A Couple Minutes

How to play A Couple Minutes by Olivia Dean on guitar

These are the sounding chords. With a capo on fret 3 you play C, F, Em, Dm, G, D and more, the shapes the player above shows.

A Couple Minutes is a smooth, catchy song that feels relaxed but still has enough movement to keep your fretting hand busy. At about 120 BPM, you get a steady pulse that is great for building confidence and keeping your timing clean.

Most of the shapes are barre chords, so the main challenge is staying relaxed while you move between them. F is the easier open shape here, but D#, G#, Gm, Fm, A#, and Cm will ask for solid barre control. The change to watch closely is the opening move from D# to G# to Gm and back to D#, since that shift sets the feel of the whole progression.

Start by looping the opening progression slowly and making each chord ring clearly before worrying about speed. Then practice the barre shapes in small pairs, especially the tricky changes, and only add the full sequence once your hands feel steady. When that feels comfortable, bring it up to tempo and keep the strum even.

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.