Faith | Chords + Lyrics (no capo)
Intro
||: B Asus4 E | C#m F#sus4 F# :|| organ fades in
| B | B | hold organ
| B | B | guitar rhythm
Verse 1
| B | B |
Well, I guess it would be nice, if I could touch your body.
| E | B |
I know not everybody, has got a body like you.
| B | B |
Oh, but I gotta think twice, before I give my heart away.
| E | B |
And I know all the games you play, because I played them, too.
Bridge 1
| E | B |
Oh, but I need some time off from that emotion.
| E | B |
Time to pick my heart up off the floor.
| E | B F#/A# G#m |
Oh, when that love comes down without devotion.
| C#m | F# N.C |
Well, it takes a strong man, baby but I’m showin’ you the door.
Chorus 1
| B | B |
‘Cause I gotta have faith, I gotta have faith.
| B | B N.C |
Because I gotta have faith, faith, faith. I got to have faith, faith, faith, ah.
Verse 2
Baby, I know you’re askin’ me to stay.
Say “Please, please, please don’t go away”. You say I’m giving you the blues.
Maybe, huh, you mean every word you say, can’t help but think of yesterday.
And another who tied me down to loverboy rules.
Bridge 2
Before this river becomes an ocean.
Before you throw my heart back on the floor.
Oh, oh baby, I reconsider my foolish notion.
Well, I need someone to hold me but I’ll wait for something more.
Chorus 2
Yes, I gotta have faith. Ooh, I gotta have faith.
Because I gotta have faith, faith, faith. I gotta have faith, faith, faith.
Solo (Verse)
| B | B (B6) | E7 | B |
(I’ll just have to wait. Because I’ve got to have faith).
| B | B (B6) | E7 | B |
(I gotta have faith. I’ve got to, got to, got to have faith)
Bridge 3
Before this river becomes an ocean.
Before you throw my heart back on the floor (I just gotta have faith).
Oh, oh, baby, I reconsider my foolish notion.
| C#m | F# N.C | N.C |
Well, I need someone to hold me but I’ll wait for something more.
Outro
| B | B |
‘Cause I gotta have faith. Ooh, I gotta have faith.
| B | B N.C |
Because I gotta have faith, faith, faith, ah. I gotta have faith, faith, faith, ah.
Faith | Chords + Lyrics (capo 4)
Intro
||: G Fadd9 C | Amadd2 D6omit3 D5 :|| organ fades in
| G | G | hold organ
| G | G | guitar
Verse 1
| G | G |
Well, I guess it would be nice, if I could touch your body.
| C | G |
I know not everybody, has got a body like you.
| G | G |
Oh, but I gotta think twice, before I give my heart away.
| C | G |
And I know all the games you play, because I played them too.
Bridge 1
| C | G |
Oh, but I need some time off from that emotion.
| C | G |
Time to pick my heart up off the floor.
| C | G D/F# Em |
Oh, when that love comes down without devotion.
| Am | D5 N.C |
Well, it takes a strong man, baby but I’m showin’ you the door.
Chorus 1
| G | G |
‘Cause I gotta have faith, I gotta have faith.
| G | G N.C |
Because I gotta have faith, faith, faith. I got to have faith, faith, faith, ah.
Verse 2
Baby, I know you’re askin’ me to stay.
Say “Please, please, please don’t go away”. You say I’m giving you the blues.
Maybe, huh, you mean every word you say, can’t help but think of yesterday.
And another who tied me down to loverboy rules.
Bridge 2
Before this river becomes an ocean.
Before you throw my heart back on the floor.
Oh, oh baby, I reconsider my foolish notion.
Well, I need someone to hold me but I’ll wait for something more.
Chorus 2
Yes, I gotta have faith. Ooh, I gotta have faith.
Because I gotta have faith, faith, faith. I gotta have faith, faith, faith.
Solo
| G | G | C | G |
(I’ll just have to wait. Because I’ve got to have faith).
| G | G | C | G |
(I gotta have faith. I’ve got to, got to, got to have faith)
Bridge 3
Before this river becomes an ocean.
Before you throw my heart back on the floor (I just gotta have faith).
Oh, oh, baby, I reconsider my foolish notion.
| Am | D5 N.C | N.C |
Well, I need someone to hold me but I’ll wait for something more.
Outro
| G | G |
‘Cause I gotta have faith. Ooh, I gotta have faith.
| G | G N.C |
Because I gotta have faith, faith, faith, ah. I gotta have faith, faith, faith, ah.
Faith Chords: Learn the progressions
Before you start playing along with the original recording, tune your guitar using my online guitar tuner, and set the Hz to 446.
In my experience, guitar players shy away from playing along with records because they are not in tune with them and in the case of Faith, George Michael is sharp by 6Hz.
There are now two routes to take, the acoustic, using a capo on fret 4, thinking in the key of G and playing on your own, or the electric, playing in a band, thinking in the key of B.
Here are the verse chords for playing Faith on the electric guitar in a band:
| B (I) | B | E (IV) | B |
| B | B | E | B |
All we have here are chords I – IV, so it’s not the chords but the rhythm that is the hard part. This is best described using TAB with rhythms, here’s a link to that part of the lesson: Faith – Guitar Lesson with TAB.
On the acoustic guitar, you need to play more bass notes as George Michael’s music is more about the bass than the guitar.
I feel you should play the verse on the acoustic using a capo, thinking in the key of G (again there’s TAB available if you follow the link). Here are the chords:
| G (I) | G | C (IV) | G |
| G | G | C | G |
The bridge starts on chord IV and goes like this without a capo:
| E (IV) | B (I) | E | B |
| E | B F#/A# (V/3) G#m (VI) |
| C#m (II) | F# (V) N.C |
The movement here, using Roman Numerals, is IV – I on repeat, then I – V/3 – VI – II – V. It’s much easier to see this if you think in the key of G like we do when playing it on the acoustic, it looks like this:
| C (IV) | G (I) | C | G |
| C | G D/F# (V/3) Em (VI) |
| Am (II) | D5 (V) N.C |
You may have noticed that the last chord is different, it sounds better as a D5 than a D chord on the acoustic.
There’s TAB for all sections, including the intro. I’ve written the chords in two different ways, the first is without incorporating the melody. Without a capo, it looks like this:
||: B (I) Esus4 (IV) E | C#m (II) F#sus4 (IV) F# :||
With a capo, we can easily incorporate the melody and if we do, we can name the chords after the intervals the melody uses, it looks like this:
||: G (I) Fadd9 (bVIIx) C (IV) | Amadd2 (II) D6omit3 (V) D5 :||
The second chord (IV or bVIIx) is even a new chord! Try them both, use the TAB and play along with the original.
After you have completed this process, a simple chord chart is all you need, here’s one I made for you.
Faith Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro
I decided to give you the chart for acoustic (capo 4) as I feel it’s best to start there.
Should you want to download this chart, here’s a PDF: Faith Chord Chart PDF.
This chord chart was created using iReal Pro, here’s a link to that file: Faith iReal Pro.
Using this and the iRealPro app, you can change the key, probably to E first (no capo), make sure you fix that second chord of the intro!
Faith was not supposed to be a single!
As the #1 single of the year in 1988, George Michael‘s Faith topped the charts the world over.
Released as a single from his debut album with the same name, the song was developed over several months with the guitar solo added much later in the process.
Faith was written first as a bit of a parody, aiming to incorporate all cliches, echoing Queen’s Crazy Little Thing Called Love.
Another couple of tunes that did this are Song 2 by Blur and Sex On Fire by King Of Leon, it all started off as a joke but when the Record label heard it, it was all on.
Party bands the world over play all these tunes, you just have to decide if you’re going to do it on the acoustic or electric. I would suggest you learn both ways as this will deepen your understanding of the tune.
Should you want to learn to play the guitar solo, check the playlist above, I’ve included a YouTube tutorial that demonstrates this.
Faith Chords | Related Pages
Faith | Guitar Lesson + TAB
In this guitar lesson, you get TAB for how to play all sections of Faith on both the acoustic and electric guitar, including the church organ intro.
| B | B |
Well, I guess it would be nice, if I could touch your body…
Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics
- Blue Suede Shoes chords by Elvis
- Crazy Little Thing Called Love chords by Queen
- Do You Love Me chords by The Contours
- I Saw Her Standing There chords by The Beatles
- Kiss chords by Prince
George Michael tunes
As one of the most popular singers in Britain, George Michael‘s first success came with the duo Wham!
Following many hits with the duo, he set his sights on an even more lucrative solo career.
George Michael on the web
About me | Dan Lundholm
This was a guitar lesson about Faith 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.
