Mangled Chords

This week we get White Wedding by Billy Idol. There's a few new things here.

Two new chords are the Dadd5 and the Eadd10. The Dadd5 is hard to find online, it's a D5 with a pinky on the 5th fret of the high E string. It's a reach. The Eadd10 is also tough one to find. Do a regular E major chord but throw your pinky onto the 4th fret of the high E string.

Note that the two measure Bm snippet that you see between the second and third lines is supposed to be the third line. So in the flow of the song it goes Dadd5, Eadd10, four measures of Bm (the drawn in measures), two more Bm, then A and E. Also, watch out for those mutes between strums during that two measure strum pattern as it indicates on the sheet. With the barre chords you can mute just by lifting your fretting fingers slightly. On the open chords you'll need to do a palm mute with your strumming hand.

Week 6 Sheet Music [PDF]

Note: This version doesn't have the original lyrics, but I like these better.

This week we got "Bridge Over Troubled Water" by Simon & Garfunkel. The beginning is pretty straight forward. The difficulty comes halfway through the third line. Each chord is a single strum from there until the second measure of the last line. Be careful of the two new chords: D/C bass and F#o (F# diminished). Also, pay attention to the notes for when to strum. If it's a half note strum once for those two counts, if it's a quarter note then strum once on the count. Otherwise, follow the strum patterns and have fun.

Week 5 Sheet Music [PDF]

This week brings The Hardest Button to Button by The White Stripes. It's got a mix of some power chords at the beginning, some muted picking the in the middle, and a couple of barre chords at the end.

Week 4 Sheet Music [PDF]

As mentioned, here's the Simpsons version.

Klara and Johanna Soderberg of First Aid Kit cover Fleet Foxes 'Tiger Mountain Peasant Song' in the woods near their home in Sweden

This week brings two new songs: Good Lovin' and Ring Of Fire

Good Lovin' is meant as an exercise in quick transitions between chords along with a 5-string major barre chord. Each two line section is in a different key but follows the same strum pattern. The copy that I got has some artifacts at the top left of the page but you can still make out the strum pattern.

Ring Of Fire exercises bass plucking and intro riffs. It has a few 2/4 measures thrown in. They are played the same as first half of the preceding measure (i.e. the 2/4 in the first line is a pluck on 3rd fret low E followed by a down then up strum of the G chord). Also, it's kind of hard to see but the third line repeats 3 times

The second week was spent going over the different parts of "And I Love Her" in detail and then moving on to "Island In The Sun" by Weezer.

Week 2 Sheet Music [PDF] - Weezer "Island In The Sun"

This song starts out with a sequence of three string chords (played on the top three strings). In case you can't see the first chord it's 3-5-4 starting from the top. The first line is all three string chords; the second two lines are regular, open chords; the third line is small solo riff that gets played in the middle of the song somewhere.

Our first week of class and we're starting where we left off, with The Beatles - And I Love Her. Lots of barre chords to practice plus a solo section and some triads on a new page. There's something for everybody. Have fun practicing and we'll see you next week.

Week 1 Sheet Music [PDF]

• The Beatles - And I Love Her
• Randy Brooks - Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer

It's been fun, see you next term.

We were talking about Bon Iver in class the other day. He ran into the snowy northlands, secluded, and came back with a bunch of hauntingly beautiful songs. Here's my favorite from his Blood Bank EP.