Just the Two Of Us chords by Grover Washington/Bill Withers

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Just the Two of Us | Chords + Lyrics

Intro

||: Dbmaj7 C7 | Fm7 Ebm7 Ab7 | Dbmaj7 C7 | Fm7 :|| x4

Verse 1

Chorus 1

||: Dbmaj7 C7 | Fm7 Em7 Ebm7 Ab7 | Dbmaj7 C7 | Fm7 :||
Just the two of us, we can make it if we try. Just the two of us (just the two of us).
Just the two of us, building castles in the sky. Just the two of us, you and I.

Verse 2

Chorus 2

||: Dbmaj7 C7 | Fm7 Em7 Ebm7 Ab7 | Dbmaj7 C7 | Fm7 :||
Just the two of us, we can make it if we try. Just the two of us (just the two of us).
Just the two of us, building them castles in the sky. Just the two of us, you and I.

Instrumental 1

Chorus tag/solo

||: Dbmaj7 C7 | Fm7 N.C | Dbmaj7 C7 | Fm7 N.C :|| x4
||: (Just the two of us. We can make it, just the two of us) :|| x4
||: Dbmaj7 C7 | Fm7 Ebm7 Ab7 | Dbmaj7 C7 | Fm7 :|| x4
||: (Just the two of us. We can make it, just the two of us) :||

Solo

||: Dbmaj7 C7 | Fm7 Ebm7 Ab7 | Dbmaj7 C7 | Fm7 :|| x8

Instrumental 2

Verse 3

Chorus 4

||: Dbmaj7 C7 | Fm7 Em7 Ebm7 Ab7 | Dbmaj7 C7 | Fm7 :||
Just the two of us, we can make it if we try, just the two of us, listen (just the two of us)
Just the two of us, building the castles we don’t hide. Just the two of us, you and I.
(Just the two of us) Yeah, just the two of us.
(we can make it, just the two of us) Let’s get it together baby, yeah.
(Just the two of us) Just the two of us (We can make it, just the two of us).

Outro

||: Dbmaj7 C7 | Fm7 Em7 Ebm7 Ab7 | Dbmaj7 C7 | Fm7 :||
||: (Just the two of us, we can make it, just the two of us) :||

Just The Two Of Us Chords: Learn the progressions

The chordal masterpiece Just The Two Of Us by Bill Withers and Grover Washington Jr. is built around a modal interchange centred around Dbmaj7. This chord could be seen as either chord IV (Lydian) or chord I (Ionian).

Dbmaj7 (IV) – C7 (IIIx) – Fm7 (VI) makes complete sense. It’s the same concept as I Shot The Sheriff‘s verse. We start on chord IV, and feel at home when we hit chord VI.

What makes it a modal interchange (the play on Lydian and Ionian) is that every other time, to get us back to Dbmaj7, we put in a quick II – V, as if Dbmaj7 was chord I, like this:

| Dbmaj7 C7 | Fm7 Ebm7 Ab7 |

During the chorus, this concept sees one more chromatic chord inserted in an Em7, like this:

| Dbmaj7 C7 | Fm7 Em7 Ebm7 Ab7 |

The only other chords we find in Just The Two Of Us are during the instrumental section. Here we go full-on jazz as we further embrace the chromatic concept:

To use Roman Numerals to describe this movement wouldn’t be very helpful so let’s not go there, instead focus on how it’s a chromatic movement that once we reach G# or Ab, we can go back to Dbmaj7 again.

Music theory types could argue all day about what to call these chords, perhaps they should all be b, not #, even the Bmaj7, should probably be a Cbmaj7.

And what about that final chord? Is it an F#6, or a D#m/F#?

There was a time when I used to focus on such trivial matters. These days, I prefer to just use what is easiest and instead look at things like; what is that sax melody?

However, don’t let this stop you from further investigating Just The Two Of Us chords.

Just The Two Of Us Chords | Related Pages

Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics

When you can play Just The Two Of Us' chords, try these five tunes from the son book.

Bill Withers tunes

Bill Withers was an American singer-songwriter who performed and recorded from the late 60s until the mid-80s.

Some of his best-known songs include Ain’t No Sunshine, Use Me, Lovely Day, Lean on Me, Grandma’s Hands, and Just The Two Of Us.

Bill Withers on the web

Motown & Soul

When you can play Just The Two Of Us, check out these Motown and Soul tunes as well.

Motown & Soul is the best place to start if you want to get better at playing the electric guitar. The harmony is simple and there is room for improvisation.

Learn tunes by The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, Jackson 5, Marvin Gaye, Dusty Springfield, Aretha Franklin, and many more.

About me | Dan Lundholm

Dan Lundholm wrote this guitar lesson on Just the Two of Us chords.

This was a guitar lesson about Just the Two of Us chords, by Dan Lundholm. Discover more about him and learn guitar with Spytunes.

Most importantly, find out why you should learn guitar through playing tunes, not practising scales, and studying theory in isolation.