Easy tutorial for beginners with some explanations, the tab, the lyrics and the chords to play the Bossa Nova Wave by Antonio Carlos Jobim on guitar.
Wave with chords
Each verse of this Bossa Nova is played in the same way.
We will therefore only look at verse 1 and bridge.
Verse 1 of music
Here are the chords you will need to know to play this first verse.
The chords you need to know are many. So I advise you to look for a while and practice these chords before you start playing.
When you master those chords, you can follow the next tab to play verse 1 :
Remember that the chords are written above the lyrics so that you can play them at the right time. Therefore, it’s better to play while singing. Chords that are to the right of a phrase (not above a word) are played between the two phrases.
Between verse 2 and bridge
At the end of verse 2 (which is played as verse 1), to make a transition to the bridge, I am used to play two different chords :
Bridge of the song
Of the chords you have already learned for verse 1, you will need only one : the Am. The others are new chords :
When you have the chords ready, you can follow the next tab to play the bridge :
Wave video with tab
Play an other bossa nova tab like the famous How Insensitive.
Wave lyrics
The song of Bossa Nova Wave is composed of three verses and a bridge.
The structure of the lyrics is simple :
Verse 1 – Verse 2 – Bridge – Verse 3
Verse 1
Vou te contar
Os olhos já não podem ver
Coisas que só o coração pode entender
Fundamental é mesmo o amor
É impossivel ser feliz sozinho
Verse 2
O resto é mar
É tudo que eu não sei contar
São coisas lindas
Que eu tenho pra te dar
Vem de mansinho a brisa e me diz
É impossivel ser feliz sozinho
Bridge
Da primeira vez era a cidade
Da segunda o cais e a eternidade
Verse 3
Agora eu já sei
Da onda que se ergueu no mar
E das estrelas que esquecemos de contar
O amor se deixa surpreender
Enquanto a noite vem nos envolver
Try to play in a jazz style the song All of me.
Wave history
Wave is a Bossa Nova song composed in 1967 by Brazilian Antônio Carlos Jobim, also known as Tom Jobim.
If Wave appears at first as a classic Bossa Nova song, sung by Jobim and Sergio Mendes, it quickly becomes a Jazz standard. In fact, already in 1969, less than two years after its release, the great Oscar Peterson recorded the song on his album Motions and Emotions. Ahmad Jamal, Paul Desmond, Stan Getz and Herbie Hancock would follow.
And if Wave quickly becomes a very famous jazz theme, it also follows its path as a song, sung by Franck Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald in English as well as by João Gilberto and Toquinho in Portuguese.