radiohead
Photo: Daniel Burka

True Love Waits

“True Love Waits” is a song by English rock band Radiohead. It was first performed live in 1995 and has been a fan favorite ever since. However, it was not officially released until 2016 on their ninth studio album, A Moon Shaped Pool.

The song is a haunting and beautiful ballad about the power of love and the passage of time.

The song’s melody is simple but effective, and it is perfectly matched by Thom Yorke’s emotional vocals. This simplicity gives the song a sense of intimacy and vulnerability.

The advent of True Love Waits is peculiar because it’s a very old song, and my impression of Radiohead was that they’re not fond of revisiting their old music. Even still, it made it into their live set lists for over 20 years in various incarnations, mostly acoustic.

How to play True Love Waits | fingerstyle guitar

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The guitar tab for this piece is just over two pages long. It’s very easy to play and I would recommend this song for beginner guitar players and up.

My song structure, in accordance with the guitar tab is:

Intro, Verse 2x, Chorus

Verse 2x, Chorus, End.

Enjoy, the guitar tab is available below:

**True Love Waits | fingerstyle guitar

True Love Waits is played in a rather trick tuning that I’ve implemented before on this blog. Essentially you’ll tune the guitar down one 1/2 step except for the low E (6th) string.

The tuning is as follows, from low to high: E Ab Db Gb Bb Eb.  Or, depending on your tuner, it will look like this:  E G# C# F# A# D#.

After this you’ll add a capo to the 1st fret.