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 xBack to guitar tabs
Last updated: July 2020
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