Gavin Degraw Follow Through Chords

The Chords Behind Gavin Degraw's Follow Through

The song sits in G major and the basic loop that runs through most of it is G going to D to Em to C. That's the core. If you play those four open chords in that order with a steady strum, you're already at about seventy percent of the track. The trick is that Gavin layers piano and keyboard parts on top of the guitar, and the vocal melody pulls emphasis on the turnaround, so the chords need to breathe differently than a standard pop progression. Here is the progression I use when teaching this song. Verse and chorus both ride the same four chords, but the D chord shifts slightly between the verse and the pre-chorus. In the verse, it's a plain D major with the Fin the bass. Before the chorus hits, he moves to D/For a D add9 flavor, then lands on Em7-Cadd9 for that lift. Try this specific voicing: play G (320003), then D (xx0232) instead of the open D — it sounds closer to what's on the record because the top two strings ring against the piano part. The Em becomes Em7 (022033) and the C is Cadd9 (x32033). Those additions matter more than most people expect. I ran into a specific problem last year when someone asked me why their cover sounded flat compared to the original. The issue was the timing on the D chord transition. The original has a brief hammer-on from the open D string to the Fon the third fret right as the beat drops. If you just strum D normally, it loses the momentum going into the Em. The workaround was simple: play the D with a quick pull-off from the 3rd fret on the B string back to open, then let the D ring for one extra eighth note before switching to Em7. That gap gives the progression room to move instead of feeling cramped.

For the bridge section, the chords change to C - G/B - Am - D. It's still G major but the bass walks down: C root, then B bass under G, then Am with an A in the bass, landing on the D again. This descent is what makes the bridge feel like it's pulling forward. Play it slowly at first because the bass movement is easy to rush. Most players speed through it without locking in the B and A notes clearly enough. The piano part in the studio adds some passing tones that aren't strictly necessary on guitar. You can skip the extra chromatic approaches and stick with the four-chord loop. That said, if you want the authentic feel, adding a G7 (354533) before the C on the turnaround creates a stronger pull back to the top of the cycle. It's a minor detail but it changes how the song resolves. Tempo is roughly 72 beats per minute. The strum pattern underneath is mostly down-down-up-up-down-up with slight variation depending on the section. The piano drives the rhythm more than the guitar does, so your strumming should stay consistent and not overplay. Let the chord changes do the work.

If you need the full chord chart with lyrics aligned to the progression, there are several community-maintained tabs available online. I keep a personal copy saved that includes the add9 and add7 voicings mentioned above rather than just the basic open chords, since the basic version sounds too generic for this song. One counter-intuitive thing about this progression: the Em7 and Cadd9 sound better when you fingerpick them instead of strumming. The arrangement is delicate enough that a heavy strum drowns out the upper voices. A light fingerstyle pattern picking the top three strings while letting the lower strings ring matches the piano texture much better. This applies to the verses especially. The chorus can take a lighter strum because the dynamics naturally build there. The main limitation of learning this song purely from ear is that the original recording has layered harmonies and keyboard pads that mask exactly what's happening in the middle registers. The chord voicings on guitar don't capture everything, and that's fine. What matters is getting the root movement right and the character of each chord. A wrong inversion won't break the song, but using plain D instead of the D variant near the pre-chorus will make it sound noticeably off to anyone who knows the record.