How to play APT by Rosé & Bruno Mars
From her 2024 album Rosie, APT is one of the biggest global hits happening in 2025. With a big nod to ‘80s/90s pop-punk Rosé & Bruno combine with great effect on this energetic, fun rocker. APT’s well structured blend of power-chords with varied rhythms make it a great chart for developing electric guitarists.
Power-chords: C5 B♭5 A♭5 E♭5 G5 F5
Do the chords all have to be power-chords? That’s what the guitar on the recording is playing but other elements of the performance suggest full chords. You can create a bigger, thicker tone in the chorus by playing full bar-chord versions of A♭ B♭ Cm and E♭
Pick or Fingers? Pick, definitely! APT is a great example of power-chord rhythm work on electric guitar. You need the hard, instant attack of the pick to create the strong tone that makes this style work.
Acoustic or Electric? Electric guitar, for sure. Although the power-chords can work on a good steel-string acoustic you won’t get the authentic rock tone of the original. The electric guitar is designed for this kind of chord work; acoustic guitars are not.
What are the crossed strums for? A rhythm-slash with a cross-head is a ‘percussive strum’ - a muted effect made by relaxing the chord fingers to make a blunt percussive sound. A common electric guitar rhythm effect, it is a good way to mark time and keep the overall rhythm going when the guitar has a rest section.
How does the timing in the F5 bars work? The strong accented strums in these two bars are consecutive 1-and-a-half-beat values. Note the way the last rhythm slash ties across the bar line to create another strum of the same length. Count and clap these bars a few times before playing it slowly a few more. Count them as “| 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and | 1 and 2 and 3 4“.
Relevant pages in Modern Guitar Chord Styles 2 : to learn more about the power-chords and rhythm techniques used in APT go to pages 4 - 5, 7, 8 - 9 and 14
Need a bit of help?
Modern Guitar Chord Styles 2 is a must-have guide to Electric guitar chords and rhythm styles. It teaches you how to read the rhythm slash notation used in our charts (as used in professional theatre & studio charts) and is specially designed to build your strength and stamina with bar-chords, and extend your moveable chords vocabulary. An excellent tutor for the developing electric guitarist.
