Wish You Were Here | Chords + Lyrics
Intro
| 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
| 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
Did they get you to trade, your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees, hot air for a cool breeze.
Cold comfort for change, did you exchange,
a walk-on part in the war, for a lead role in a cage.
Instrumental (half intro)
| Em7 | G5 G | Em7 | G5 G |
| Em7 | A7sus4 | Em7 | A7sus4 |
| G5 | G5 G |
Chorus
| 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 (as intro)
||: Em7 | G5 G | Em7 | G5 G | Em7 |
| A7sus4 | Em7 | A7sus4 | G5 | G5 G :||
Wish You Were Here Chords: Learn the progressions
The chords you play in Wish You Were Here are simple. The verse and chorus chords are just IV/5 – V/3 – II – I, and then when repeated, switch the first two chords over, like this:
| C/G (IV/5) | D/F# (V/3) | Am (II) | G (I) |
| D/F# (V/3) | C (IV) | Am (II) | G (I) |
For the intro chords, we start on chord VI, then pivot to chord I. By changing the bass note we then go IIsus4 – I instead, like this:
||: Em7 (VI) | G5 (I) G | Em7 | G5 G | Em7 |
| A7sus4 (II) | Em7 | A7sus4 | G5 | G5 G :||
Having all chords diatonic and simple like this means that the vocal melody and intro licks can be very sophisticated rhythmically, which against the simple harmony and basic strumming stands out.
Here’s a chord chart I made for you.
Wish You Were Here Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro
I didn’t want to write separate sections for the verse and chorus as the chords are the same.
The structure is intro – verse 1 – verse 2 – instrumental – chorus – instrumental to end.
I want this chart to be something that you glance at and see how the verses are laid out and how the instrumental section’s chord extensions remind you of the riff.
Should you want to download this chart, here’s a PDF: Wish You Were Here Chord Chart PDF.
This chart was created using iRealPro, here’s a link to that file: Wish You Were Here iReal Pro.
Below, you get a preview of how we learn those amazing intro licks in the course.
Wish You Were Here TAB | Course Preview
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 how to play Wish You Were Here note-for-note.
In the course, we’ll study those iconic licks in great depth using TAB and play-along loops, we even play the vocal melody, analyzing what intervals the melody is using over each chord.
Here’s the first lick of the intro, you can learn it using the play-along TAB loop above.
We look at all licks from the intro like this, later down the course, we even put these all over the neck.
As great as this is, what I find the most interesting is how unbelievably simple and repetitive Wish You Were Here’s strumming pattern is, it doesn’t change!
The vocal melody is very syncopated, which makes the extremely basic strumming important as it relaxes the listener.
All this is discussed in depth in the course.
As well as studying all of Wish You Were Here’s sections, we also make sure you know all your minor pentatonic shapes, you’ll need this to move them around the fretboard.
Here’s a link to the 8 step-by-step guitar lessons: Wish You Were Here – Guitar Lessons with TAB.
Wish You Were Here followed Dark Side Of The Moon
Wish You Were Here is the title track from Pink Floyd’s 1975 studio album.
To attempt a follow-up of 1973’s Dark Side Of The Moon is not a job any band would like but Pink Floyd certainly delivered with Wish You Were Here.
This album dealt with the original singer, Syd Barrett’s mental state. Both Shine On You Crazy Diamond and Wish You Were Here are directly written about Syd.
Recorded at Abbey Road studios (the same studio as The Beatles used), Wish You Were Here was completed over 6 months, working long hours on a set schedule four days a week.
The material came from ideas the band had come up with during touring Dark Side Of The Moon.
If you want to find out more about Pink Floyd, many books have been written, perhaps the best one is Inside Out, by the band’s drummer Nick Mason.
Wish You Were Here Chords | Related Pages
Wish You Were Here | 8 Step-by-step Guitar Lessons + TAB
In this first series of lessons from the advanced acoustic course, we learn how to play Wish You Were Here step-by-step.
As this is not too difficult we also work on our minor and major pentatonic scales, play the intro licks, and the vocal melody in all shapes.
Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics
- Angie chords by The Rolling Stones
- The Drugs Don’t Work chords by The Verve
- Redemption Song chords by Bob Marley
- Tears In Heaven chords by Eric Clapton
- Wonderful Tonight chords by Eric Clapton
Pink Floyd tunes
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 tunes
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
About me | Dan Lundholm
This was a guitar lesson about Wish You Were Here 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.