7 Years

by Lukas Graham • Lesson #22 • Jun 26, 2016

Editor’s notes

Here’s my video lesson teaching 7 Years by Lukas Graham. It contains the chords, tablature, lyrics, and strumming pattern for the full song. I hope you find it helpful!

Free Video lesson

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Chord progression cheat-sheet

The basic progression used for most of the song (verse & chorus sections) is as follows:

Em . . D/F# G . . . C . . . . . D .

There are a few exceptions:

  • During the most minimal / soft intros, the D/F# is omitted (i.e., switch from the Em directly to a G). The first chorus is an example of this.
  • At the end of some of the choruses, the final “D” isn’t played (stay on C). The first chord is an example of this.
  • The bridge section during the “60 years old” portion uses different progression. See the notes below about this.

Notes & tabs

Basic chords used

E ||---0----3----0----2----
B ||---0----0----1----3----
G ||---0----0----0----2----
D ||---2----0----2----0----
A ||---2----2----3---------
E ||---0----3--------------
       Em   G    C    D

Intro riff

See PDF.

Playing chords at the start of the the walk-down

If you want to start the walk-down riff by strumming a chord (instead of a single note), use these tabs. This applies to the D-chord and G-chord.

See PDF.

Em-to-G Walk-up

A rather recognizable part of the chord progression involves this walk-up transition from Em to G, by means of adding a D-major chord with a F# bass note. Here are a few ways to play that.

At its simplest, we’re talking about this F# on the 2nd fret of the 6th string. You can play this note by itself between the two chords and capture the spirit of this walk-up.

See PDF for diagram.

Strictly speaking, the full chords in question look like this – but when all strings are played, I find the bass transition is drown out by the higher treble notes.

See PDF for diagram.

One way I like to play it is as follows – I’m playing only the 4-5 bottom strings, so that the transition is a bit more full sounding. If this is new to you, it’s important to recognize that the D/F# segment you’re playing is part of that “full” D/F# chord listed above.

See PDF for diagram.

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