fbpx

How To Play I’m Outta Time | Oasis

Guitar studio based In South West London | Clapham Junction | Battersea

How To Play I’m Outta Time | Oasis

by Darius Chrobak

by Darius Chrobak

Guitar Couch Lessons

by Darius Chrobak

by Darius Chrobak

Guitar Couch Lessons

The English rock band Oasis recorded a lot of hits across the years and the song, ‘I’m Outta Time’ is no different. One of my students asked me some years ago to teach him this song, and it became one of my beginner guitarist staples, ever since then.

One of the interesting facts about ‘I’m Outta Time’ is that, in the outro of the song, you can hear an excerpt from John Lenon’s last interview in 1980: ‘As Churchill said, it’s every Englishman’s inalienable right to live where the hell he likes. What’s it going to do, vanish? Is it not going to be there when I get back?’. You can read more about this song here: https://en.wikipedia…

In one of the interviews, Liam Gallagher said that if John Lennon would have covered an Oasis song, then ‘I’m Outta Time’ would probably be the one. Interestingly, not a lot of people are familiar with this song, yet it is such a cool tune to learn that I couldn’t resist teaching it to you, so here we go!

Song Structure:

Intro: Em / Cmaj7/E / Em6 / Cmaj7/E
Verse: Em / E7sus4 / Am / C
Chorus: G / D / Em / Am / C / G

The song has quite a slow flow. We are going to spend quite a lot of time on each chord, and this is what makes this song a great tune for beginners.

A Few Tips On How To Practice "I'm Outta Time"

The song features a very interesting intro part that revolves around chords Em, Cmaj7/E and Em6. Start by memorising individual chords before trying to apply any rhythm. You want to be fully focused on the fretting hand, so just for reference, strum each chord only once. Spend some time switching between the chords and try to see if you can smoothen the transitions between the chords by noticing common tones (as described in the video).

The first two chords are very similar to ‘Zombie’ by The Cranberries, so you may want to practice that song before working on the ‘I’m Outta Time’ – here is the link – https://www.guitarcouch…

Once you are familiar with the chords, you can turn your attention to the strumming hand. For the best results, I would recommend using a guitar pick, although it will also sound great with the fingerpicking technique. The picking hand is going to play a simple arpeggio that revolves around the string numbers six, five, four, three and two. You are going to pick the strings in exactly this order: six – five – four – three – two, twice on each chord.

The verse and chorus feature pretty easy open chords … probably except for the G and C major chords.

It is important that you focus on the trouble spots of the song. So if you have problems switching between chords C and G or G and D, isolate the problem area and only try to target these chords (instead of playing all the shapes from the verse or chorus over and over again). That way, you will save a lot of time and frustration 🙂

Once you are familiar with the chordal structure, you can work on the strumming … and that is where ‘I’m Outta Time’ by Oasis is so enjoyable to play, you will strum every single chord, down a few times. It’s that easy!

On the verse, each chord is going to be strummed down sixteen times. So you are going to strum E minor sixteen times, then E7sus4 sixteen times, A minor sixteen times and so on. Can you see now why this song is great for beginners?

These big gaps between the chords give you plenty of time to think about upcoming chords, so use it to your advantage. Once you are strumming the E minor chord, think about what chord is coming up next – in this case, it is E7sus4. This early focus on the next chord will make the transition much smoother and will improve the overall sound of the song.

The chorus of ‘I’m Outta Time’ has a little bit of a faster pace. Each chord will be strummed eight times, except the E minor chord, that will be played sixteen times. So you are going to strum G major eight times, then D major eight times, E minor sixteen times, then A minor eight times, and then C and G eight times each.

As mentioned earlier, I would personally try to use the guitar pick as it will go well together with the intro and the rest of the song, but that just me, use your fingers if you prefer it that way 🙂

Give ‘I’m Outta Time’ a try as it is really a great tune and deserves some attention, then let me know below if you liked it!

Darius | Guitar Couch Lessons

Responses

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Newsletter

If you would like to stay notified when a new guitar blog post is available, fill in the form below.