The Who / Limp Bizkit - Behind Blue Eyes - Guitar Tab

About Behind Blue Eyes

Pete Townshend wrote "Behind Blue Eyes" and the fingerpicked opening in E minor is where most guitarists want to start. The arpeggiated intro uses open-position chords with a deliberate, unhurried feel, so locking in clean finger placement before worrying about speed is the right move. At 96 BPM in E Standard the tempo is manageable, but the song demands that your picking hand stays relaxed and consistent across both the quiet fingerpicked verse and the driving power-chord surge that hits in the chorus. That dynamic shift is the real challenge: going from delicate single-note work to full-strummed aggression without losing your place or tensing up. Use the Practice Toolbar to loop the transition between the soft and loud sections slowed down until the change feels automatic. Both The Who's original arrangement and Limp Bizkit's later cover are worth studying, as each approaches the Rock guitar feel differently and gives you two contrasting models for tone and attack.

• The fingerpicked intro uses open-position E minor chord shapes, making clean left-hand fretting and consistent right-hand finger alternation the first things to nail.
• The song's biggest guitar challenge is the abrupt dynamic shift from quiet arpeggiated verses to full power-chord strumming in the chorus, all within the same tuning and tempo.
• Studying both the original Pete Townshend arrangement and the Limp Bizkit cover shows two distinct approaches to rhythm guitar tone and picking intensity on the same chord progression.