Should I Stay Or Should I Go was released by The Clash in 1981. It came into my world in the 90s when it had a resurgence via a British Levis TV Commercial. This gave it a whole new audience at the time, me being one of those.
The song has great energy, its fantastic song to play on guitar and we only need a handful or chords. The Verses are simple , The Chorus is a bit more upbeat . The intro is sparse but with a sprinkling of a couple of techniques it becomes ICONIC…
LETS GO!
THE SONG
Chords:
I use F/C in the Verses and F barre chord in the Choruses. If you’re not ready for that you can use Fmaj7 as a substitute.
The Intro:
Follow the rhythm pattern below. The chord names are above the beat you will need to change them on. The ‘X’ means mute the strings for the percussive clicky sound. For ‘ho’ you need to pick fret 5 on the e string with your index finger and hammer on using your pinky (or ring finger) of your fretting hand to fret 8.
then play the following:
The Verses:
Play the chord sequence below using the rhythm you have established above. The chord sequence is Verse 1. Repeat it again for Verse 2. When you get to verse 3 it’s the same again.
Chorus:
The chorus picks up to double time. We have added 16th beats into the rhythm now.
Continue using the rhythm above and play through the chord sequence below for the entire chorus.For more definition play Beats 1 & 3 on just the root note of the chord. The rest of the beats on the higher strings.
Song Structure:
The instrumental section is the verse chord sequence
🎸 For additional video lesson help with this lesson ⤵️
🎸FULL SONG PLAY THROUGH⤵️