Blackbird | Chords + Lyrics
Intro
| 3/4 G Am7 G/B | 4/4 G |
Verse 1
| 3/4 G Am7 G/B | 4/4 G |
Blackbird singing in the dead of night.
| C C#dim Dadd4 D#b5 | Em Eb |
Take these broken wings and learn to fly.
| Dadd4 C#dim C | Cm G/B | A7 D7sus4 | 2/4 G | C G/B A7 | D7sus4 G |
All your life, you were only waiting for this moment to arise.
Verse 2
Blackbird singing in the dead of night.
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see.
| Dadd4 C#dim C | Cm G/B | A7 D7sus4 | 2/4 G |
All your life, you were only waiting for this moment to be free.
Chorus 1
| Fadd9 Em Dmadd4 C | Bb6 C |
Blackbird fly,
| Fadd9 Em Dmadd4 C | Bb6 A7 | 2/4 D7sus4 |
blackbird fly, into the light of the dark black night.
Instrumental 1
| 3/4 G Am7 G/B | 4/4 G |
| C C#dim Dadd4 D#b5 | Em Eb |
| Dadd4 C#dim C | Cm G/B | A7 D7sus4 | 2/4 G |
Chorus 2
Blackbird fly,
blackbird fly, into the light of the dark black night.
Instrumental 2
| 3/4 G Am7 G/B | 4/4 G | G | G | 5/4 G |
| G Am7 G/B C | G/B A7 D7sus4 |
Verse 3
| 3/4 G Am7 G/B | 4/4 G |
Blackbird singing in the dead of night.
| C C#dim Dadd4 D#b5 | Em Eb |
Take these broken wings and learn to fly.
| Dadd4 C#dim C | Cm G/B | A7 D7sus4 |
All your life, you were only waiting for this moment to arise.
| G C G/B | A7 D7sus4 |
You were only waiting for this moment to arise.
| G C G/B | A7 D7sus4 | G |
You were only waiting for this moment to arise.
Blackbird Chords: Learn the progressions
The full chord progression for Blackbird’s verse is this:
| 3/4 G Am7 G/B | 4/4 G |
| C C#dim Dadd4 D#b5 | Em Eb |
| Dadd4 C#dim C | Cm G/B | A7 D7sus4 | 2/4 G |
Using Roman Numerals to describe this is complex. And at the end of the day, you need to play it exactly like the original so it’s going to be about muscle memory.
Still, it’s perhaps interesting to understand Blackbid’s chords so let’s give it a go, like by line.
The first line (3/4 bar to 4/4 bar) ascends up the scale: I – II – I/3 – I.
The second line ascends chromatically up IV – #IVdim – V – #Vb5 – VI, then down to bVIx (Eb).
The third line descends from V – #IVdim – IV, and then a IVm – I/3. The last two bars move up using 4ths from IIx – V – I.
The chorus chords move away from the key of G, the chords are:
| Fadd9 Em Dmadd4 C | Bb6 C |
| Fadd9 Em Dmadd4 C | Bb6 A7 | 2/4 D7sus4 |
This is difficult to wrap your head around. If we stay in the key of G, the Roman Numerals are:
bVIIx – VI – Vm – IV – bIIIx – IV for the first line.
But if you think of this in the key of C, it looks like this:
IV – III – II – I – bVIIx – I.
This seems more logical, so we could say that there’s a modal interchage here from G Ionian to Mixolydian, or a key change from G to C.
Here’s a chord chart I made for you.
Blackbird Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro
As mentioned, Blackbird is a piece of music you should learn exactly like the original, heavily relying on muscle memory.
As you learn it using TAB, chords will indicate what the TAB is doing. This means that once you can do it, the chords will serve as a reminder, enabling us to write a chart summing it all up, like the one I made for you above.
Should you want to download this chart, here’s a PDF: Blackbird Chord Chart PDF.
This chart was created using iRealPro, here’s a link to that file: Blackbird iReal Pro.
Below, you get a preview of how we practise Blackbird using play-along loops in the course.
Blackbird TAB | Course Preview
Blackbird’s chords are best learned by divided into seven little loops, and practised slowly at first.
Above you see the first of these loops, complete with TAB to practice with at a slow tempo.
Example 1 is the same as the intro and the beginning of the verse. There’s a 3/4 bar followed by a 4/4, the chords are:
| 3/4 G (I) Am7 (II) G/B (I/3) | 4/4 G (I) |
Using TAB, we play like this on a loop until it’s ingrained in your muscle memory:
In the full lesson in the course, you only need six more loops like this to practice and you will have covered all chords of Blackbird.
Overall, this is what you need to focus on if you want to learn how to play Blackbird on the guitar.
- A constant open G string binds the chords together
- A unique index finger strumming technique
- Variations in the chord progression like IV – IVm
- A key change for the chorus
- Odd time signatures for a bar only
- Passing chords that seem to be dim7
Blackbird’s index finger strumming
Unique to Blackbird is the strange index finger strumming technique. This is a homemade technique I’ve never seen before or since, which is strange as it’s so brilliant!
Combining the thumb plucking and strumming strings using a downward motion, the index finger strums the upper part of the chord.
Paul learned how to play like this from Donovan, a Scottish folk artist who hung around The Beatles and Bob Dylan in the ’60s.
Speaking of Bob, the rhythm of Blackbird’s strumming is the same as that of Blowin’ In The Wind.
Practising the aforementioned seven loops will get you to a place where you can play Blackbird in a comfortable way, even though this unique index finger strumming technique will be new to you.
We also sandwich some scale practice with these Blackbird loops, before we play the complete song and then finally build a 2nd guitar part.
Learn the 2nd guitar part so you, I, and the singer can play Blackbird together, like a folk trio! You’ll find a full performance on one acoustic guitar as well as that 2nd guitar in the playlist at the top of this page.
Here’s a link to the 8 step-by-step guitar lessons: Blackbird – Guitar Lessons with TAB.
McCartney wrote Blackbird’s chords when The Beatles were at their peak!
Blackbird was written by Paul McCartney after he was woken up by a bird at six o’clock, in India.
Released on The White Album (used as slang, it was simply called The Beatles, printed on a white cover), in 1968, it instantly became yet another classic to add to their immense legacy.
As a follow-up to the legendary Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band a year earlier, and John Lennon claiming The Beatles to be “bigger than Jesus”, they had by now become the most discussed band in the world.
The White Album sold a staggering nineteen times platinum in the U.S. alone and charted at #1 in six countries.
The Beatles responded by making fun of everything. For example, they would give journalists new answers to the same questions, constantly pushing the boundaries of what they would print.
To this day, some of these stories have managed to stick.
In Wikipedia, Blackbird is said to be a song that Paul wrote after seeing racial tension escalate in America, he sang “Blackbird fly”, referring to the idea that black women should get out of there.
Lennon would have been in stitches if he knew!
In 2024, Beyonce covered Blackbird, again, McCartney claimed that he’s proud of how she’s recognising the original reason Blackbird was written, as a call to end racism for women.
This is great proof that if you keep hammering home a message, it eventually becomes true, even when it started as a joke!
Blackbird Chords | Related Pages
Blackbird | 8 Step-by-step Guitar Lessons + TAB
Blackbird by The Beatles is a legendary song that we simply must learn note-for-note, just like Paul McCartney played it.
Once this is achieved, we can learn from Blackbird by building a 2nd guitar part and playing the tune together, like a folk duo.
Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics
- (They Long To Be) Close To You chords by the Carpenters
- Dream A Little Dream chords by Mama Cass
- Over The Rainbow chords by Eva Cassidy
- Scarborough Fair chords by Simon & Garfunkel
- Tears In Heaven chords by Eric Clapton
The Beatles tunes
The Beatles are the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed band in the history of popular music.
As the leaders of the so-called British Invasion, their catchy Rock n Roll infused pop songs took America by storm, creating hysteria everywhere they went.
The Beatles on the web
About me | Dan Lundholm
This was a guitar lesson about Blackbird chords, by Dan Lundholm. Discover more about him and how you can learn guitar with Spytunes.
Most importantly, find out why you should learn guitar through playing tunes, not practising scales, and studying theory in isolation.
