Guitar Chords for "Pasando Por El Centro" by Extremoduro
You want the chords for "Pasando Por El Centro." It's one of the tracks from Extremoduro's 2018 album "Jesús, Que Líquido Tan Limpio." The song isn't overly complicated rhythmically, but Rodolfo Chikilicuatre's vocal melody and the way the chord voicings shift mid-verse can trip you up if you don't pay attention. I've been teaching this tune to students and friends for years, and there are a few things that aren't obvious from just looking at a standard chord chart. The main tuning is standard E-A-D-G-B-E. No capos needed. The progression runs through a fairly typical rock ballad pattern with some interesting chord choices in the chorus. Here's how it breaks down. Verse chord progression:
E - C#m - A - B7 E - C#m - D - B7 The verse uses that E-C#m-A-B7 loop twice, but the second time around the third chord changes from A to D. That D substitution is what makes the song feel like it's pulling away from you before it snaps back. If you just play A every time, it sounds flat and generic. The D gives it that Rodolfo flavor.
Chorus chord progression: A - E - F#m - D A - E - B7 - B7
Get the Full Details
The chorus lifts into A major and stays there for a bit. The F#m is where most people mess up. You'll see some charts online that list it as Fminor with no specific voicing, but the actual guitar part uses a suspended-ish sound around the 5th fret on the high strings. Try Aadd9 as a reference point for the voicing shape, then slide down to F#m using a similar finger position. Bridge section: C#m - B7 - E - A
D - B7 - E - E7 The bridge is shorter and transitions back into the final chorus. The E7 at the end of that second line is important. Don't skip it. That E7 is the tension builder before everything loops back to the verse. I've heard a lot of cover versions omit it and just go straight to E, and it loses its character completely. Here's the full structure so you know what you're working toward:
Intro (plays same as verse, just instrumental) - Verse 1 - Chorus - Verse 2 - Chorus - Bridge - Chorus (x2, with the second ending slightly extended) - Outro (fades on the verse progression) Strumming pattern: The strumming is pretty consistent throughout. Down-down-up-up-down-up. It's in 4/4 time, around 72 to 76 BPM depending on how loose the drummer feels that night. The original recording has some drag in it because it's a live-feeling track. Don't try to lock it to a metronome perfectly. Play it a bit behind the beat and it'll sound more like the record.
I ran into a specific problem a while back when a student was trying to learn this for a gig. He was using a capo on the 2nd fret because he wanted to sing it at a higher key. That's fine, but the problem was that his F#m voicing was completely wrong with the capo in place. The open F#m shape doesn't work the same way when the capo changes the harmonic reference point. He was playing what sounded like a D#m instead. The fix was simple: move the entire F#m shape up two frets from the capo, which puts it at the 7th fret position on the neck. That restores the correct interval relationship. One more thing that people miss. The bass line in the intro and verses isn't just root notes. There's a walking bass element underneath the E-C#m movement. The bass goes E-F#-G#-A across those first four chords. If you're playing this solo and you're also handling the vocal, don't worry about mimicking the bass line exactly. Just make sure your E chord voicings have enough low-end presence so the harmony still lands. A regular open E with all six strings is fine for that. If you're looking for the Pasando Por El Centro Answer Key to print out, the above progression covers the entire song. There's no hidden bridge or solo section that diverges from what I've listed. The guitar solo that appears after the second chorus just plays over the same chorus progression, so you already know those chords.
A couple of common mistakes I see in online forums: Some people claim the song is in the key of A minor. It's not. It's firmly in E major. The C#m gives you the relative minor flavor, which is probably why the confusion happens. But the tonal center is E, and every progression resolves back to it. Another mistake is using a D major chord where the A should go in the verse. Don't do that. It sounds wrong because the melody notes in Rodolfo's vocal line actually outline the A major triad during that section. The D chord clashes with the melody.
The song runs about three minutes and forty-five seconds on the album. Live versions can stretch to four and a half minutes or more, especially the extended final chorus. Don't stress about keeping perfect timing. The band isn't rigid about it on the record either. That's it. Play through the sections slowly at first, get comfortable with the A-to-D switch in the verse, nail the F#m voicing, and don't skip the E7. Once those three things lock in, the rest of the song falls into place pretty naturally.
