Practice the chords involved in the song "Iris" if necessary. The chords are Bm, Bsus2, D, Em, G and A. You play Bm by barring the second fret with your index finger and then holding down the second string (moving from high to low) in the third fret and holding down the third and fourth strings in the fourth fret. Play a Bsus2 by holding down the third and fourth strings in the second fret. Practice a D chord by holding down the first string in the second fret, the second string in the third fret and the third string in the second fret. Play an Em chord by holding down the fourth and fifth strings in the second fret. Practice playing a G chord by holding down the first and sixth strings in the third frets, along with the fifth string in the second fret. Play an A chord by holding down the second, third and fourth strings in the second fret.
Practice the strumming pattern. This song is in 3/4 time, which means that the beats sound like, "1-and-2-and-3-and, 1-and-2-and-3-and...," with the emphasis on the first beat. A set of 3 beats makes up a measure. Strum a single down stroke for the beats "1-and." Strum another down stroke on "2," followed by an upstroke on "and," a down stroke on "3," and another upstroke on "and." You can vary this slightly during the song if you like, but this is the basic pattern.
Play the intro to the song by playing the following pattern:
Bm (1 measure), Bsus2 (1 measure), G (2 measures)
Bm (1 measure), Bsus2 (1 measure), G (2 measures)
Play the following pattern for the first verse of the song:
D (1 measure), Em (1 measure), G (2 measures)
Bm (1 measure), A (1 measure), G (2 measures)
D (1 measure), Em (1 measure), G (2 measures)
Bm (1 measure), A (1 measure), G (2 measures)
Repeat the previous pattern from Step 4 for the second verse of the song.
Play the following pattern four times in order to play the song's chorus:
Bm (1 measure), A (1 measure), G (2 measures)
Play the pattern from step four for the final verse of the song, followed by the same pattern for the chorus that you used in Step 6.