×.
11bars of this chord across the songbook
5songs use this shape
Most often followed by C7, 2×.