Learn how to play Faith by George Michael in this guitar tutorial. It’s a classic tune with a rhythm that really shines. It makes various nods to Rock & Roll…

I have used open chords to simplify it a bit and added the capo to fret 4. This puts us in the same key as the recording.

The song is one of many that uses the famous Bo Diddley Beat as its rhythm. This rhythm runs the entire way through the song. The first part of the lesson concentrates on teaching this rhythm.

The Bo Diddley Beat is a rhythm that uses a combination of strums and mutes in a particular accent. If you all you learn from this lesson is to play this you have learned something extremely valuable.

The rest of the lesson shows you the chords, song structure and how to apply the rhythm so you will be singing your heart out to George Michael around the campfire before you know it.  This song is great fun. An excellent rhythm study. The structure is simple and easy to remember.

 

THE CHORDS:

THE RHYTHM:

The best way to build up the ability to play the Bo Diddley Beat is the break it down…

• We know its a mixture of mutes and strums so to begin with so lets play just the strums we know need to ring out. If you count and follow the first rhythm below this will set you up with the accents in the right place. Use a G chord and play the downs and ups as instructed on the first rhythm chart.
• Once you have this mastered move onto rhythm 2. The red arrows show you the directions your strumming hand needs to go in on the strums we need to be muted. The rhythm here gives you  a visual of where you’re adding new parts to the rhythm.
• Moving onto rhythm 3 – this shows us with the X that we need to mute these beats. The arrow direction attached to the X is the direction you need to be strumming in. Spend some time practising this rhythm slowly and gradually speed it up. For a video reference have a look at the lesson at the bottom of the page.

Note! Mutes: in this song we need to mute primarily with the chord hand.  If you need guidance on muting click here for the video lesson on the song.

Now you have the rhythm sorted we can look at the song…..

THE SONG:

The Verses – play the following rhythm pattern and chords twice.  This will see you through the Verses.

The Pre-Chorus – play the following rhythm patterns and chords once.

The Chorus –

There is a middle section that accommodates a guitar solo.  This plays the same rhythm as so far but with the chords – G G C C7 G (twice).

 

THE SONG STRUCTURE:

Have a great time learning this song! 🎸

 

Full Lesson Video-

 

Full Song play-through