R.E.M. – Man on the Moon (Tab)
I tabbed R.E.M.’s Losing My Religion a while back. So high time I did a song from their follow-up Automatic for the People: Man on the Moon
Intro: Plenty of room to play around with ideas in the intro. I’m just picking out notes from a few chord inversions.
Verse: Just two chords (C and D), a stately pace and a contained melody.
Pre-Chorus: A classic pre-chorus, building up the energy into the chorus. So it starts at the same level as the verse, builds complexity and moves up the neck in bars 26 and 27. Then switches from picking to strumming in bar 28.
Chorus: The trickiest part of the song with chord changes coming thick and fast.
Solo: Another place you can introduce your own ideas. Mine is a similar idea to the intro with notes coming mostly from the chords. I’m also doing plenty of sliding around to emulate the slide guitar in the original.
This arrangement goes straight from the solo in the chorus. So I’ve taken a hint from the pre-chorus and ending the solo with a move up the neck and then some strumming.
