Play "Always On My Mind" by Elvis Presley On Acoustic Guitar!

Hey, how you doing? Today we’ll check out Always On My Mind by Elvis Presley on acoustic guitar. A great ballad, this one. Definitely one of my favorite Elvis songs.

You could take loads of approaches, but I think strumming all downstrums with the fleshy part of the thumb is the best way to go. Strumming with the pick sounds a bit harsh and brittle to my ear – not ideal for a ballad! We’ll also cover some fingerstyle guitar options.

Always On My Mind: Verse Chords

Before we look at the chord sequences, let’s check out the chords and look at the different options for each one. The first chord is G. You can play this as 320003, 3X0003, or 3X0033. Your call!

Then we move to a D/F# (2X0232). This is a standard open D chord (XX0232) with the bass note F# at 6:2 (string 6, fret 2). I often play the open D chord and add 6:2 with my thumb, but this is kinda tricky for beginners.

A simpler version of D/F# is 2X023X. Finger 1 plays 6:2, finger 2 plays 3:2 (string 3, fret 2), and finger 3 goes on 2:3. Try to mute strings 5 and 1 with finger 1.

💡 Fretting With The Thumb – It took me 10 years (yes, 10 years) of guitar practice to get confident with using the thumb to play bass notes. Don’t worry if it takes you some time too. It will come. :)

The advantage of this grip is that you can quickly get to it from "four-fingered G” (320033). If all else fails, you can just play an open D chord and forget the note at 6:2. It’s no big deal!

Then we switch to a standard Em (022000). We also have an Em7, and there are several ways to play it. The first is 020000. Just lift off finger 3 from the Em grip. You can also add little finger to 2:3 to get 022030. Try both and see which one you like. :)

Always On My Mind: Chords In Pre-Chorus and Chorus

In the pre-chorus, we have C/B (X20010). That’s a regular C open chord but with a B note in the bass instead of a C. Starting from the regular C chord, lift off finger 3 and move finger 2 to 5:2, muting string 4 with the underside of the finger.

We also have a C/G, which comes after Am. To get there, lift off finger 3 from your regular Am open chord and put it on 6:3 (3X2010).

🔥 Slash Chords – This Elvis tune has a ton of slash chords, like C/G and G/B. They give a different sound and are great for creating melodic bass lines. If you dig ‘em, check out the 10 essential slash chords for beginners. :)

The final slash chord we need to check out is G/B. This one is used loads between C and Am! There are different ways to play this one, but the best grip in this context uses fingers and 4. Finger 2 plays 5:2 and mutes string 6; finger 4 goes on 2:3.

For the verse, we also need an A7 chord (X02020). This is a regular A open chord (X02220 using fingers 2, 1, and 3) with finger 1 lifted off. Phew! Now we’ve got the chords under our belt, let’s check out the chord sequences. :)

Always On My Mind: Chord Sequences

We play two bars of G for the intro, then it’s right into the verse. It goes G, D/F#, Em for two beats, Em7 for two beats, C for three beats, and D for one beat.

☑️ Chord Book: the further you travel on the guitar journey, the more tricky it gets to remember all your chords. Creating your own chord book is a great way to get new chords into your long-term memory.

In the original, you can hear that the whole band accents beat 3 on the C and beat 4 on D, so strum these a bit louder than the other beats. It really brings the song to life.

Then we go to the pre-chorus. This goes C, G, then two beats on each of the following: C/B, Am, and C/G.

There are more chord changes than chords in the chorus! It goes D for two beats (not bars, beats), Em for one, D/F# for one, G for two, Am for one, G/B for one, C for two, D for two, G for two, then C for one and D for one. Pretty tricky to remember; it just needs practice and patience. :)

Always On My Mind: Middle

Time for the middle! You’ll be glad to know this section also has loads of chord changes. :) We start on G, then it’s D/F#, Em, Em7, C, C/B, Am, and D. Play all these chords for two beats.

Then the song goes into a string solo. The chords for this are one bar of G, one bar of D/F#, Em for two beats, Em7 for two beats, followed by a whole bar of A. Then it’s back to a pre-chorus.

🎤 Find Your Key: the original song is too high for me, so I tried to sing it down an octave in the video. But this is too low! What do I do? Don’t fear, the capo is here. Put a capo on a random fret, play the same chords and try to sing in tune. Does it fit? Keep moving it around until you find a position that works.

Always On My Mind by Elvis Presley – Strumming

Now let’s talk about the strumming. There are loads of approaches to the rhythm for this one. I saw a guy playing single strums on beat 1, and it sounded great.

On the original, you can hear an acoustic guitar playing eighth notes (1+2+3+4+) with all downstrums. This works great; just make sure the offbeats (the ands) are softer than the beats (1,2,3,4). Just strum on beats 3 and 4 for the quick C to D switch.

Always On My Mind by Elvis Presley – Fingerstyle

This tune is a great one for fingerstyle guitar. Any pattern should sound good as long as you hit the bass note when the chord changes!

It gets difficult to do fingerpicking in the pre-chorus and chorus because there are loads of chord changes. One way around it is to grab the bass note and another note together when you change and pluck a single note on the offbeats. Or you can simply revert to strumming. :)

💡 Experiment – I haven’t come up with a specific fingerstyle arrangement. The best thing to do is experiment! Create a fingerstyle pattern you dig.

I think that’s all! Have loads of fun with this Elvis Presley classic. Those chord changes could give anyone a headache, but it’s pretty simple other than that. I’ll see you for loads more guitar real soon. Take care! :)

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