Chords for Brian Wilson "God Only Knows" Verse Arrangement on Guitar | Reverb Learn to Play

[D] _ _ _ _ [Bm] _ _ _ _
[Gbm] _ _ [A] _ _ [Eb] _ _ _ _
[E] _ _ _ _ [Gbm] _ _ _ _
[E] _ _ _ _ [Bb] _ _ _ _
[A] _ _ Hey friends, [E] Joe here at Reverb and we're gonna be looking at [Abm] the verse of God Only [Gb] Knows by the Beach Boys.
This music was composed by Brian Wilson.
I'm gonna offer some voicings on the guitar to try to pull off this verse.
Obviously,
the orchestration on the recording is beautiful with the strings and the piano and everything.
And what I'm gonna try to do is
give you some voicings incorporating the bass movement and the chord structure.
So let's give it a go.
The first chord of the verse is gonna [B] start with D major [D] over A. _ _
This is the way I like to play it here.
Just like your D major bar chord, [A] but having that A in the [D] bass.
_ _ [Abm] So as this verse starts, we feel like we're in the key of A and we feel like we've [Em] got a four [D] chord here.
[Ab] So I feel like we're starting on the [D] four and then going [C] up to a B [Abm] minor six.
_ [Bm] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ So we got [B] B here [Bm] and then we got our minor third and our fifth and then we've got our [Abm] sixth right here.
[Bm] _ _ G sharp.
_ _ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _
_ [Bm] _ _ _ _ _ _
And we're gonna go down [Am] to F sharp [Gbm] minor. _ _
[Ab] It's really when that chord hits that kind of reinforces that feeling we feel like we're in [G] A.
And we feel like we are _
resolving to the relative minor of A, which [Gbm] is F sharp minor. _
[C] But there's more tricks to come.
Brian Wilson doesn't doesn't give it to us that easy.
So F sharp minor.
[Gbm] _ _ _ F sharp minor seven.
_ Actually in the first verse this doesn't exactly happen, but it's implied.
In the second verse it happens.
It's either a violin or a cello that takes this descending line from F [Gb] sharp [E] to E. _
And then the following chord is F sharp minor six with the A in the [Eb] bass.
_ So this is our sixth here of the chord and then we've got_
[C] So kind of just [Gbm] visualize that F sharp minor bar there.
_ F [A] sharp minor.
_ Minor seven.
[Ab] _ [Eb] Minor six.
_ With the A in the bass.
[E] When that bass hits that A, like most of the chords in this verse actually, what the bass does
it has [C] this constant tension to it.
And so these chords keep moving in this [Abm] beautiful way.
So the F sharp minor [Eb] six.
_ What that does is that brings us home to the actual key that we're in, which is E major. _
_ _ [E] _ And then we're gonna [Db] grab an E [E] major with the B in the bass.
_ _ _ So stay away from that low E string there.
_ So really this F sharp minor movement
to E is kind of acting [G] like a 2-5-1 in the key [Gbm] of E.
_ _ [A] _ _ [Eb] _ _ _ _
[E] _ E over B.
C diminished.
[C] This is gonna be the shape right here.
C in the [Gb] bass.
[C] _ _ _ _
_ _ [B] Back to [E] the same.
E over B. _
_ _ B flat.
_ Minor seven [Bb] flat five.
_ _ Or half [Ab] diminished.
Those are the same [Bb] thing.
_ _ _ _ _ And this is the shape
I like to use.
[B] It's nice and [C] comfortable here going from this E to the [G] B flat minor seven flat [Gb] five right [E] here. _ _ _
[Bb] _ _ _ _ So the function of this chord [E] points us to_
We're still in the key of E, and it points us to the four chord.
Points [Bb] us to A.
_ This B flat with this structure on top
[A] wants to go here. _
And it does.
And [Bb] it's really beautiful when it does. _ _ _
And then [A] we've got our hook.
A major. _
[B] E over G [Abm] sharp.
[E] And I [Ab] like to grab this B here with my pinky.
So I've got [B] G sharp, [E] B, and E.
So that's third, fifth, root.
And then [G] grabbing the fifth here is [A] nice.
_ _ _ [E] _ _ _ [B] F [Gbm] sharp minor.
_ _ Resolving [E] down to E. _ _
We got our [Gb] walk up.
[G] _ _ [Am] And then the same [D] thing repeats.
_ _ _ _ [Bm] _ _ _ _
[Gbm] _ _ [A] _ _ [Eb] _ _ _ _
[E] _ _ _ _ [Gbm] _ _ _ _
[E] _ _ _ _ [Bb] _ _ _ _
[A] _ _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _
[Gbm] _ _ _ _ [E] _ I hope you learned something from [C] these chords.
Beautiful tensions.
[Bb] Tensions in the bass.
Bass movement
releasing to other chords.
It's a really beautiful tune.
And you should use these chords though.
_ Throw a natural six in your minor chord.
See what happens.
See how you feel that chord should resolve somewhere else.
Yeah, check it out.
Explore it.
Thanks so much for [Bm] watching.
I'll see you guys next time. _
[Gbm] _ _ [A] _ _ [Eb] _ _ _ _
[E] _ _ _ _ [Gbm] _ _ _ _