🎸 Learn to Play “Perfect” by Ed Sheeran – Chords, Fingerpicking & Practice Guide
Want to confidently fingerpick your way through Perfect?
Struggling to make it through the chord changes smoothly?
Looking for the chords and a simple breakdown so you can actually play the song, not just collect sheet music?
You’re in the right place!
This page doesn’t include 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.
✅ What You’ll Learn Here
- The chords used in Perfect
- An easy strumming pattern
- A breakdown of the chord progression
- A section-by-section guide to practicing it
🔁 CHORD PROGRESSION OVERVIEW
VERSE
This section mostly follows a 1–6–4–5 progression (G–Em–C–D), with a simple variation:
- The 4th measure goes from G to D, splitting the measure (two beats each).
| G | Em | C | G D |
/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /
Practice slowly and focus on pivot fingers when switching:
- G → Em: Leave your index finger planted
- C → Em: Keep your middle finger in place
- D → G: Anchor with your ring finger
CHORUS
The chorus reorganizes the chords into a 6–4–1–5 structure, and only 2 beats each!
| Em C | G D |
/ / / / / / / /
Played four times. Then comes a descending bass line figure, like you’d find in Landslide, Dust In The Wind, Wonderful Tonight (and a million other ballads) where each chord gets one beat:
| G D/F# Em C |
/ / / /
And we end with a 4-5 cadence, which kinda gets us “charged up” for the next verse:
| C D |
/ / / /
🚀 Next Steps
Once you can comfortably play Perfect, try:
- Practicing with dynamics (quiet verse, louder chorus)
- Recording yourself and comparing to the original
- Playing it for someone special 😌
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.
