🎸 Learn to Play “Love Story” – Chords, Strumming & Practice Guide
Want to confidently strum your way through “Love Story” by Taylor Swift?
Struggling to make it through that key change at the end—or not sure how to simplify those barre chords?
You’re in the right place!
This page doesn’t give you the lyrics or a full chord/lyric sheet—but it does give you something better:
A step-by-step plan to help you actually learn the song from start to finish, the way I teach my students.
🔁 CHORD PROGRESSION OVERVIEW
The first thing we need to do is count out the basic chord progressions that make up each section. I recommend playing four downstrokes per chord as you cound aloud “1 2 3 4”
🔹 VERSE
The verse is comprised of 2 basic chord progressions:
First, a relaxed 1-4-6-4 progression, playing 2 measures for each chord:
| D | D | G | G |
/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /
| Bm | Bm | G | G |
/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /
Then, almost the same thing, but using a 5 chord at the end. This snippet is a very popular progression that you’ll come across in many songs:
| D | D | G | G |
/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /
| Bm | Bm | A | A |
/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /
Each chord lasts two full measures—lots of space to practice clean changes!
🔹 PRE-CHORUS
Same chords, but in a different order. Listen to the feeling we get from starting on the G chord in this 4-5-6-1 progression. Also, notice the pace picks up—1 bar per chord now.
| G | A | Bm | D |
/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /
On the repeat, be sure to watch out for the shared bar between G and A—time to split your strumming and count 2 beats per chord like this:
| G A |
/ / / /
🔹 CHORUS
Taylor Swift loves to stick to a small set of chord changes, so in order to get some variety she rearranges them for each section. Here in the chorus we find the exact same pool of chords, but once again re-arranged. This time it’s a 1-5-6-4 progression, which you’ll find EVERYWHERE! I have a whole video and page dedicated to songs using this exact same chord progression (here).
| D | D | A | A |
/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /
| Bm | Bm | G | A |
/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /
You’ll repeat this pattern again later for the instrumental and second chorus.
🔹 BRIDGE
Classic 6-4-1-5 pop progression:
Bm | G | D | A
(repeated twice)
Nothing new here—just reinforcing the muscle memory.
🔹 FINAL CHORUS – KEY CHANGE 🔑
Optional but powerful!
We modulate to E major:
E | E | B | B
C♯m | C♯m | A | B
You can use easy 3-note shapes for B and C♯m, shown in the video.
📌 A Note on Lyrics
This lesson focuses on learning by sound and structure.
No full lyrics are included—but when you practice along with the video, you’ll naturally hear how the vocals align with each section.
That’s how musicians build memory and ear!
🚀 Next Steps
By following the video and using the practice structure above, you’ll be able to strum through this entire song with confidence—barre chords optional.
If you want to take your guitar skills to the next level, master chords & strumming and more, consider checking out my All-Access Pass!
⚠️ Disclaimer
This tutorial is for educational purposes and personal practice only.
All rights to the original composition belong to their respective copyright holders.
This page does not include or distribute lyrics or official sheet music.
