Come a Little Closer

How to play Come a Little Closer by Cage the Elephant on guitar

These are the sounding chords. With a capo on fret 4 you play Am, Em, D, Dm, F, G and more, the shapes the player above shows.

This is a strong song to learn if you want a driving, moody rock feel at a steady pace. It sits around 120 BPM, so once you lock in the pulse, it feels energetic without being rushed. You get a clear, repeating progression that makes it satisfying to play along with and easy to recognize.

You can lean on the open shapes A and E for some relief, but most of the chart uses barre shapes like C#m, G#m, F#, F#m, and B, so your fretting hand needs to stay strong and clean. The change to watch first is the opening move from C#m to G#m and then to F#, since that shift sets up the whole groove and can blur if your fingers lift too early.

Start by looping the opening progression slowly until each chord rings clearly. Then practice the barre shapes in pairs, especially C#m to G#m and G#m to F#, before putting the full sequence together at tempo. Once the changes feel automatic, play along with the track and focus on staying relaxed through the repeats.

Use the play-along above to follow each chord change in time with the music, or learn the shapes first with the chord diagrams below.