Learn "You Never Can Tell", an easy two-chord Chuck Berry song for beginners!

You Never Can Tell, AKA C'est La Vie and Teenage Wedding, is a classic Chuck Berry hit. Regardless of the name, this is an excellent tune for beginners. It's simple enough to be your first song ever! :)

You'll only need the A and D open chords to play You Never Can Tell on guitar, and we stay on each chord for several bars, meaning the chord changes are slow!

Let's check it out.

You Never Can Tell by Chuck Berry - Tuning

If you play You Never Can Tell using the D and A chords with no capo, you're playing it in a different key to the original.

It's possible to play along with the original recording - you'll need a capo on the 10th fret. but this is impractical and tricky for the fingers. Instead, try using Transcribe! to move the original up one tone.

There's another option. The original chords are C and G, and if you've learned those as open chords, you can swap them for D and A.

🔥 On the JustinGuitar app the backing track is a tone higher than the original, meaning you can forget the capo and use the D and A chords. :)

You Never Can Tell by Chuck Berry - Guitar Chord Progression

The chord sequence is real simple, and you stay on each chord for a long time, so you should have no trouble switching between them. :) It's six bars of D, eight bars of A, then two bars of D. In some versions of this song, we switch back to A for the final bar - it's your choice.

Your Roadmap to Awesome Guitar Strumming

Start by playing one strum per bar. See if you can play the song and either sing above that basic pattern or play with a backing track. :) When you're comfortable with the chord changes, you can increase the number of strums per bar.

🚨 Don't forget - the key to consistent, steady strumming is to keep your hand moving!

The next step is to play four downstrums per bar. This is great practice for your strumming arm because you'll train it to move consistently. It might help to count the bars as you strum, like we do in the Strumming Pattern 1 chapter in the video. Other than that, listen to the song loads and jam along to gain familiarity. :)

If you're an advancing beginner, try out the Old Faithful strumming pattern. It works great for this song - and thousands of others!

You Never Can Tell by Chuck Berry - Fun Fact!

It seems that when Chuck Berry wrote this song, refrigerators were called coolerators. Ha! Best word ever, isn't it?

JustinGuitar teaches lyrics, chords, and strumming for Chuck Berry's song You Never Can Tell.

Ready For More Guitar?

Use the JustinGuitar Lessons & Songs App to play songs while practicing your guitar skills! It's an awesome tool for beginners, especially if you're struggling with chord changes and rhythm.

💙 My App helps you boost your sense of time, and jamming with real backing tracks is just so cool! Get your free 14-day trial here.