Wish You Were Here | Chords + Lyrics
Intro (0:00)
| Em7 | G5 G | Em7 | G5 G | Em7 |
| A7sus4 | Em7 | A7sus4 | G5 | G5 G |
| Em7 | G5 G | Em7 | G5 G | Em7 |
| A7sus4 | Em7 | A7sus4 | G5 |
Verse 1 (1:19)
| C/G | D/F# |
So, so you think you can tell,
| Am | G |
heaven from hell, blue skies from pain.
| D/F# | C |
Can you tell a green field, from a cold steel rail,
| Am | G |
a smile from a veil, do you think you can tell.
Verse 2 (1:51)
| C/G | D/F# |
Did they get you to trade, your heroes for ghosts?
| Am | G |
Hot ashes for trees, hot air for a cool breeze.
| D/F# | C |
Cold comfort for change, did you exchange,
| Am | G |
a walk-on part in the war, for a lead role in a cage.
Instrumental (2:23)
| Em7 | G5 G | Em7 | G5 G | Em7 |
| A7sus4 | Em7 | A7sus4 | G5 | G5 G |
Chorus (3:00)
| C/G | D/F# |
How I wish, how I wish you were here.
| Am | G |
We’re just two lost souls, swimming in a fishbowl, year after year.
| D/F# | C |
Running over the same old ground, what have we found,
| Am | G |
the same old fears, wish you were here.
Outro (3:32)
||: Em7 | G5 G | Em7 | G5 G | Em7 |
| A7sus4 | Em7 | A7sus4 | G5 | G5 G :||
You can learn how to play Wish You Were Here!
It’s hard to imagine a more epic acoustic guitar song than Wish You Were Here by British psychedelic rockers Pink Floyd.
Even the hammer-on licks are classics, repeated many times since. Copied by hundreds of other famous songs in progression, chord shapes, and especially guitar style, it is compulsory to learn Wish You Were Here note for note.
In the advanced acoustic guitar course, we study David Gilmour’s guitar work as well as dive deep into everything that makes Wish You Were Here a hit.
Below, there are two video guitar lessons discussing the strumming of the verse, chorus, and intro, complete with video TAB loops for you to practice along with.
These are played exactly as David did on that great original Wish You Were Here recording, enjoy!
Wish You Were Here guitar lesson | Verse/chorus chords and strumming
Let’s look at how to strum the verse/chorus of Wish You Were Here. The chords are simple and the strumming is very repetitive. To make it sound nice, focus on how you change the dynamics of your strumming hand.
Here are the verse/chorus rhythms as well as the rhythm of the vocal melody for verse 2. Notice how the syncopated vocal needs the repetitive guitar.
Use the TAB loop in the playlist above to play along with me and this chart. Focus on the dynamics of your strumming.
Later on, you’ll actually play that vocal melody, all over the neck, hunting down what interval is used in relation to each chord.
Wish You Were Here guitar lesson | Intro chords and strumming
Now that you can strum the verse and chorus, let’s move on to the famous intro strumming, this is, in contrast to what we just looked at, very sophisticated.
Below is the TAB. Make sure you play this exactly as written. For best results, practice along with the TAB loop in the playlist above.
The chords are simple and form a repetitive progression during the intro/instrumental/outro sections.
Notice how the G is mainly a G5 by muting the 5th string. Only the bass line towards the end of the bar has the 3rd, making it a G chord.
In the course, we next look at how to play the legendary intro licks, this is followed by playing the complete song, practicing some scales before we start digging deep, and really learning from Wish You Here.
What we do in the final guitar lessons is move those intro licks all over the fretboard, this is great for understanding the fretboard as you start seeing the CAGED pentatonic shapes as intervals, very important.
As if doing this wasn’t enough, we also look at playing the vocal melody of both the verse and chorus, again, all over the neck.
For the complete experience, sign up here.
Wish You Were Here followed Dark Side Of The Moon
Wish You Were Here is the title track from the album that followed Dark Side Of The Moon as it was released in 1975.
Easily one of the band’s best songs, Gilmour came up with the production idea for the intro as he wanted it to sound like someone was playing along to a radio.
The delicate licks have since become legendary, a must-learn for anyone who wants to understand the secret to David’s phrasing.
Rolling Stones magazine placed Wish You Were Here at #209 on their list of Greatest Albums Of All Time.
Wish You Were Here chords | Related pages
Wish You Were Here – 8 guitar lessons
In this first series of lessons from the advanced acoustic course, we learn Wish You Were Here step by step.
As this is not too difficult we also work on our minor and major pentatonic scales and play the intro licks and the vocal melody in all shapes.
Wish You Were Here – 8 guitar lessons.
Advanced Acoustic Songs
These songs use big chord extensions and sometimes, unique and complex chords that incorporate open strings.
Study these in-depth and you will gain a complete understanding of the guitar fretboard, including how to build any scale, arpeggio, or chord.
Wish You Were Here – 5 similar tunes
- Angie chords
- The Drugs Don’t Work chords
- Redemption Song chords
- Tears In Heaven chords
- Wonderful Tonight chords
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd is an English rock band that sold an estimated seventy-five million albums in the United States alone.
With their laid-back blues-influenced psychedelic rock, they had hits like Another Brick In The Wall, Comfortably Numb, Money, and Wish You Were Here.
Pink Floyd on the web
David Gilmour
David Gilmour is an English musician, best known as the lead guitarist, primary singer, and one of the main songwriters in the band Pink Floyd.
Known for his melodic ability and fantastic tone, David Gilmour has always been considered one of the truly great British guitar players.
David Gilmour on the web
