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Radiohead: guitar tab and chords for Codex, The King of Limbs

    
    Codex - Radiohead
    -----------------

    From the album "The King of Limbs"

    Transcribed by Howard Wright 
    hakwright (at) gmail (dot) com


The chords for this song are pretty simple and work well on 
guitar, but the key is to get nice clean changes between chord 
shapes and to get a nice sustained sound. 

The crucial chord is the Bbadd9, which adds a touch of sweetness 
to contrast with the other more plain chords. Make sure when 
changing to and from this chord you hit all the notes cleanly.

I've written the chord shapes out for standard tuning without capo.
The only chord in the main part of the song that requires a slight 
stretch is the Bbadd9. If you find this one a bit awkward you can
use a capo on the first fret then use some different chord shapes, 
including a simpler Bbadd9 shape. These capo-first-fret shapes make
the changes in the main part of the song a bit easier, though the
exotic chords in the outtro section don't work quite as well. I've 
written out these alternative chord shapes (for the capo-first-fret 
version) underneath the main set of standard tuning (no capo) chords.

There are some subtle variations in the way the notes at the top of 
some chords are included or excluded, so for the bar chord shapes
like Bb, C, Am listen to the original song to hear where the full 
chord (on all 6 strings) will work.



Intro:
-------

C Bbadd9 Dm
C Bbadd9 Dm
Dm
C Bbadd9 Dm
C Bbadd9 Dm
Dm
C Bbadd9 Dm
C Bbadd9 Dm
Dm



Verse:
-------

C   Bbadd9 Dm
Sleight of hand

F    Gm  F/A   Bb
  Jump off the end

Bb         Am  C   Bbadd9
Into a clear lake

C      Bbadd9   Dm
  No one around

Dm



Verse 2:
---------

     C Bbadd9 Dm
Just dragonflies

F   Gm F/A Bb
   Fantasise

Bb      Am      C   Bbadd9
  No one gets hurt

C               Bbadd9      Dm
  You've done nothing wrong

Dm



Instrumental
-------------

C Bbadd9 Dm
C Bbadd9 Dm
Dm



Verse 3:
---------

C       Bbadd9  Dm
Slide your hand

F   Gm  F/A    Bb
  Jump off the end

Bb    Am       C   Bbadd9
The water's clear

C       Bbadd9   Dm
  And innocent

Bb    Am       C   Bbadd9
The water's clear

C      Bbadd9    Dm
And innocent	

Dm



Outtro
-------

Fadd9add#4  A9(no3rd)/E

Cadd9add#4  Bmadd9

Bb    Am     C   Bbadd9

C    Bbadd9    Dm

Dm



Chord shapes:
--------------

Standard tuning (no capo) chords are shown immediately below.
Alternative chord shapes using capo at the first fret are shown
further down.

E  A  D  G  B  E      E  A  D  G  B  E      EADGBE
8  10 10 9 (8) x      6  8  10 7  x  x      x5776x

      C                    Bbadd9             Dm


EADGBE      EADGBE      EADGBE      EADGBE      EADGBE    
133211      3x53xx      5875xx      688766      577555    

  F           Gm          F/A         Bb          Am      


EADGBE        EADGBE       EADGBE       EADGBE
13520x        00520x       x32032       7xx770

Fadd9add#4   A9(no3rd)/E  Cadd9add#4    Bmadd9

NB The F chord above is quite a stretch - just drop the note
on the D string (mute the D string) to make it more manageable.



Chord shapes (for capo at first fret):
---------------------------------------

Standard tuning chords for capo at the first fret are shown below.
Note that fret numbers are relative to the capo, so 0 means open 
string (i.e. capo first fret), 1 means 1 fret above capo (2nd fret) 
and so on. 

Note also that the more exotic chords at the end of the song 
(Fadd9add#4 etc) don't fit quite so well with capo, so the shapes
below don't include all the notes you really need. For simplicity
I've kept the same chord names for these shapes.


EADGBE      EADGBE      EADGBE      EADGBE   
x2444x      799877      x0242x      x4665x

  C           C         Bbadd9        Dm


EADGBE      EADGBE      EADGBE      EADGBE      EADGBE
022100      2x42xx      4764xx      577655      466444

  F           Gm          F/A         Bb          Am   


EADGBE       EADGBE       EADGBE       EADGBE 
0243xx       x663xx       x21x21       x13x21

Fadd9add#4  A9(no3rd)/E  Cadd9add#4    Bmadd9


An alternative shape for the Bmadd9 chord that includes the right
notes but is more of a stretch, try 6 x 11 8 6 x




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Last updated: July 2020