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When we hear the band name “Spin Doctors“, we immediately associate them with their hit song “Two Princess”. Although Spin Doctors is not a one-hit-wonder band (Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong, Pocket of Kryptonite, Mary Jane, Biscuit Head etc), they are still well known from the hit song “Two Princess“.

On this post we’ll learn the riff of one of the happy sounding song of the 90s with that very memorable guitar riff that sticks in your head.

The great thing about “Two Princess” is that the whole song uses the 4 chords. The 4 chord progression is nice and easy, but watch out for the strumming / muting. It will take some practice!

How to Play the Two Princess Main Riff

To be able to play the riff of the song, you should know how to play the 4 chords. Once you know how to play it, you are almost done with the song. All you need to know then is the strumming pattern and the places where you place the mutes.

The chords for the guitar riff of Two Princess are the follow:

D major – B minor – A major – G major

Since this song is from the 90s, the full bar chords are used. Yes, not the power chord but the full bar chords. To get that funky muting sound, Use the Barre Chord progression shown and alternate between applying full pressure on the strings with your fingers and releasing it as you strum the chords

That’s all there is to it! All you need to do is listen to the record and get that rhythm patter nailed down.

You can watch the video that comes along with this post to see the actual fingering, strumming and the muting techniques used in this song.

Here is the tab for the main riff of the song courtesy of Songsterr. (Register a FREE account today!)

Two Princess Chords Breakdown

Here is what I see in that tablature above. First, the D major chord is the first beat of 4 – those 2 quarter notes. The D chords is played full bar (just like the rest of the chords). The only difference is that all strings or notes of the D chord are played/strummed at the same time.

The second, third and fourth beat is the Bm (B minor) chord but unlike the first chord (D), it is played by halves of 3 strings. The first part of the Bm are 2 muted sixteenth notes, a rest and the last sixteeth note which is the strings E, A and D followed by the lower strings (still in the Bm), G, B and E strings).

Same pattern is played on the second bar for the chords A major and G major. Check the tablature out and the video that I will put up below this post..

Strumming Pattern for Two Princess

There are a number of “dead strum” in this song. Most of them are on the second beat of each bar.

The strumming pattern should be, Down Down (first beat, 2 eight notes) for the D major. Followed by an Up-Down which are muted/dead note. Followed by another Down Down for Bm.

Good luck rockstar!