Hallelujah is an iconic song that has been covered by all artists for generations – making it easy for beginners to play on guitar.
This song features a novel strumming meter, making it harder than usual for beginners to catch on right away. However, there are some helpful stepping-stone patterns you can try as a starting point.
Key of C
As there are some acoustic guitar versions of Hallelujah that use simple chord shapes, these versions can help new guitarists learn the song and familiarize themselves with playing open chords – one great example being Pentatonix a cappella group.
Strumming songs at a slow tempo requires striking an intricate balance: too many strums can become too distracting from the lyrics while too few could sound unrhythmic.
Beginner guitarists typically prefer arpeggiating chords instead of strumming, in order to keep a rhythm without too many strums. Arpeggiating also helps beginners build finger control and detect two pulses per measure that such songs require. With some practice and dedication you should soon be playing Hallelujah chords at a slow tempo without losing the beat!
Chord Progression
Hallelujah’s chord progression is not too complex, yet odd in places. Verse lyrics use an easy C, Am and F chord progression while chorus uses both major and minor seventh chords for chorus chorus parts; unusually enough this includes “minor fall” and “major lift” chord progressions (where one minor chord voiced lower is followed by one voicing higher) between verse and chorus sections.
Tension-creating devices like this one create the ideal atmosphere for this song, giving it some additional flavor while making it less generic-sounding.
The lyrics of “This Is Me” encapsulate what many feel about life today, making the song all the more relatable for nonbelievers; many even mistakenly believe that its message refers to Jesus Christ.
Relative Minor Chord
As a musician, it is crucial to develop the ability to play in both major and minor keys. This makes transitioning between songs easier while helping you understand chord progressions from other songs. The main minor keys include A, B, and D; each has an equivalent major key as well. This technique known as relative major/minor is helpful when memorizing scales.
Relative minor of any given major key can be determined by counting up from its sixth scale degree of its major scale to determine its relative minor. For example, in C major the relative minor would be B since D major starts on that same note (C-D-E-F-G).
Complicating matters further, when discussing parallel keys can become more convoluted than we originally intended. For now, just remember that using chords from relative keys won’t drastically change their sound while chords from parallel keys will have more dramatic results on sound quality.
Rhythm
Hallelujah features an unusual meter that may feel unfamiliar if you’re just beginning guitar: each chord lasts two beats instead of the usual single-beat per measure, as the song uses six counts instead of four per chord – a characteristic characteristic of waltzes, such as this song’s performance.
“Hallelujah” is actually a Hebrew word composed of two parts – “hallel (to praise) and yahweh (God). It appears 24 times in the Bible, most dramatically during John Revelation when used to depict God’s victory over Babylon. Additionally, modern music often makes use of it, particularly Leonard Cohen who wrote “Hallelujah” back in 1984 as one of his soulful songs that explore despair, broken love, politics and religious imagery from his Jewish background.