Have a Little Faith in Me

by John Hiatt • Lesson #554 • Jun 14, 2024

In today’s lesson I’ll explain Have a Little Faith In Me, John Hiatt’s hit song from 1987. While Hiatt originally recorded this on the piano, he sometimes plays a guitar version at his live concerts — which I’ll teach in my video.

While his piano version is played in the Key of F, this guitar lesson uses capo 5th fret, which lets us use the Key of C chord family — making things much easier for us. I’ll talk about the chords, adding flourish while strumming, and explain how the ending key change works as well.

  • 0:00 Lesson Summary
  • 1:08 Intro & Verse
  • 2:39 Strumming
  • 5:36 Chord Flourish
  • 7:35 Chorus
  • 10:23 Key Change & Ending

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Practice Notes 2 pages

It includes all of my notes for this lesson, allowing you to follow along at your own pace. You're free to download, print, and share the PDF across your devices.

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Here's a print-friendly PDF I made with all of my practice notes for this lesson. This lets you follow along with everything I show in video tutorial at your own pace.

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A few handy links I’ve gathered for this song, from elsewhere on the web.


Bonus - Playthrough of Each Section

Here’s a zoomed-in video of me playing through the verse, chorus, and ending chorus sections — without talking, with chords & rhythm notes shown on screen. This is meant for you to reference and follow along with, if you please. Note, after the second time I play the chorus, I’ll transition into the ending chorus section (with the key change).

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Live Performances

Piano version (Key of F):

Guitar version (capo 5):

Another guitar version (capo 5):

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