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Teenage Dream Chords | Katy Perry Guitar Lesson with TAB + Backing Tracks

In this guitar lesson, you’ll learn how to play Teenage Dream by Katy Perry using chords, TAB, lyrics, chord charts (PDF + iReal Pro), chord progression analysis, and stem separated backing tracks!

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Chords + Lyrics | Teenage Dream

Intro

||: Ebmaj7 | Fsus4 :||

Verse 1

||: Ebmaj7 | Fsus4 :|| x4
You think I’m pretty without any makeup on.
You think I’m funny when I tell the punch line wrong.
I know you get me, so I let my walls come down, down.

Verse 2

||: Ebmaj7 (Gm7) | Fsus4 :|| x4
Before you met me, I was alright, but
things were kinda heavy, you brought me to life, now
every February. You’ll be my Valentine, Valentine

Bridge 1

Chorus 1

||: Ebmaj7 (Gm7) | Fsus4 | Ebmaj7 (Gm7) | Fsus4 :||
You make me feel like I’m live in a, teenage dream, the way you turn me on.
I can’t sleep, let’s run away and don’t ever look back, don’t ever look back.
My heart stops when you look at me. Just one touch, now, baby, I believe.
This is real, so take a chance and don’t ever look back, don’t ever look back.

Verse 3 (as verse 2)

We drove to Cali and got drunk on the beach.
Got a motel and built a fort out of sheets.
I finally found you, my missing puzzle piece, I’m complete.

Bridge 2

Let’s go all the way tonight. No regrets, just love.
We can dance, until we die. You and I, will be young forever.

Chorus 2

You make me feel like I’m live in a, teenage dream, the way you turn me on.
I can’t sleep, let’s run away and don’t ever look back, don’t ever look back.
My heart stops when you look at me. Just one touch, now, baby, I believe.
This is real, so take a chance and don’t ever look back, don’t ever look back.

Middle 8

||: Ebmaj7 (Gm7) | Fsus4 | Ebmaj7 (Gm7) | Fsus4 :||
I’ma get your heart racing in my skin-tight jeans, be your teenage dream tonight.
Let you put your hands on me in my skin-tight jeans, be your teenage dream tonight
(Tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight)

Chorus 2

Outro (as middle 8)

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Teenage Dream Backing Tracks | Chord Analysis

Above, you’ll find backing tracks to use when learning Teenage Dream. I’ve used stem separation to extract the guitar while keeping the drums, bass, keys, and vocals intact.

After studying the chords and TAB, use my backing tracks to prepare for playing this tune with a band, or o your own, more on this later!

Chord Progressions – What’s Going On?

At its core, Katy Perry’s smash hit Teenage Dream is a two-chord song, moving between IV and V. To add variation, the chords are extended, and a passing note in the bass is introduced.

Depending on whether you’re playing in a full band or solo on acoustic guitar, the chord arrangement needs slight adjustments.

The intro and verse loop these two chords:

||: Ebmaj7 (IV) | Fsus4 (V) :||

Since the song never lands on Bb (I), it sits in the Eb Lydian mode rather than a typical Ionian key.

Later, a Gm7 (VI) appears briefly, written like this above the lyrics:

||: Ebmaj7 (Gm7) | Fsus4 :||

In the chord chart below, it’s treated as a raised passing chord, which best captures its role.

I’ve also created TAB arrangements for playing this in a band or on the acoustic guitar, keep scrolling to find it.

Once you’ve worked through the TAB, the chord chart will be all you need for gigs or rehearsals.

Teenage Dream Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro Download

Should you want to download this chart, here’s a PDF: Teenage Dream chord chart PDF.

This chord chart was created using iReal Pro, here’s a link to that file: Teenage Dream iReal Pro. Using this and the iRealPro app, you can change the key.

Teenage Dream | TAB

It would be easy for me to just give you the TAB for the riff as this is all the guitar play throughout, so let’s start with that but not stop there, here’s the main riff:

Teenage Dream chords and TAB, main riff.

Notice how this is the same concept as Rolling On The Deep, we stay on the chord for the first 8th note of the second bar. The main difference is that the bass note has shifted before this happened, but for the guitar, it’s the same concept.

Let’s take a look at how you could play the chords instead, here we start with a C shape: