Learn the John Mayer Cover of "XO" by Beyonce!

John Mayer is known for his interesting guitar arrangements, and XO is among his best. It's crazy to think this is a cover of a Beyoncé song, but he transforms it into something fresh. And his version is great for strumming on an acoustic guitar!

💡 About John Mayer: His hands are perfect for guitar playing. It seems he’s been genetically gifted with huge thumbs that allow him to reach fingerings and shapes that most of us simply can’t, no matter how much we practice! But his music presents a fun challenge, and we can dissect his songs, learn from his style and techniques, and make his songs our own.

The chord grips in John Mayer's version of XO are pretty simple - we only need to use the thumb for one chord, unlike in Neon! There’s some fun strumming that will hone your ability to keep a precise and full rhythm while holding your pick lightly.

With tricky patterns like this, I suggest you strum on muted strings before adding in the fingerings. This is a great example of breaking things down into bitesize parts to simplify the learning process. We'll also look at hammer-ons and accented notes, which add dynamism and life to your guitar playing.

All of these tricks transform a simple chord progression into a proper song. :) So get your capo on fret 2 and let's go!

XO by John Mayer - Chords

Intro

As mentioned, the chords in XO are pretty simple, so let's learn them before the strumming. For the intro, we need a C chord and some embellishments - we keep fingers 2 and 3 in place for the entire section and use finger 1 to get melody notes. We want to hear the melody C - B - A - G as the bars progress. Think of the sequence as C, CMaj7, C6, C*.

🎸 Full Demo: If you want to see me doing a demo of this progression, head to the video lesson. :)

We start on an open C chord, letting finger 1 touch string 1 so it doesn't ring - make sure string 2 is the highest one that sounds when you strum. Then we lift off finger 1 to get CMaj7, still muting string 1. I do this with the bottom of finger 3 on this chord, but you can do it with any part of your hand. :)

Then we put finger 1 down at fret 2 of string 3 to get a C6, and we target that note when strumming. After this, we lift off finger 2 to reveal the open G string - target this. Each grip lasts half a bar, and we play the whole sequence twice for the intro.

Verse

The verse also starts with a sequence of C chords, but this time we play C, CMaj7, CMaj7, C6, each for half a bar. Play this sequence twice, then we switch to F using the thumb for four bars.

We move finger 1 around over the F: for the first bar, keep it on, then lift it off to reveal the open B string (this is F#11), add it again, then put little finger two frets above to get F6. The melody movement is C, B, C, D. After the four bars of F, we repeat the four bars of C from the verse. :)

XO by John Mayer - Strumming

The strumming for the intro and verses is even 16th notes (1 e + a 2 e + a 3 e + a 4 e + a) with accents on three of the beats - we look at the accent pattern in the video lesson, or you can cop the groove by listening to the original loads. Make sure your pick is thin, otherwise it might fall out of your hand!

🔥 Mute Your Strings: A great way to practice this pattern is to strum muted strings, with your fretting hand resting on all six strings of the guitar. If you can comfortably play the pattern this way, you're ready to add the chords.

Though I often miss some strums when I play this John Mayer tune, I always keep my strumming hand moving. Make sure it's nice and loose, as though you were flicking water off your hand.

Learn the Chorus on Guitar

The chord structure for the chorus is C, C, Am, Am; F, G, C, C. Like in the intro and verse, we add embellishments to these chords. We add on and lift off finger 2 over C several times to get Csus2, and we do the same with finger 1 over Am.

There are no embellishments over F (unless you want to add your own), but over G (using the Weak Finger grip) we begin with finger 1 down on fret 1 of string 2, then lift it off. If you want to learn the rhythms, I suggest you listen to John Mayer or watch my demo. You can also watch the video lesson, where we look at the embellishments in detail.

🚨 Add Your Own: If you want to add your own embellishments to XO, check out my Chord Explorer series, where we learn tons of embellishments for the common open guitar chords. :)

XO isn't too tricky to play on guitar - make sure you hold the pick lightly, keep your hand moving, and get the accents in the right place. Do that, and you'll sound wicked. :) Enjoy!

👉 Learn tons more John Mayer songs on guitar in my dedicated artist section!