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The Good Side
by Troye Sivan • Lesson #125 • Jan 22, 2018
About this lesson
In this lesson I’ll show you how to play The Good Side by Troye Sivan on acoustic guitar - including chords, tabs, strumming, and capo instructions. This tutorial explains the 4 chords needed, over and over again, for the entire song. While a pretty straightforward progression, there is one interesting technique to dive into - which is leaving the high E-string open for all the chords, which results in a unique sound.
Capo 2nd fret
I recommend playing this with capo 2nd fret, which is how Troye Sivan (or his guitarist) plays it. It allows you to capture the same “high E string left open” sound that is characteristic of this song. That said, I also show a no capo version in my video above.
Chord progression for the entire song
Quite simply, with capo on the 2nd fret, this progression is repeated for the whole song!
C Em F G
Without a capo, these are:
D F#m G A
Chords tabs w/ capo 2
Here’s how it’s played on the album - you can also see the guitarist using these chords during Sivan’s SNL performance from January 2018. The main thing to note here is the high E string is left open for all the chords. Also note how the G chord is a slid-up version of the F chord (i.e., slide up 2 frets using the same chord shape). For the F and the G, I wrap my thumb around to play the low E string for each chord. This isn’t required, but is nice if you can pull it off.
E –––0––––0–––––0––––0–––
B –––1––––0–––––1––––3–––
G –––0––––0–––––2––––4–––
D –––2––––2–––––3––––5–––
A –––3––––2–––––3––––5–––
E ––––––––0––––(1)––(3)––
C Em F G
If you have trouble with the F and G voicings above, try these variants:
E –––0––––0–––––0––––0–––
B –––1––––0–––––1––––3–––
G –––0––––0–––––2––––4–––
D –––2––––2–––––3––––5–––
A –––3––––2––––––––––––––
E ––––––––0––––––––––––––
C Em F G
Chords with no capo
If you want to play it without a capo, use the chords below – and note how the 2nd fret of the high E-string is used in all chords. Again, this matches the droning note you hear played on the album. Technically, the G is a Gmaj7, and the A is an Aadd6.
E –––2––––2–––––2––––2––––
B –––3––––2–––––0––––2––––
G –––2––––2–––––0––––2––––
D –––0––––4–––––0––––2––––
A ––––––––4–––––x––––0––––
E ––––––––2–––––3–––––––––
D F#m G A
Strumming pattern
I prefer a “DOWN down-up-down-up” that repeats 4 times for each chord. Then, switch to the next chord and repeat it again 4 times. You’ll want to accent the first down strum of each sequence. Here’s how I’d write it out:
1 + 2 + 3 + 1 + 2 + 3 + 1 + 2 + 3 + 1 + 2 + 3 +
D d u d u D d u d u D d u d u D d u d u
> > > >
If you have trouble, I recommend starting with playing only the first down strum of each 3-count sequence:
1 + 2 + 3 + 1 + 2 + 3 + 1 + 2 + 3 + 1 + 2 + 3 +
D D D D
And from there, if you want, you could also just do a “up down up” to end each 3-count sequence. Which would look like this:
1 + 2 + 3 + 1 + 2 + 3 + 1 + 2 + 3 + 1 + 2 + 3 +
D u d u D u d u D u d u D u d u
> > > >
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