Layla

How to play Layla by Derek & The Dominos on guitar

These are the sounding chords. With a capo on fret 4 you play B, Bm, A#m, G, A, Fm and more, the shapes the player above shows.

You get to play a classic rock riff-driven song that feels urgent and dramatic, with a strong forward push at about 120 BPM. It is a great one for building control and stamina, because the part keeps moving and rewards clean, confident changes.

The chart mixes open shapes like Dm, Am, E, A, C, and F with harder barre shapes like D#, D#m, B, C#, F#m, A#, C#m, G#m, and Gm. The change to watch first is the opening move from D# to D#m to Dm to B, since it asks you to shift quickly between nearby shapes while keeping the rhythm steady.

Start by looping that opening progression slowly until your hands know the motion. Then add the open shapes on their own, and only after that bring the barre shapes back in at full tempo. When the changes feel automatic, run the whole part in short sections and gradually link them together.

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.