Beggars (acoustic) Chords

KeyEm CapoNone TuningStandard Difficulty Plays396

Beggars (acoustic) by Thrice is a moderately challenging guitar song played in the key of Em. It uses the chords Em, C, D, Am6, A7, B11 and Am. Use the transpose and diagram tools on this page to change the key, see each shape, or simplify the chords.

Transpose
Em
Text
16
Speed
  			
Intro: Em, C 

         Em                          C 
All you great men of power, you who boast of your feats  
      Em                    C 
Politicians and entrepreneurs 
        Em                           C 
Can you safeguard your breath in the night while you sleep 
          Em                        C 
Keep your heart beating steady and sure 
        D                         Am6 
As you lie in your bed, does the thought haunt your head 
            Em              A7 
That you’re really, rather small 
            C                         B11                Em 
If there’s one thing I know in this life: we are beggars all. 

       (Em)                       C 
All you champions of science and rulers of men, 
        Em                        C 
Can you summon the sun from its sleep 
         Em                         C 
Does the earth seek your counsel on how fast to spin 
         Em                          C 
Can you shut up the gates of the deep 
          D                             Am6 
Don’t you know that all things hang, as if by a string, 
         Em                   A7 
O’er the darkness,  poised to fall? 
           C                          B11                Em 
If there’s one thing I know in this life: we are beggars all. 

        Em                          C 
All you big shots that swagger and stride with conceit, 
         Em                               C 
Did you devise how your frame would be formed 
             Em                     C 
If you’d be raised in a palace, or live out in the streets, 
         Em                                   C 
Did you choose the place or the hour you’d be born 
         D                         Am6 
Tell me what can you claim? Not a thing,  not your name 
         Em         A7             C     
Tell me if you can recall just one thing, 
                           B11 
That’s not a gift in this life 

        Am                  
Can you hear what’s been said 
       B11                        Em           A7 
Can you see now that everything’s grace after all 
            C                       B11                       Em 
If there’s one thing I know in this life: we are beggars all. 
    	

Chord diagrams

Guitar tuner

--
Start the tuner and play a string

Reference tones

Standard tuning, lowest to highest. Click a string to play it; the string the mic hears is highlighted.

Click Start tuner and allow microphone access. The needle centers and turns green when a string is in tune (within 5 cents).
No microphone? You can still tap any string above to hear its exact reference pitch.

Metronome

100 BPM Andante