Slow Dancing In A Burning Room Tab

Getting the Chords Right

The original recording uses a capo on the 2nd fret, and the chords are written in the key of E. If you don't use a capo, you'd transpose everything down a half step to D. Most people just use the capo because it preserves the open-string voicings Adele's guitarist is playing, and honestly, trying to barre all these shapes without one is an exercise in frustration. Here's the basic chord chart. I'll walk through the shapes after this. Verse progression: Emaj7 - Badd9 - C#m7 - A

Chorus progression: Emaj7 - Badd9 - C#m7 - A (x2, then G#m7 - C#m7 - A - B) The strumming pattern is roughly down-down-up-up-down-up, though the feel is more laid-back than that notation suggests. It's in 4/4 at about 62 BPM, which gives you plenty of time to reposition your fingers between changes. Emaj7 is just your standard E shape but without the low E string — play it as 020400. Badd9 comes out of a B shape: 202220. C#m7 is a Cminor shape with the 4th: 4x4444 or the open variation 4244xx. A is simply 002220. The G#m7 in the chorus is 4x4444 or 424344 depending on how you like your fingering.

I ran into a real issue early on when I tried learning this — the transition from Emaj7 to Badd9 feels smooth on paper but in practice my ring finger keeps drifting. The workaround that actually worked for me was anchoring my middle finger on the G string, 2nd fret, through both chords. It locks your hand into place and stops the unnecessary movement. Takes about a week of slow practice to make it automatic. One thing beginners consistently miss: the chorus ends on a turnaround that goes G#m7 - C#m7 - A - B, and that B chord is where most people rush. They see it coming and try to pre-position their fingers instead of just playing through it. The Badd9 at the end of the chorus needs a full palm mute — not a death grip, just enough weight on the strings right at the bridge to kill the ring. Press lightly with the side of your picking hand and strum through it. The dynamics matter more than anything else here. This song isn't about precision, it's about the space between the chords. Leave the Emaj7s to ring out longer than feels comfortable. Let the bass notes breathe. The track sounds thin when every chord is crisply attacked and immediately choked.

If you're reading this from a site like Ultimate Guitar, be aware that the most popular tabs are usually transcribed by ear from the studio version and tend to simplify the voicings. The real track has some added extensions — the Emaj7 often gets an extra harmonic on the high E string that isn't notated anywhere. You can approximate it by lightly touching the high E string at the 12th fret harmonic position while playing the Emaj7 chord, but it's optional. The core progression works without it. For a downloadable tab file, most reliable sources are on Ultimate Guitar and Songsterr. Neither is perfect for this song — Songsterr's interactive player is closer to the actual timing, so I'd recommend using that as your reference while cross-checking the chord symbols against the chart above. The fret positions are usually correct on both platforms.