Billy Joel - If I Only Had the Words (To Tell You): Guitar Chords
Learn to play "If I Only Had the Words (To Tell You)" on your guitar with our chord guide. This page provides everything you need to perform this song on the guitar, including lyrics integrated with chords, chord diagrams, and a key transposer to match your vocal range.
For easier playing, use our Simplify Chords feature to remove difficult chords like barre.
A A/C# D A/C# If I only had the words to tell you Bm7 G7 E7 If you only had the time to understand A A/C# D A/C# Though I know it wouldn’t change your feelings Bm7 E7 A C E7 And I know you’ll carry on the best you can If I only had the urge to tell you If you only knew how hard it is to say When the simple lines have all been taken And the radio repeats them ev'ry day C C/E F C/E If I never find the song to sing you Dm7 A#7 G7 If you always find it hard to comprehend C C/E F C/E Well you know there wouldn’t be much meaning Dm7 G7 C If I had to sing those tired words again E7 E7/F# E7 Am Life... goes on and on G C G C Cmaj7 And tonight will soon be gone Fmaj7 Em7 But if we try Dm7 Gsus4 G Gsus2 G We can be sure If I only had the words to tell you If you only had the time to understand But I only have these arms to hold you And it's all that you can ask of any man C F A# Dm G Laa laa la la la laa la la la If I only had the words to tell you If you only had the time to understand Oh, but I only have these arms to hold you And it's all that you can ask of any man You can simplify chords by removing barre | TransposeReset Font SizeReset Guitar Chord DiagramsA  A#  A#7  Am  Bm7  C  C#  Cmaj7  D  Dm  Dm7  E  E7  Em7  F  F#  Fmaj7  G  G7  Gsus2  Gsus4  Here you can see detailed diagrams for each guitar chord used in the song. Utilize our key transposer to adjust the chords to a key that better fits your singing range. Simply select the desired key, and the chords throughout this page will update automatically, ensuring you can play and sing comfortably. |
If you are also interested in learning how to play "If I Only Had the Words (To Tell You)" on the ukulele, check out the chords on our sister site: Ukulele Chords for "If I Only Had the Words (To Tell You)" by Billy Joel.