Song Analysis - Photograph (Ed Sheeran)
How you can use 4 chords to create an entire song
In this series of posts, I try to analyze a song in terms of songwriting aspects. I can take requests if you so desire, and I will also do these analyses for songs that I enjoy as well.
Today’s entry is Photograph by Ed Sheeran. This song is a hugely successful one and one of the most interesting aspects of it is that it only makes use of 4 chords throughout its entire duration.
Let’s take a look at it now:
Key And Tempo
The song is written using the key of E major. It clocks in at 108 BPM according to my research and as far as time signatures go, it’s written in 4/4, which is a common time signature for pop ballads such as this one.
Yeah, not much more to say here honestly. Let’s take a look at the song structure.
Song Structure
The song structure is easy to understand. You have a short instrumental intro that leads into the verses. Then, you have two verses, a pre-chorus, and the chorus.
After the first chorus, there’s a brief instrumental interlude and then the verses, pre-chorus and chorus section is repeated again, with the added mention that the second chorus is longer than the first one, as we’ll see in just a moment.
After this is done, you have a bridge section (the “Wait for me to come home“ part). This bridge then leads to another chorus, with some different lyrics this time around.
Once that is done, you have an outro verse with very little instrumentation.
Cool, now let’s actually go through this song, section by section, to see what you need to play in terms of chords.
Chords From This Song
As I have already mentioned, this song only has four chords. These chords are E, B, C#m and A. So here they are for guitar (standard tuning) and for piano. First off, the guitar versions:
E: 022100
B: x24442
C#m: x46654
A: x02220
And here they are for piano (or rather, on a music sheet):
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Now, back to the show.
Chords Analysis
Now, let’s go through this song, one section at a time, starting with the intro:
Intro
During the intro, there are no lyrics, just a chord progression with a bit of lead. The chord progression is:
E-C#m-B-A
If you listen closely, you’ll see that there is a brief rest between the A chord and when the lyrics begin, meaning that the final time you play the A chord should be a bit longer.
But yeah, that about covers the intro. Let’s move on to the verses
Verse 1
E
Loving can hurt
C#m
Loving can hurt sometimes
B A
But it's the only thing that I know
As you can see, lyrics and chord changes are interspersed, in that the chord changes during the lyric, rather than at the beginning of it. It’s a pretty cool technique this one. I think it has a name, but I have never learned it up until now, so don’t worry about :)).
The next verse is pretty similar in structure.
Verse 2
E
When it gets hard
C#m
You know it can get hard sometimes
B A
It is the only thing that makes us feel alive
Yeah, nothing more to add as it’s very similar to the first verse. Some people group these two as a single verse, but I like to view them separately simply because the chord progression starts again.
We now arrive at the pre-chorus, where things change a bit, but not that much at the same time.
Pre-Chorus
C#m A
We keep this love in a photograph
E B
We make these memories for ourselves
C#m
Where our eyes are never closing
A
Our hearts were never broken
E B
And times forever frozen still
I honestly couldn’t figure out how to better write this, so let’s detail this a bit. The first chords for the first pre-chorus lyrics start a bit before the words, right? If you listen to the song you’ll notice. I am referring to the first two lyrics only. It’s not something too complicated, it’s just that it doesn’t translate to print that well :)).
But nevertheless, we have now reached the chorus.
Chorus
E
So you can keep me inside the pocket of your
B
Ripped jeans holding me closer till our
C#m A
Eyes meet, you won't ever be alone
E
Wait for me to come home
After the chorus is done, you need to play the E chord for a bit as the instrumental interlude I told you about earlier. Also, make sure to leave a bit of breathing space just before the second verses section starts.
Verse 3
E
Loving can heal
C#m
Loving can mend your soul
B A
And it's the only thing that I know
Nothing really more to add here, it’s same deal as before.
Verse 4
E
I swear it will get easier
C#m
Remember that with every piece of ya mmmm
B A
It is the only thing we take with us when we die
Mmmmm
Yep, pretty much the same. We now move on to the second pre-chorus of the song, which is identical to the first one.
Pre-Chorus
C#m A
We keep this love in a photograph
E B
We make these memories for ourselves
C#m
Where our eyes are never closing
A
Our hearts were never broken
E B
And times forever frozen still
And we now reach the second chorus, which follows the same structure of the first one, with the only difference being that you have an extra verse in it, with a changed lyric at the end of the first one as well (or rather, missing one :)) ).
Chorus
E
So you can keep me inside the pocket of your
B
Ripped jeans holding me closer till our
C#m A
Eyes meet, you won't ever be alone
E
And if you hurt me, that’s okay baby only
B
Words bleed, inside these pages you just
C#m A
Hold me, and I won’t ever let you go
With the second chorus now done, it’s time to move on to the bridge.
Bridge
C#m
Wait for me to come home
A
Wait for me to come home
E
Wait for me to come home
B
Wait for me to come home
Straightforward as it goes I dare say. Now, let’s move on to the final chorus.
Chorus
E
Oh, you can fit, me inside the necklace you got when you were
B
16 next to your heartbeat where I
C#m A
Should be, keep it deep within your soul
E
And if you hurt me, that’s okay baby only
B
Words bleed, inside these pages you just
C#m A
Hold me, and I won’t ever let you go
And now, for the outro verse.
Outro
E
And when I'm away I will remember how you
B C#m
Kissed me under the lamp post back on sixth street
A
Hearing you whisper through the phone
N.C.
Wait for me to come home
Note that N.C. stands for no chord, meaning nothing is to be played.
Conclusion
A fairly easy song to learn, and quite easy to play around with. I usually like to play in on the guitar, but with a capo on the 4th fret so I can use the usual shapes for chords, but the ones provided here should work as well.
Let me know if you have any questions in the comments below!
I am Andrew Milner, signing out. Thank you for reading my story and I will see you in the next one.
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