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
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