Riptide is one of Vance Joy’s most well-known songs and can easily be learned on both guitar and ukulele. With its simple strumming pattern and easy chord progressions, this piece can be quickly picked up.
Strumming pattern practice should only take a short amount of time and practice. A metronome will help ensure the correct tempo is reached quickly.
C Major
Beginners often find chord learning a difficult challenge, but most popular songs require only four chords to master. Riptide by Vance Joy is an excellent example. Playable on guitar or ukulele using a capo at the first fret, the song features Am, G, C and F (sometimes seen as Fmaj7 in some music) chords – making this song easily playable without an expert!
As you practice, start out using whole-note strums to familiarize yourself with the rhythm. As soon as you feel at ease with that approach, switch over to quarter-note strums – this means strum every count except the ones corresponding with 1 2 3 4; once this step has become second nature to you.
This song’s open chord shapes may initially seem complex; however, they are actually much simpler than they may first appear. They closely resemble the familiar stepping-stone shapes you may already be familiar with and should become easy to play after just a bit of practice. Furthermore, as they will cycle throughout the song it’s essential that they are practiced often to quickly learn them and become a more confident musician.
G Major
G Major chord is one of the easiest chords for beginning players to learn, providing a versatile base to build upon when creating melodies with other chords. Beginners find G Major incredibly satisfying as a starting point and it pairs easily with other chords for more complex melodies.
Vance Joy utilizes this strumming pattern in his song “Riptide”. You can use it as an aid for learning the song or draw inspiration for creating new ones of your own.
To play this song in G Major, a capo should be used on the first fret. This will transpose it up a semitone from C Major and make fingering chords easier.
Capo guitars offer greater options when stringing chord progressions together, such as using whole-note or quarter-note strums for creating steady rhythmic patterns. Practice different strumming patterns until you gain an understanding of their rhythm.
Am Major
Riptide by Australian singer-songwriter Vance Joy has taken the world by storm. A simple melody with only four chords, it makes an excellent learning tool for guitarists of any level.
Riptide features an easy chord progression with open chord shapes that are familiar to most guitarists. The only challenge in playing Riptide may come when switching between C and F chords – something beginners may find challenging to do without assistance from using a capo on the first fret and playing in its original key.
With some practice, Riptide should be within your grasp on guitar. This song provides a good opportunity to familiarize yourself with different strumming patterns and changing between chords as well as using a capo for practice. Once you have learned these basic open chord shapes, more complicated songs should become accessible to you.
F Major
F Major is one of seven diatonic scales and its relative minor is D minor; 44% of songs analyzed by Hook Theory employ F Major as their scale of choice.
Riptide features chords based on F major, with an F major seventh chord (or dominant chord). This chord offers a distinctively more powerful sound to add depth and dimension to your playing.
Mastering these chords takes some practice, but with concentrated effort you’ll soon become adept. And once mastered, all the songs from Axis of Awesome video – plus over 4,500 more tunes! – will become accessible. That’s an impressive return on investment! Enjoy learning!