When You Say Nothing At All

Learn "When You Say Nothing At All" by Ronan Keating on Guitar 

When You Say Nothing At All is a beautiful Ronan Keating guitar song that even advancing beginners can play! We'll start with an easy approach, using basic strumming and relatively easy chords. Then we'll go into more advanced stuff like picking out individual notes and spicing up your rhythm dynamics. :)

 

💡 This song is perfect for Grade 2+ guitar players! You'll practice some Stuck 3&4 chords and great chord changes as well.

 

When You Say Nothing At All is a beautifully crafted pop song that's played at loads of weddings! Big credit to the producer Stephen Lipson for the instrumentation. It's just incredible. The key change is distinctive and unusual, but it works very well! And it's a great tune to explore if you're getting into songwriting. 

Let's get stuck in and learn how to play When You Say Nothing At All using easy chords and strumming on the acoustic guitar. 

 

When You Say Nothing At All by Ronan Keating: Chord Progressions

Start with a G chord. I recommend the Stuck 3&4 fingering. To play this grip, put fingers 3 and 4 on the thinnest two strings at the third fret and finger 2 on the third fret of the thickest string. You don't need the first finger down, so mute the fifth string with the underside of finger 2! After G, you switch to D, Cadd9, and then back to D.

 

💡 ​​Get verified chords + lyrics and tab to follow with my When You Say Nothing At All tutorial! Start your JustinGuitarTabs free trial right now. :)

 

You'll play this sequence twice for the intro and four times for the verse. Verse 2 is a bit different. Instead of beginning with G and D, we play Em and Bm. The progression changes to Em, Bm, C, D.

The pre-chorus starts with Cadd9 to D, each for a bar. Then we play G, D, Cadd9, D, each for half a bar, then two full bars of D. Note that you'll only play the D chord for two beats at the end of the second verse. Check out the video lesson for more info!

 

💡 Practice Tips: When you're learning a tune like When You Say Nothing At All, you should practice the chord changes before developing your strumming or picking out individual notes. Make sure your chord changes are solid – if not, you won't be able to introduce these awkward little pauses in the rhythm! ;)

 

The chorus starts with two reps of the intro sequence. Then it's G to D, each for half a bar, then Cadd9 and D for a full bar each. It finishes with C/E (XX2010), D/F# (XX4030), each for half a bar, then C and D for a full bar.

The key changes to E in the bridge. It absolutely shouldn't work, but it sounds amazing! You can always skip it and play G, D, C, D instead – your call.

The bridge progression is two reps of E, B, A, B, each chord lasting half a bar. Then it's two bars of A followed by a bar of B. Usually B is played as a barre chord, but in the video we look at a cheeky, beginner-friendly alternative. ;)

The structure is intro, verse, pre-chorus, chorus, intro, verse, pre-chorus, chorus, bridge, and chorus.

 

When You Say Nothing At All by Ronan Keating: Guitar Strumming & Picking

When playing When You Say Nothing At All on the acoustic guitar, the key is keeping the rhythm consistent. If you let the rhythm get sloppy,  you won't sound good, and you'll get into bad habits.

It's also essential that you explore the dynamics. This is a key thing, particularly for beginners who are moving into an intermediate stage. If you're a complete beginner, it's fine to keep it simple and not think about this! But once you're comfortable playing it with basic strumming and efficient chord changes, start to explore the dynamics and the arrangement. It's a game-changer.
 

💡 This is an excellent grower song – as you grow as a guitarist, the song grows too. :) If you're a beginner, don't worry that you can't play backbeats or the picking or alter the dynamics. Focus on getting through the song with chords and simple strumming, then come back to the fancy stuff later.

First, make sure there's a contrast between the verses and choruses. Keep the verses sparse and add more strumming in the chorus. Try strumming only on the chord changes in the verse and play soft and mellow. It's a ballad, so the verses are quiet – don't thrash the guitar! 

When you approach the chorus, start adding some more strums to give movement to the song and prepare the listener for the chorus. Then make the choruses big and powerful. The all-down eighth-note pattern with accents on 2 and 4 works great, and you can also add in some upstrums whenever it feels good. Just make sure your time is solid. :)

Let's look at the beautiful picking pattern.

 

Guitar Picking Pattern

I suggest you use your little finger of the strumming hand as an anchor finger to help you pick the right strings. I think it's best to use all downstrums, but it's okay to try others.

If you're feeling confident and decide to incorporate picking out some individual notes, don't forget: practice it slowly until you get it right! Don't worry about the timing too much; focus on hitting the strings in the right order. This will make it loads easier to speed up.
 

🚨 Think of this as writing code. Don't rush when you're coding – do it accurately. It's much easier if you code it correctly the first time around. :)

Once the order is good, start playing it in time, also very slowly. If you make a mistake, ignore it and make sure you keep in time. But if you make a couple, go back and practice playing the right order.

After some practice, you'll find you can speed up quite easily. In the end, the rhythm is the most important thing. It doesn't matter so much if you hit extra strings or miss some notes. This is especially true when you're singing. Don't let the rhythm go wobbly, even if you make a mistake.

 

Check out the video lesson for more details and the exact picking pattern you need for When You Say Nothing At All on the acoustic guitar. Laters. :)

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