thinking out loud chords

Thinking Out Loud is a love song by English singer and songwriter Ed Sheeran. The song was composed in the D Major key at the tempo of 79 bpm, but for your convenience, we used c major key chords to avoid bar chords by placing a capo on the 2nd fret on the guitar. So whether you are a beginner or an advanced guitar player, you should learn the chords of this song quickly. 

So let’s analyze the song and find the chord progressions. 

Verse- In the verse, they used the Ⅰ-ⅵ7-Ⅳ-Ⅴ chord progression, the most commonly used chord progression. They start from the root chord of the scale and then play the 6th subdominant chord with the 7th note added (Minor7th), then move to the 4th chord and then the 5th dominant chord of the scale, which brought all the music towards a pre-chorus.

Ⅰ ⅵ7 Ⅳ Ⅴ

C Am7 F G

Pre-chorus- They start the pre-chorus with the 2nd supertonic chord, then play the 5th dominant chord which pushes the music to go on the root chord of the song and then again play the 2nd supertonic and 5th dominant chord. The chord progression comes. 

ⅱ Ⅴ Ⅰ ⅱ Ⅴ

Dm G C Dm G

In the second part of the pre-chorus, they used the same chord but replaced only one root chord with the 6th dominant chord.

ⅱ Ⅴ ⅵ ⅱ Ⅴ

Dm G Am Dm G

Chorus- The whole chorus used the same chord progression as the verse, which we showed above, except the last part. This chord progression begins with the 6th subdominant chord, then moves to the 5th dominant chord, the 4th subdominant chord, and the root chord. The fourth subdominant chord, the dominant fifth chord, and the root chord should be repeated. 

ⅵ Ⅴ Ⅳ Ⅰ Ⅳ Ⅴ Ⅰ

Am G F C F G C

Instrumental- Same chords like the Verse.

Outro- In the outro they played the all chords that they used in the last part of the chorus. Which are-

ⅵ Ⅴ Ⅳ Ⅰ Ⅳ Ⅴ Ⅰ

Am G F C F G C