Yesterday I got an email about this tune, what the chords are? The guy said he learned how to play lead and got in some trouble with chords.
I spent one hour with this beautiful instrumental and will share with you my thoughts on it, as I realised how astonishing the arrangement is.
I know exactly why this tune could possibly make a lot of trouble for people, it's because I believe all the guitars for this track were actually tuned down half step (or semitone) and were played in open positions on the left channel and upper on the neck on the right channel. If you try this tuning, you will realise how simple things will get, but you can play it in a standard tuning as well and with a capo, which is the easiest method.
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I'd like to start with the right hand technique. I'll write it down first and explain, so basically rhythm of strumming is this:
Just slowly follow it symbol by symbol. Upward pointing arrow means to strum toward thinner strings and downward pointing arrow means to strum toward thicker strings respectively. Notice two arrows have an apostrophe above, it's a big deal.
Rhythm obviously recorded with bare fingers, but it's possible to use a pick here, in this case 4th stroke would be an upstroke (??).
All the strokes in this diagram are equal in length. Now, important part — only 1st and 4th strokes (ones with the apostrophe) hit the thicker strings with the thumb, and all the other strokes should be going on higher strings only with the rest of the fingers. Also, you can lift your left hand after those 1st and 4th strokes and mute the strings. This way you will play the rhythm
exactly like on the record.
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Now, the chords. I'll write down three versions, first chords for half step down tuned guitar, then two for standard tuning.
First chord is A Minor, it was played in open position [x02210] on the left channel and in 5th position [577555] on the right.
It also can trick you, because on the left channel Mark plays it in a sort of boogie-style only on A and D strings with occasional notes on 4th and 5th frets on the D string, which actually turns this one chord vamp into three chord blues vamp — Am, Am6 and Am7. The riff reminds me classic Knopfler's boogie riffs like "Walk Of Life".
Next chord is G Major. Again, in open position on the left [320003] and in 3d position [355433] on the right.
Left guitar continue this kind of boogie rhythm with occasional E on the 2nd fret of the D string. At the end of this chord vamp Mark adds F on the 3d fret of the D strings making this chord G7, which is ideal for transition into C Major.
So next goes C Major. It's open on the left [x32010] and in 3d position on the right [x3555x] as I believe.
On the left channel here Mark adds A on 2nd fret of the G string to continue the boogie pattern.
Next chord is F Major. This one looks similar on both guitars [133211]. Only on the left channel Mark adds open D string here and there to continue the boogie pattern which sounds awesome through the whole song.
C Major again, F Major again, then C Major, G Major into C Major and it goes into the hardest chord in the song.
The chord is Bm7add11 [x2x230]. The other way to play it is in 5th position [7x775x].
Next chord is plain E7 [020130] or [x7675x] to get back to A Minor and that's it, this is the whole thing here, it just repeats over and over.
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To summarise, this is the chords:
Am........[x02210] or [577555]
G.........[320003] or [355433]
C.........[x32010] or [x3555x]
F.........[133211]
Bm7add11..[x2x230] or [7x775x]
E7........[020130] or [x7675x]And the full chart:
| Am | % | % | % |
| Am | % | G | % |
| C | F | C | F |
| C | G | C | Bm7add11 E7 |***
Now, if you want to play it in standard tuning, use these chords:
Abm........[466444]
Gb.........[244322]
B..........[x2444x] or [799877]
E..........[022100] or [x7645x]
Bbm7add11..[6x664x]
Eb7........[x6564x]
| Abm | % | % | % |
| Abm | % | Gb | % |
| B | E | B | E |
| B | Gb | B | Bbm7add11 Eb7 |***
The easiest way to play it is by using a capo on the 4th fret, now chords will look like this (simple!):
Em.........[022000]
D..........[x00232]
G..........[320003]
C..........[x32010]
F#m7add11..[2x220x]
B7.........[x21202]
| Em | % | % | % |
| Em | % | D | % |
| G | C | G | C |
| G | D | G | F#m7add11 B7 |***
What's also beautiful about this arrangement, is that it switches seamlessly between A Minor Pentatonic an C Major Pentatonic.
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I would want to thank Lee for this request and thanks to all of you out there, who wasn't bored by reading this.
Pavel
