You've Got a Friend in Me

Learn the Toy Story classic "You've Got A Friend In Me" by Randy Newman!

Let's check out how to play You've Got A Friend In Me by Randy Newman! This song is, of course, part of the classic Toy Story movie, and I learned how to play it mostly for my daughter. Still, this is such a cool song – and full of the good vibes we need right now! :) 

In this tutorial, we'll check out an acoustic arrangement so you can play You've Got a Friend In Me (and sing it!). This one has several fingerstyle patterns that use the thumb for the bass note, along with percussive hits.

First, we’ll make sure you know how to play the basic chords. Then we’ll look at the fingerstyle patterns and explore some embellishments.

Enough talk – let's get stuck in and learn how to play You've Got a Friend in Me on the guitar!
 

 

You’ve Got A Friend In Me by Randy Newman: Intro Chords

You'll notice I have a capo on the third fret. The progression for the intro is: C E7 (020130) Am G#7 (464544); C G7 (3X300X) C Gaug (3X100X) C G7. Each chord lasts half a bar.

You might not be familiar with the Gaug chord – this means G Augmented! The progression in the original song is C Gaug C6 (X322XX) Gaug. This brings out the melody C B A B C over the chords.
 

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You’ve Got A Friend In Me From Toy Story: Fingerstyle Guitar

To play this acoustic arrangement for You've Got a Friend in Me, you'll need to master the fingerstyle patterns. :)

To start, I'd recommend you play the thumb on the bass note (string 6 or 5, depending on the chord), finger 1 on string 4, and fingers 2 and 3 doing a little strum. Then finger 1 plays either string 3 or 4 again! :)

The rhythm is:

1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
T 1 S 1 T 1 S 1
S means strum

This is pattern is a starting point. Later on, we’ll make it much fancier by picking out the melody notes and adding a hit on beats 2 and 4. Let’s check out the chord progressions. :)

 

🚨 Take it slowly and learn it bit by bit. You don't want to rush with fingerstyle guitar! Make sure you learn each bar perfectly before making it more complex or learning new bars.

 

You’ve Got A Friend In Me by Randy Newman: Verses

In the verses, each chord lasts half a bar. The chord progression starts with is C Gaug C C7; F F#dim (2X121X) C C7.

Then it’s F C E7 Am; F C E7 Am; F C E7 Am; D7 G C A7; D7 G. Each chord lasts for half a bar. Then we play the intro progression again. :)

F#dim is like an F7 chord (131211) but with an F# bass instead of an F. Can you see that the notes on strings 4, 3, 2 are the same for both chords? To finger the F#dim, barre strings 4 to 2 at fret 1 with finger 1, then add finger 2 to 6:2 (string 6, fret 2) and finger 3 to 3:2.

There's also an unusual bridge section. :)

 

You’ve Got A Friend In Me From Toy Story: Bridge

This section is still in 4:4 but the feel is a little different and unusual. The chord progression is C, Gaug/B (X2100X), Bb6 (X1303X), A7; D7, G, C, G7. Each chord is for half a bar, We almost repeat that sequence, except the final bar is C to C7.

In the next eight bars, some chords last for a bar. Those that last half a bar are in brackets; the change happens on beat 2. We go F, B, |C B7|, C ; B, B7, | Em A7 |, |Dm  G |.

I play B as an A-shape barre chord (X2444X) and B7 as an open chord (X21202).

 

You’ve Got A Friend In Me by Randy Newman: Outro

In the final singing section of the song, we play the first four bars of the verse, then F, F#dim, C, E7, Am. The final three chords (C E7 Am) are played rubato: we play them a little quicker than before, ending up with one chord per vocal syllable “des-ti-ny”. 

Then we play D7, G, C, A7; D7, G, C, A7; D7, G, before playing the intro progression again.

 

🧐 Want to get all fancy pants? At the very end of the song, finish with G13b9 (3X3100) then C6 (X32233) or C6/G (332233). :)

Now let’s explore a few fancy little ideas you might want to try out.

 

Add The Percussive Hit On Beats 2 & 4

Let’s look at how to add a percussive hit to the fingerstyle pattern. If you're a more advanced guitarist, or feel brave and focused, don't miss this stuff. :)

Before you go further, make sure the basic “thumb-note-strum-note” pattern from above is solid. If that’s all good, let’s add the hits.

The sound of the hit comes from hitting the palm against the thickest strings near the bridge. :) As I hit, I strum the muted strings to add to the sound. This hit-strum replaces an ordinary strum.

Practice this for a while with one chord until it feels natural. Then try replacing the “strum” with this hit.

 

Trickier Fingerstyle Guitar: Embellishments and Melody

Let’s add some melody. Over E7, the melody is D (2:3) then E (1:0), and we play C (2:1) then A (3:2) over the Am. These notes are already part of the chord shapes – it’s just a matter of hitting them at the right time. :)

Let’s also slide into G#7 (464544) from G7 (353433). This means you switch to a G7 chord briefly before sliding your hand up a fret to the G#7. Over the G#7, we target Eb (2:4) then D (3:7). Play D with finger 4, then lift it off to reveal the C, which is part of the chord shape.

Now change to the C chord on the “+” of 4, but only play string 2 on this beat. That completes the Eb-D-C melody movement. On beat 1, you can play the usual strumming pattern over the C.

 

🎶 Accentuate The Harmony: in our pattern, finger 1 plays string 4 on beat 2. As it happens, the interesting parts of the harmony often fall on this string. On Gaug, the #5 is on string 4, as is the b7 in C7. Targeting these notes really brings out their flavour.

There are a couple of final details that will help your playing sound super authentic! For the final chords in the chorus, we play pushes, switching chords on the “+” of 2 and 4 instead of beats 1 and 3. This starts when we switch to D7.

And in the first two bars of the bridge, the strumming pattern changes.

1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
T   H   T   H
1 1     1 1
2 2     2 2
3 3     3 3

We “pinch” the chord with a mixture of thumb and fingers 1, 2, and 3, then add a hit on beats 2 and 4.

 

 

Have loads of fun playing this song! The film and the song are both excellent in their own right. Put them together, and you get a wicked combination. I hope your kids dig this one! Laters. :)

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