Welcome to our Glass Animals’ Heat Waves guitar lesson. This is the perfect song for anyone wanting to practice guitar chords with simple rhythms throughout. The song was number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for five weeks. It was released in 2020 and comes from their third album Dreamland
Figure 1 (below) shows you some of the basic music notation you will need to understand to play along with the score. However, if you are a beginner, you may find it necessary to learn more about music theory to follow along with the song. In addition, you may need to learn more about reading rhythms.
Song structure
Heat Waves has the following structure:
- Intro
- Chorus
- Verse 1
- Chorus
- Verse 2
- Chorus
- Bridge
- Chorus
- Outro
Chords
Place a capo on the fourth fret of your guitar to play along with the audio track. You need to know the chords A minor, G, E minor, D, C and B to play the song.
Guitar part
Heat Waves has 3 rhythms throughout. The main rhythm in the song is in the intro, verse 1, chorus and the outro. However, there is a slight variation on that rhythm at the end of the intro (bar 10) and in the outro (bar 55). There is a quaver rest (eighth note rest) at the end of these bars.
The rhythm in verse 2 is the same as that in verse 1. The difference is between bars 29 and 30. In these bars, we play minims (half notes) for each chord.
In the bridge, play semibreves (whole notes) from bars 35-38. After that, play minims (half notes) from bars 39-42. In bar 40, there is a bar chord (B chord). This can be a tricky chord for a beginner. If you find it difficult, use the chord E minor on that bar. The bridge ends with a one-bar rest (bar 43).
Conclusion
Hope you enjoyed our Glass Animals’ Heat Waves guitar lesson. This is an excellent song to practice playing multiple rhythms in one song. It also allows beginner guitarists to challenge themselves to learning bar chord B. If you have any questions, please reach out to us.
Note: The musical score excerpts contained in this lesson are provided and are intended solely for educational purposes.
