Lean On Me Chords & Guitar Lesson
Welcome to my Lean On Me guitar chord chart. What a great song, Lean On Me by Bill Withers uses a pretty simple song structure. There is a cool bass line that goes along with this song, but we are going to keep it simple. This song uses only 3 chords, C, F and G. If you can't do barre chords yet, I would recommend the 'simple' Fmaj7 chord, which looks exactly like a C chord except you move the 2nd and 3rd fingers down one string each.
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Lean On Me Guitar Chords:
Lean On Me Strumming Patterns:
To keep things simple you can treat each chord as 4 beats unless marked as in the case of | G - C - | which means each chords has 2 beats. In the real song, the second chord changes on the up strum of the 4th beat as shown below
C F C
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 1
If you find this difficult, that is OK. Just treat each chord as one full measure.
Strum 1:
1 + 2 + 3+ 4 +
D DU D
Strum 2:
1 + 2+ 3 + 4 +
D DU D U
You can also check out the intro lick video below if you want to learn to play a single line section of the song.
Lean On Me Guitar Lesson:
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Lean On Me Chord Chart:
VERSE:
C F C
Sometimes in our lives we all have pain
G C F
We all have sorrow But if we are wise
C | G - C -|
We know that there's always tomorrow
CHORUS:
C F C
Lean on me, when you're not strong And I'll be your friend
G
I'll help you carry on
C F C
For it won't be long 'Til I'm gonna need
|G - C -|
Somebody to lean on
VERSE:
C F C
Please swallow your pride If I have things
G C F
You need to borrow for no one can fill
C |G - C -|
Those of your needs That you don't let show
CHORUS:
C F C
Lean on me, when you're not strong And I'll be your friend
G
I'll help you carry on
C F C
For it won't be long 'Til I'm gonna need
|G - C -|
Somebody to lean on
VERSE:
C F C
If there is a load you have to bear
G C F
That you can't carry I'm right up the road
C |G - C -|
I'll share your load If you just call me
BRIDGE:
C C C
So just call on me brother, when you need a hand
C |G - C -|
We all need somebody to lean on
C C
I just might have a problem that you'd understand
C |G - C -|
We all need somebody to lean on
This file is the author’s own work and represents his interpretation of this song. It’s intended solely for private study, scholarship or research.
We do not distribute printable chord and lyrics charts. These charts are here only to support online learning. We highly recommend buying music from Hal Leonard or a reputable online sheet music store.