Welcome to our Shawn Mendes’ Stitches guitar lesson. This is a superb song for anyone wanting to practice easy guitar chords with simple rhythms. The song is also an excellent introduction to the palm muting technique. Stitches was Shawn Mendes’ first top 10 single on the Billboard Hot 100 where it reached number 4. The song was released in 2015 and comes from his debut album, Handwritten.
Figure 1 (below) shows you some of the basic music notation you will need to understand to play along with the full score that is at the end of this post. For more information on music notation/theory click here. In addition, if you are inexperienced at reading rhythms and need help understanding rhythms, click here.
Song structure
The song’s arrangement is:
- Intro
- Verse 1
- Pre-chorus
- Chorus
- Verse 2
- Pre-chorus
- Chorus
- Instrumental
- Bridge
- Chorus
- Outro
Chords
You will need to place a capo on the first fret of your guitar to play along with the recording. The song uses chords Am, G, C and F. Chords Am, G and C can be played as open chords and chord F is a bar chord.
Guitar part
Stitches has 5 different rhythms throughout. Verse 1 and the intro have the first rhythm. The pre-chorus uses the second rhythm in the song. Notice at the end of the pre-chorus (bar 16) a double bar line. This indicates the end of a section. In this case, the end of the pre-chorus.
The chorus rhythm is a slight variation on the pre-chorus rhythm. The difference being the two quavers played on beat 1.
The rhythm of verse 2 is different from verse 1. Use only downstrums in this section. Note the letters P.M. at the beginning of the section in bar 25. P.M. stands for palm muting. Palm muting is a technique achieved by lightly resting the side of the picking hand’s palm on the strings near the bridge. Watch a palm-muting demo.
The instrumental section also uses palm muting. However, note the “x” on certain notes. This “x” means to produce a percussive sound. You can achieve this by lightly releasing the pressure on the chord whilst still muting the notes in the picking hand. Please note: Make sure to keep contact with the strings when you release pressure on the chords.
Conclusion
Hope you enjoyed our Shawn Mendes’ Stitches guitar lesson. Mastering the techniques used in this song will improve your musicianship. If you have questions, please feel free to contact us.
Note: The score excerpts included in this lesson are used only for teaching and learning purposes.
