How to play Rolling in the Deep by Adele
Rolling in the Deep by Adele is from her hugely successful 2011 album 21. Already a Grammy award winner for her debut album, 19, Adele became the biggest selling artist of the 21st Century with 21 and it’s three hit singles topping charts all over the planet. Rolling in the Deep has gone on to be one of the most streamed songs of all time and makes a great power-chord chart for developing guitarists.
Power-chords: C5 B♭5 A♭5 G5
Pick or Fingers? Use a hard / medium-hard pick. Palm-mute the down-strokes in the verses and then use a strong, full tone in the chorus.
Acoustic or Electric? Electric guitar is the more conventional choice but a good quality steel-string acoustic can also work well, especially for a self-accompanying singer.
How do I make the palm-mute effect? Holding the picking between thumb-pad and forefinger, keep the other fingers open and lightly rest the side of the palm on the bridge, mostly on the bass strings (the little-finger side of the hand). It’s important to keep the hand pretty relaxed; don’t hold it down hard on the bridge, or apply pressure with the open fingers against the pick-guard; keep the whole hand relaxed.
Does the strumming have to be all downstrokes? In the verses, yes. Palm-muted down-strums is how we create the rhythm effect you hear on Rolling in the Deep. The chorus can also be all down strums; this creates the strong driving rhythm of the original but you can emulate this with alternate strumming; down-up-down-up strumming with a firm pick attack will also sound good and gives your strumming arm a bit of relief from the constant down-strum action.
Relevant pages in Modern Guitar Chord Styles 2 : to learn more about the bar-chords and rhythm techniques used in Rolling in the Deep 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.
