There is a specific kind of dread reserved for songs that sound like a nursery rhyme but arrive with a body count. "Round and Round" — the Mingle Song from Squid Game — is exactly that: a sweet, sing-song little melody whose job on screen is to tell you that some very unpleasant math is about to happen. Naturally, I decided the correct response was to arrange it for solo guitar and make it gentle enough that nobody gets eliminated.
This clip is my easy fingerstyle version of the Squid Game "Round and Round" Mingle Song — the eerie soundtrack piece reduced to something a beginner can actually sit down and learn. No 456 players, no masked guards, just your thumb, three fingers, and a melody that will absolutely loop in your head for the rest of the day.
How this easy fingerstyle arrangement works
The whole trick with a beginner chord-melody piece like this is dividing labour between your right-hand thumb and fingers. Your thumb owns the bass strings and keeps the low notes plodding along like a slow carousel, while your index, middle and ring fingers pluck the top three strings to carry the melody. Because "Round and Round" leans on friendly, open-position harmony — think G, C, D7 and Em, or the C-key version people transpose it to from the original B♭ — you can let the chord ring underneath while the tune sits on top. That's the entire illusion of fingerstyle: one guitar sounding like two hands doing very different jobs.
The concrete takeaway: keep your thumb absolutely steady and quiet, and let the melody notes be the loud ones. Beginners almost always play the bass too hard and bury the tune. Practise the melody alone first, add the bass second, and only then glue them together slowly — the eerie sing-song quality lives entirely in that balance. If the tab looks intimidating, my guide on reading guitar tabs untangles it in a few minutes.
Play it too well at a party and someone will nervously check whether the doors are locked. If you want the full PDF and GuitarPro file so your fingers survive the game, they are waiting on my Patreon.