Viva La Vida

How to play Viva La Vida by Coldplay on guitar

These are the sounding chords. With a capo on fret 1 you play Em, C, D, G, the shapes the player above shows.

Viva La Vida is a great beginner song to learn because the same small group of chords keeps coming back, so you can lock into the groove quickly. It feels steady and driving at about 138 BPM, and once you get the cycle under your fingers, the song starts to feel very playable and satisfying.

All of the shapes here are barre chords, so your first job is getting clean pressure and smooth switches between Fm, C#, D#, and G#. The main change to watch out for is the move through the opening progression Fm - C# - D# - G#, since that turn-around has to feel even and controlled.

Start by practicing each chord shape one at a time until every note rings clearly. Then loop Fm - C# - D# - G# slowly, making the changes without stopping. After that, raise the tempo in small steps until you can keep the full cycle steady from start to finish.

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.