Lorde/Walk off the Earth – Royals (Chords)
I post a lot of instrumental fingerpicking pieces but I don’t often show fingerpicking as an accompaniment. Doing the acoustic riffs post made me want to dedicate some posts to uke fingerpicking in songs. So this week is dedicated to fingerpicking accompaniment.
Starting off with a perfect bit of fingerpicking for beginners. The little picking pattern in Walk off the Earth’s cover of LORDE’s Royals is dead simple.
Twiddly Bits
For the fingerpicking you don’t have to worry about the fretting hand at all. Just hold down a C chord all the time.
For the first picking pattern pluck:
– The C-string with your thumb.
– Then the E-string with your index finger.
– Then the A-string with your middle finger.
– Let all those notes ring out for the rest of the bar.
Here’s how that’s played (slowed down a little):
There’s a slightly different pattern in the second verse. The first bar is just the same. But for the second bar you do the exact opposite. So it’s:
– The A-string with your middle finger.
– Then the E-string with your index finger.
– Then the C-string with your thumb.
– Let all those notes ring out for the rest of the bar.
Suggested Strumming
The main pattern is a very reggae down strum on every off beat:
– d – d – d – d
Keep all the down strums short except the second one. Let that strum ring. Here’s how it sounds:
Do that twice on the C chord and once each on Bb and F.
Links
Buy the WotE version
Buy the LORDE version
Little Boxes Chords
Awesome, they didn’t miss a beat! How fun…
Might have to practice that a bit for our new twist on our monthly uke jam with our neighbors…….