Riptide

Why this song

Riptide is the song that proved you only need three chords to write a global hit. Am, G, and C, looped from start to finish. Verses, chorus, and the famous hook are all the same three chords moving in the same order.

The capo on fret 1 brings the chord shapes up a half-step to match Vance Joy’s original recording. If you do not have a capo yet, you can play it without one and it sounds in a different key but the hand work is identical.

How to practice it

Capo on fret 1. Metronome at 102 BPM.

The progression is Am - G - C repeated for one full bar each, with the C held for two bars before looping back. So you get a beat of breathing room every fourth bar before resetting on Am.

Strumming is the standard down-down-up-up-down-up. The song originally features ukulele, so the picture in your head should be a light, bouncy strum, not a heavy folk-rock one.

Common snags

Am to G is the only change that takes practice. Both shapes use three fingers but on completely different string sets. Your hand has to lift and reorganize.

The trick: focus on landing the G cleanly. Most beginners skim over the G shape because they’re already preparing the next chord. Hold G for a full beat before letting your hand start preparing C. That extra discipline makes the whole loop feel locked.

C to Am is much friendlier. They share two fingers (index on B fret 1, middle on D fret 2). Only the ring finger moves, from A fret 3 (C) to G fret 2 (Am).

When you have it

Once Riptide is steady, you have the basic three-chord toolkit that opens up most modern acoustic pop. Hurt for the same Am-based feel slower gives you a different mood with the same chord vocabulary, and our list of more three-chord beginner songs is grouped by exactly which shapes you already know.