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The Darkness - I Believe in a Thing Called Love - Guitar Tab

Sections · Loop · Speed · Metronome

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SECTIONS

Select a Loop

Start of your loop
End of your loop

Speed Control

Speed
100%

Tools

BPM
Key E major
The Darkness - I Believe in a Thing Called Love guitar tab video
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Amp Settings

Classic Rock

Gain6
Bass6
Mid7
Treble6
Presence5
Master7
AI tone preset

AI-selected preset based on genre and era — adjust the knobs to taste.

Roll back the gain slightly and pick near the neck for a warmer, more open crunch.
Listen on Spotify
The Darkness Hard Rock E major
Capo Advisor 0 E major · Original key

About I Believe in a Thing Called Love

Few songs nail the sheer fun of The Darkness better than this one, and getting it right on guitar is a genuine workout. The main riff sits in E major and leans hard on palm-muted power chords driven at 128 BPM, so your picking hand needs to stay tight and consistent from the very first bar. The choppy, syncopated feel of that riff is where most players slip up: the rhythm is busier than it sounds on first listen, and even a small timing wobble makes the whole thing feel loose. Use the Practice Toolbar to loop that riff slowed down until the palm muting and the chord changes feel completely automatic before you bring it back up to tempo. The lead work asks for confident bends and a bright, almost theatrical hard rock tone, so dig into your bridge pickup and do not be shy with the gain. Getting the swagger in the rhythm playing is honestly the bigger challenge here than any single lick.

  • The main riff is built on palm-muted E major power chords at 128 BPM, demanding a tight, consistent picking-hand technique throughout.
  • Rhythmic syncopation in the chord pattern is the trickiest part, so practise it slowly with the Practice Toolbar before pushing to full tempo.
  • A high-gain bridge pickup tone captures the bright, punchy character the guitar parts need in both the riff and the lead sections.

How to Play I Believe in a Thing Called Love

The song moves through: Intro, Verse, Pre-Chorus, Chorus, Solo 2, Bridge, Solo 3, Outro.

Tuning: E Standard · Key: E major · Tempo: 128 BPM · Difficulty: Medium

The arrangement runs through 8 distinct sections, and the solo is the steepest jump, so isolate it on its own.

Use the section loop to isolate a passage, drop the speed below 100%, and set the metronome to 128 BPM to build it up to tempo.

Gibson Les Paul Standard
Guitar

Gibson Les Paul Standard

Dan Hawkins' weapon of choice, delivering the chunky mahogany midrange grunt that anchors The Darkness's thick rhythm tone. The Les Paul's heft and sustain let those classic PAF humbuckers sing when pushed through cranked Marshalls.

Gibson Les Paul Custom
Guitar

Gibson Les Paul Custom

Justin Hawkins uses this for its versatility across albums, pairing the Les Paul's woody body resonance with the Bigsby vibrato for expressive tremolo work on solos and harmonies.

Gibson SG Standard
Guitar

Gibson SG Standard

Justin's primary platform for The Darkness's signature sound, the SG's lighter body and snappier response let him execute intricate twin harmonies with Dan while maintaining clarity at high gain.

Marshall JCM800
Amp

Marshall JCM800

The tube amp backbone of The Darkness's tone, pushed hard into natural breakup at stage volume rather than preamp distortion, preserving the dynamic pick attack essential to their classic rock approach.

Dunlop Cry Baby Wah
Pedal

Dunlop Cry Baby Wah

Justin Hawkins' signature effect featured across every album, the Cry Baby cuts through the band's thick wall of Marshall tubes with expressive sweep, defining moments in their blues-rock solos.

Boss CE-2 Chorus
Pedal

Boss CE-2 Chorus

Justin deploys this on clean arpeggiated sections to add shimmer and space without losing the transparency needed for The Darkness's tightly voiced twin guitar arrangements.

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