Vance Joy’s hit “Riptide” remained on the charts for 120 weeks! Not only was this tune an incredible success in itself but it is an ideal tune to learn as an entryway piece for beginning guitarists.
This song can help you develop full open chord shapes and use of the first fret capo as a practice exercise to play it in its original key.
Am
Vance Joy was another Australian one-hit wonder who rose to fame with the hit single Riptide in 2013. Luckily, its chords are simple for beginners to pick up.
As you learn this song, try practicing using whole-note strums to help develop rhythm and play with others. Do this by strumming each chord on every count from 1 through 4, strumming all three chords for four counts totalling seven each time you strum each one. Doing this will help get used to keeping time with other musicians!
Once you are comfortable with this technique, switch to quarter-note strums as this will enable faster playing speeds.
Once you know your chords, try stringing them together in an easy arrangement or create your own strumming pattern. When that is complete, move onto Part 2, which will teach you how to use Riptide chords as building blocks for hundreds of songs – you may be amazed how fast this happens!
G
Vance Joy’s 2013 hit Riptide is an ideal beginner acoustic tune, offering easy learning with an upbeat chorus sure to bring smiles. While its strumming pattern may prove challenging at first, easier versions exist that still deliver on rhythm and reward!
Riptide’s bridge chords may prove more challenging to play than its verse and chorus parts if you are new to open-position chords, but with some hard practice you will quickly master these complex arpeggios.
Be sure to explore my lessons on chord progressions and strumming dynamics if you want to advance your rhythm skills and play songs faster with greater professionalism. They’ll help make songs sound even better than before!
C
C chords feature prominently in many popular tunes such as Good Ridance (Time of Your Life) by Green Day and Perfect by Ed Sheeran, as well as rock ballad Sweet Child O’ Mine by Guns N Roses.
The open version of this chord sounds more lush than its barred version; give both versions a try to see which you prefer; the open chord may be easier to play but won’t offer you all of the full sound of a C major chord.
There are various options available to those wishing to learn C in its various forms. Each of the shapes listed below acts as a stepping-stone towards learning the full C major chord; Cadd9 works especially well as a replacement chord, making learning C much simpler than expected.
F
Riptide is an easy chord progression designed to build your open-position chord shapes. Once you can keep a steady quarter-note rhythm with your strumming pattern while changing chords, you will be ready to progress onto more advanced song arrangements.
Starting off by learning beginner acoustic songs like these can help develop rhythm and timing skills more quickly than by practising scales and studying theory alone.
Riptide’s studio recording is in C major; however, most guitar and ukulele websites show it being performed in G major with a capo on the first fret in order to recreate its original key (while fingering much simpler chords). For this song the chords used are Am, G and C (an F chord is only used during bridge section of song); with its strum pattern consisting of down down up down.