More Than Words by Extreme, originally written and played by guitarist Nuno Bettencourt, is one of the rare pop songs whose guitar part already contains the seeds of a complete fingerstyle arrangement. Bettencourt's original playing is so melodically rich and rhythmically nuanced that Sungha Jung's adaptation feels less like an arrangement and more like a reveal of what was always there.
Jung's version has accumulated over 16 million YouTube views, making it one of his most-watched videos and an important bridge between mainstream pop listeners and fingerstyle guitar. The chord melody approach stays entirely faithful to the original's gentle, intimate mood while demonstrating how much musical information a single acoustic guitar can contain.
The chord vocabulary — G, Cadd9, Am7, D, Em — consists of shapes familiar to most guitarists with six months or more of experience. Cadd9 and Am7 are beginner-friendly modifications of standard shapes that add harmonic color without significant added difficulty.
The picking pattern uses a thumb-plus-fingers approach that alternates bass notes with treble melody in a way that creates the illusion of two instruments. Isolating the bass-melody relationship and practicing each hand's role separately is the key to unlocking this arrangement.
This is an excellent piece for beginners wanting their first chord-melody experience. The emotional payoff is immediate.