How to Play With Or Without You on Guitar Step-by-Step

Hey, guitar enthusiast. Lauren Bateman here. And we're going to be doing a guitar lesson on U2's with or without you. I'm going to show you a little bit of a simplified way to play the chords because there is a bar chord in this song. So I'll show you an option that can be good for you. And what we're going to focus on is dynamics in this song lesson. So we're going to learn one simple strumming pattern, but we're going to learn how to develop it over the course of the song so that it makes it more interesting for the listener. So let's start off with the chords. We only have four chords in this song, which is going to be an A chord, a D chord, a G chord and a B minor chord. And you can play these as open chords. And later, as we get into the song, we might want to take that option. But I'm also going to show you a power chord version because some people, you know, B minor is not their friend quite yet. So we can do power chord options. So we would have a D power chord here on the fifth fret of the A string. So it would be fifth fret, seventh fret. Seventh fret. That's going to be D. Right above it is going to be a. The A power chord, which is going to be fifth fret. Seven, seven. If you slide up two frets. Seven, nine, nine. That is our B power chord. We'll be using that instead of B minor. Or we can do our G power chord, which is going to be 3, 5, 5. Now, you can play those with either three fingers. I like to play first, third and fourth. You could also just play first and third if you wanted to. If that's a bit of stretch for you, you could play first and Pinky. Or you could play the bar version where you play first. 3, 3. Again, I like playing 1, 3, 4. Just because for me, it's more comfortable with my hand size and my hand shape. So that's. I'll be playing throughout this song, but you pick whichever version works for you. Let's get into the strumming. So the blessing and the curse of this song is that it's the same chord progression pretty much over and over and over again. So our chord progression once we get past the intro is going to be a D chord, an A chord, B minor, G, and it just keeps going those four chords over and over and over again. So really great song to play because you don't have to memorize complicated chord progressions. It's a simple chord progression for pretty much the entire song. Okay, so how do we make this interesting for a listener? Well, this song builds over time, but when we're just playing by ourselves, I don't have drums behind me. I don't have a bass player. I don't have everything else to help me build that song, so I have to build it by myself. So the strumming pattern we're going to use, we're going to work on building this in different sections of the song. So I'm going to use an eighth note strumming pattern. I'll use that G power chord. Okay. If you want to use the regular G chord, you can do that too. And it's just going to be all downs, 1 and 2 and 3 and 4. And the song starts. You really hear the bass. The bass player is just going, Okay, so it's just an eighth note pattern.

3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2, and 3 and 4 and 1 and two.

Okay. And that's how the song starts. It's pretty much all bass. And then the other instruments come in. So I don't have a bass player. So what I'm going to be doing is just playing that over the power chords. So it'll be 1 and 2 and.

3 and 4, and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4S and 1 and 2 and 3 and four, and 1.

And 2 and 3, and 4 and all downs. Now what I'm going to do to start this song, this is the quietest part of the song. I'm actually going to do what I call palm muting. So palm muting is going to muffle the guitar a little bit, but still allow the sound of the chord to come out. So what I'm doing is I'm taking the palm of my hand and I'm putting it just in front of the bridge of my guitar here. Kind of get this chunky sound versus this open sound. Okay. So no palm muting. Here's palm muting. Okay. And I can ease that up to make it be a little bit louder. Or I just completely open up the guitar. So you can see I have kind of like three different dynamic levels. And I'm going to show you a fourth one as well as we get into the song. So when we start off with our intro, it's just basically four measures of D. So we're going to stay quiet. Okay. For those four measures and we're going to stay very quiet for the intro. Now, just to go back to the palm muting real quick. If you are having trouble finding that, what I tell people to do is start over your sound hole. Or if you're playing an electric guitar, start over your pickups and work your way towards the bridge until you hear it warm up like that. And this is where using the power chords is good because you really only have to focus on a couple strings versus the full chords where you have to mute, you know, most of the chord. Okay, so that is going to be kind of our intro section. So if I just quickly play through the first verse, it's gonna sound like this.

See the stone set in your eyes See the thorn twist in your side and I wait for you.

Okay. And that's gonna work really, really good for probably, like, the first, you know, three verses or so of the song. So sleight of hand, twist of fate and then through the storm we reach the shore. So the next kind of section that I feel in this song is the part where the lyrics change to. And you give yourself away and you.

Give yourself away and you give yourself away.

There's a little bit more of emotion that comes into that part. So we can start opening up our chords. So instead of doing full palm muting like we were doing before, I'm just going to loosen up the muting. So my hands are just kind of just hovering over the strings and giving me a little more sound than just fully palm muting it. So I'm going to play this kind of third verse. And I actually think kind of halfway through is where I'm going to open up for the with or without you. The first time we really get to with or without you. And I'm gonna open up that palm beginning a little bit. So it's gonna sound like this. If I start on the D chord. 1, 2, 3, 4.

Through the storm we reach the shore. You give it all but I won't go and I wait for you.

Without you.

With or without you can live with or without you.

Then there's a little interlude here with things, you know, more instruments. There's a little bit of build that comes into the song. And then we get into.

And you give yourself away and you give yourself away so what am I doing here?

And kind of percussively opening up the chords. So I'm building. I'm giving a little bit more of a rhythm to the playing. So I'm doing. This is a very, very popular rhythm, especially for power chords. It's going to be 1 and 2.

And 3 and 4 and.

Okay, so What I'm doing is I'm releasing the palm muting on the 1, the and of 2 and 4. So instead of just going 1 and.

2 and 3 and 4 and.

Or playing it all pa muting, I'm.

Going 1 and 2 and. And 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4.

And if you watch my close up video, you can see my hand is kind of popping away from the strings. Okay, so it's 1 and 2 and.

3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4and.

Okay, so that is the rhythm that I can open up to. And of course, as this song keeps developing and I'll do a playthrough so that you guys can see how you can develop this whole song. Eventually when you get to the end, it really can open up. At which point you might want to go to playing the full chords. You know, we got this. Give yourself away. You know my body's bruised she's got me with nothing win and nothing left to lose. I think this is weird. The song really comes in.

You give yourself away and you give yourself away and you give and you give and you give yourself away with all without you.

So you can see I'm really on this final part. I'm taking that strumming I just showed you. I'm playing it over the open chords and I'm still kind of accenting 1.

And 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4, 1 and 2 and 3 and 4&.

Okay, so let's review this before we go and do a playthrough here. Let's review all the different sections. So we're going to start off with a very, very light palm muted strum. Okay, so this is our chord progression. So we're going to start. Start light and then we're going to open it up just a little bit. Then we're going to open up even more. Then fully open. Okay. And one more little piece. If you heard me playing before, I added little flurries on the ends before I changed the chord. Now if your chord changes are not fast enough, you might not be able to add these flurries in. But it's 1 and 2 and 3.

And 4 and up.

So on the very end I'm just adding an up strum. Okay, so without the up strum it sounds like this 1 and 2 and.

3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4and 1.

Now here's the flurry. So you can just see I'm Just adding one extra strum, but it builds the song just that little bit more. So you can see we're working on changing the way the listener is hearing the song because it's so, you know, the recording is not even kiltered, but the chord progression is. There's not a lot of change in the chord progression. And as a player, we need to change the song to make it more exciting for the listener. So let's do a quick playthrough from this beginning to end to see what it's going to sound like. All right, so what we're going to do, we're going to take this from the top. I'll actually skip the intro, which is just a bunch of D chords in a row. We're going to start off right, getting into that chord progression. And just a note on the end of the song, it ends on D. We're going to hold that D for four measures. It continues out, but I'm going to end on the D chord instead of going back into the regular progression. So let's start off. I'm going to use those bar chords. You use whichever chord you want. Going to be doing the palm muting. Okay. And then building it from there. Here we go. 1, 2, 1, 2. Here we go.

1 and 2 and 3 and 4. And 1 and 2 and 3 and 4. And 1 and 2 and 3 and four. And 1 and 2 and 3, and four.

And.

See the stone set in your eyes See the thorn twist in your side and I wait for you. Slide a hand and twist her fate A better nail she made Makes me wait and I'll wait without you with or without you with or without you. Through the storm we reach the shore Give it all but I won't.

And.

I wait for you with or without.

You.

With or without you I can't live with or without you.

So we're building and you give yourself away and you give yourself away and you give and you give and you give yourself away Come back down My.

Hands are tied My body's blue she's got me with nothing to win and.

Nothing left to lose and you give yourself away and you give yourself away and you give and you give and you give yourself away with all, without.

You.

With all without you, you. Oh, you know without you. With or without you without you.

So hopefully you heard through that playthrough how we built the guitar over time to increase the energy of the song. And if you really like this channel strumming pattern, then I highly recommend you go check out my Brian Adams, summer of 69. Lesson over there that uses a similar type of rhythm and has some really cool bridge sections that we'll go over step by step. So go check out that lesson right over there.