Two Of Us Guitar Chords

Playing Two Of Us on Guitar

The original recording has Paul double-tracking two acoustic guitars — one a Martin 000-18 and the other a Gibson J-45 — so there's a natural stereo spread built in. If you're learning this for just yourself, one guitar is fine. If you want that twin-guitar feel, you actually play two separate parts, not just the same chords strummed twice. The key is G major, but it's not your average G-C-D progression. There's a descending bassline and some borrowed chords that make it trickier than it sounds at first.

Two Of Us Guitar Chords

Here are the chord shapes I use when I play this. I'll go through each one with the fingering. G major — standard open G. 3rd fret on the low E, open D, open B, open high E. The G and B strings are both open, which gives it that ringing quality. Some people use the 3-finger G (3rd fret low E, 2nd fret A, open D, 3rd fret top E, 2nd fret B), but I prefer the version with the open G string because it resonates better in this song's context. C add9 — this is the chord that makes the song sound like the song. 3rd fret on the A string, open C, open B, 2nd fret on the D string, open G, 3rd fret on the high E. Don't play the low E string. The add9 (D note on the B string) is what gives it that lifting sound. If you just play a plain C major, it'll sound too plain and muddy the transition coming out of G.

G/B — this is the first inversion. 2nd fret on the A string, 3rd fret on the low E. Everything else stays the same as the regular G. This is your descending bass note move. G goes to G/B, which then resolves down to Em/G or straight to Em. The bass moves B-A-G, and that's the whole harmonic engine of the song. Em/G — 3rd fret on the A string, open D, open B, open G, open low E. You're not actually fretting the low E here; it's just an open string underneath the Em shape. The bass note is G, which continues that descent. Some players just barre a regular Em and don't worry about it, but the Em/G shape is what Paul plays and it matters for the voice leading. Am7 — 1st fret on the B string, open A, open D, open G, 2nd fret on the high E. Skip the low E again. This shows up during the bridge section and in some of the transitions between the main progression. It adds color without adding complexity to the fretting hand.

D/F# — 2nd fret on the G string, open D, 2nd fret on the high E, 3rd fret on the B string. This is the other inversion you need. The bass note Fis the descending line continuing from the Em. Sometimes you'll see this written as just D, but the Fin the bass is what connects it smoothly to the G that follows. D7 — plain open D7. 2nd fret on the G string, open D, open high E, 1st fret on the B string. You'll encounter this especially when the song moves into the middle eight. It creates that dominant tension before resolving back to G. Bm7b5 — this one comes up less often but it's there in certain variations. 2nd fret on the A string, 2nd fret on the D string, open G, 2nd fret on the B string, skip the low E. It's a half-diminished chord and it's used as a passing chord, mostly in the instrumental breaks or when the arrangement stretches out. If you're just strumming along, you can substitute a plain Em here and it won't sound terrible, but it's not quite right.

The main progression across the verses runs something like this: G — C add9 — G — G/B — Em/G — Am7 — D/F— D7 — G. That's the skeleton of it. Paul actually plays two interlocking guitar parts in the studio recording, so there's more happening harmonically than what fits on a single guitar. The harmony is richer because of the counterpoint between the two guitars.

The strumming pattern and feel

This one has a specific rhythmic feel that's easy to mess up if you just strum straight 4/4. It's in 4/4 time but it's not a straightforward folk strum. The feel is more bouncy, almost like a waltz that keeps deciding not to be a waltz. I'd describe it as a 6/8 feel that sometimes lands in 4/4 depending on how you count it. What matters more than getting the time signature right is where the accent hits. The accent is on beat 2 of the measure, not beat 1. Try counting "one-two-three-four" and hitting hard on the "two." It gives it that lilt. Paul's playing style on this track is fairly light — he's not attacking the strings hard. The right hand is relaxed, and the pick angle is somewhat glancing off the strings rather than digging in. This is a nylon-string-friendly sound even though he's playing steel strings, which is probably why the recording has that warm, rounded quality. If you're trying to nail the studio sound, the tempo is around 112 beats per minute. Not too fast, not slow. Comfortable walking pace. The verse chords change relatively quickly — about one chord every beat or two beats depending on the measure — so your fretting hand needs to be mobile.

A problem I ran into and how I fixed it

When I first learned this song, I kept hitting the low E string on the C add9 and G/B transitions, and it sounded muddy and wrong. The C add9 shouldn't have that low E — it's the D string that's the lowest note you play there. I was just muscle-memorizing a regular C shape and forgetting to mute or avoid the low E. The fix was literally just practicing the chord changes in isolation, slowly, and making sure I wasn't accidentally letting that low E ring out. It took about a week of conscious practice to stop doing it automatically. Another thing that trips people up: the transition from Em/G to Am7. The finger movement is small — your ring finger just lifts off the A string and your index finger slides over — but it's easy to get tangled. I recommend practicing just those two chords back and forth until the motion becomes automatic. That's where most people lose the groove because they're thinking about where their fingers go instead of keeping the rhythm steady.

Advanced considerations

The original recording uses a specific tuning nuance. Paul's Martin was likely in standard tuning, but he applies a fair amount of palm muting near the bridge, which darkens the tone significantly. If you want to approximate that sound, rest the side of your right palm lightly on the strings right where they meet the bridge. Don't press hard — just enough to dampen the overtones. This changes the character of the chord from bright and ringing to more percussive and woody. Also worth noting: the song modulates. It starts in G and later moves up a whole step to A. The chord shapes stay roughly the same but shift up the neck. If you're playing with someone who wants to sing along and G is too low for their range, moving to A is straightforward — just barre the same shapes up two frets. But be aware that the open-string resonance changes when you move up the neck, and you lose some of that ringing quality that makes the original sound so warm. The tradeoff is usually worth it for vocal comfort, though. The biggest limitation of learning this song on a single guitar is that you lose the harmonic density of the two interlocking parts. What Paul and John were doing in the studio was essentially a counterpoint exercise — two melodic guitar lines weaving together. On one guitar, you're picking just one of those lines and simplifying the harmony. It works fine for learning and casual playing, but it will always sound thinner than the record. If you want the full arrangement, you'd need a second guitarist playing the complementary part, or you'd need to reharmonize some of the simpler sections to fill out the sound.

For most people learning this for fun, the chord shapes above and the strumming approach I described will get you there. The song is less technically demanding than it sounds, but it rewards attention to detail — specifically the descending bassline and the voicing choices. Get those right and it sounds good. Miss them and it sounds like just another G-C-Em-D progression, which is exactly what it's not.