Riptide (Vance Joy) Guitar Lesson with TAB

Riptide Guitar Lesson + TAB
In this guitar lesson, you get TAB for playing all sections with a capo on both fret 1 and 6. It is much more difficult than expected!


Riptide | TAB


Considering there are only three chords (four in the middle 8), there’s an enormous amount of TAB to go through here. Let’s start with the capo on fret 1, here’s the verse.

Riptide TAB, verse capo 1.

The chords here are VI – V – I. We can say this is in the key of Am/C. It’s not in the key of G even though the chords could have been II – I – IV. We know this because the melody is the A Minor Pentatonic, using the b7 over the G chord.

When working out modes like this, one must always look at what the melody is doing.

Still, the ambiguous feeling that it could be in either key gives the progression tension, a great songwriting trick!

For the chorus, the chords are the same, but the rhythm changes, like this.

Riptide TAB, chorus capo 1.

You could play all this using a capo on fret 6 instead, or if there are two of you, pick one each.

Now the chords change slightly as using a full D chord would be too high in pitch, we automatically get a D5, instead of a D (chord V). I’ve put the 5th in the bass to fatten this chord up, hence a D5/A.

Riptide TAB, verse capo 6.


For the chorus, we again change the rhythm.

Riptide TAB, chorus capo 6.

Keep that capo on fret 6 and let’s look at the breakdown and middle 8 section where we get a new chord that shows us we must be in the Aeolian, not Dorian.

Riptide TAB, breakdown and middle 8 capo 6.

Starting out with an add9 lick we soon enter the middle 8 which goes VI – V – I – IV. If we had been in the key of D, that last chord (C/G) would have been outside the key. This is another way we determine key centres (the first was melody).

The rhythm has changed again here, play slowly at first, then along to the original recording, it’s not as easy as it seems.

Finally, let’s move the capo to fret 1 again and play as if in Am/C.

Riptide TAB, breakdown and middle 8 capo 1.


Riptide TAB | Related Pages


Riptide | Chords + Lyrics

Riptide chords lesson.

You can learn to play Riptide by Vance Joy using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, a chord chart, and the original recording.

Am G | C |
I was scared of dentists and the dark…


Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics

When you can play the TAB for Riptide, try these five tunes from the songbook.


Vance Joy tunes

Vance Joy wrote Riptide.

Following the tradition of great Australian one-hit wonder bands, Vance Joy became world-famous in 2013.

His worldwide hit Riptide stayed in the top 100 for over 100 weeks. In ten years, the video has been played over 500 million times on YouTube.


Vance Joy on the web

Listen to Vance Joy on Spotify.


About me | Dan Lundholm

Dan Lundholm wrote this guitar lesson and TAB for Riptide chords.

This guitar lesson by Dan Lundholm features TAB and covers Riptide. Discover more about him and how you can learn guitar with Spytunes.

Most importantly, find out why you should learn guitar through playing tunes, not practising scales, and studying theory in isolation.


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