Tag: Pop
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Panic at the Disco – High Hopes (Tabs)
Here’s my take on Panic at the Disco’s High Hopes.
Intro: Starting out dead easy with the parping horns section.
Chorus: This section is fiddly. But it’s all contained on the lower frets. It’s also fun to play once you get it down.
Verse: This section moves up the neck and ramps up in difficulty. Setting up bar 17 is particularly hard. To help with that, I recommend not letting the F chord in the previous bar ring. That gives your fingers more time to set up.
Bridge: This is the fiddliest section. You can replace the 5 – 6 on the E-string with 0 – 1 on the A-string if you find that easier. Or even just use the open A-string followed by the E-string 6th fret.
Pre-Chorus: A welcome easy section. You’re just blasting out chords here. That leads into a chorus with just the melody, then a final chorus with chords.
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Sixpence None the Richer – Kiss Me (Tabs)
Here’s the ultimate 90s one hit wonder: Sixpence None the Richer’s Kiss Me.
Intro: A simple start. Just strumming out a G chord with the note on the E-string moving down and back up chromatically.
Verse: That chord progression continues into the verse. The melody here is very contained. It’s almost all going between the open g-string and open A-string until bar 12 , which builds into the chorus.
Chorus: The chords get busy in the chorus. I found it a bit of a challenge to memorise all the changes. But once it’s under your fingers, it’s not hard to play.
Solo: The first half of the solo is very relaxed. But there’s a lot more to do in the second half. This arrangement is only loosely based on the original. So feel free to change it however you like.
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KPop Demon Hunters – Golden (Tabs)
For a parody song from a movie, they really went all out with Golden from KPop Demon Hunters.
Intro: The technical wizardry starts right away. The song starts in 3/4 time and shifts both time signature and tempo seamlessly into 12/8. This is done by having one eighth note in 3/4 be the same duration as two eighth notes in 12/8. This is a technique known as metric modulation. I recommend watching David Bruce’s video on the topic if you want to understand it. And I recommend listening to this section of Stray Kids’ Side Effects to hear some time signature fuckery you don’t get much in pop.
Verse: From here on, the song is in 12/8. This time signature crops up fairly often in K-Pop such as GFRIEND’s Apple and Fifty Fifty’s Lovin’ Me. In 12/8 the beats are arranged into four groups of three (so you can count each bar 1-2-3-4 with each beat being divided into triplets). But they sometimes go against this grouping. So, for example, in bar 15 (“Now that’s how I’m getting paid”) it’s divided into six evenly spaced notes.
Pre-Chorus: This is where the vocals start to make big leaps and we head up the neck. But this section is slow and minimal. So it’s straightforward to play.
Chorus: This is where things get very tricky. In the first half of the chorus, there are lots of rapid repeated notes. And in the second half, we’re leaping up and down the neck. With the melody stretching from the open E-string up to the 12th fret on the A-string.
Outro: Similar to the chorus, we have a first half with rapid notes and a second half with big shifts. For the rapid notes, I’m doing a modified triplet strum. So I’m strumming down with my index and middle fingers together. Then plucking the A-string with my index finger, followed by a pluck with my middle finger.
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Phil Collins – Against All Odds (Tabs)
Here’s my take on Phil Collins’ Against All Odds.
Intro: A quick intro with the thumb picking the C-string with index and middle on the higher strings.
Verse: Switching to one finger per string picking from here up to the outro. That allows the g-string to get in on the melody in bars 3 and 4. You can take advantage of the open strings in bar 2 to give yourself time to move up to the fifth fret.
Chorus: This is the trickiest section, with lots of movement up and down the neck, some campanella playing, and a stretch for the Gm chord in bar 11.. To prepare for that stretch, make sure you’re playing the E-string, 6th fret with your index finger. That’ll put your hand in the right place for the chord.
The chorus includes a couple of bars of 2/4. The original only has the second one. But it felt much more natural to me to play it both times. If you don’t want to do that, you can skip the first half of bars 13 and 19.
Outro: A repeat of the intro with another, “Take a look at me now.” Then a series of chords that leave the song on a cliffhanger.
Links
Elvis Presley – Suspicious Minds (Tabs)
Here’s my take on Elvis’s Suspicious Minds.
Intro: A nifty little riff to start with.
Verse: The verses are nice and simple. A straightforward G-C-D chord progression with a simple but effective melody.
The verse at the end (bar 40 onwards) is a beefed-up version of the first half of the earlier verse pattern.
Chorus: Here’s where things get challenging. There’s a lot of bouncing up and down the neck. And things get fiddly at the top end. I found the high Bm section (bar 24) the most challenging bit of the song.
Bridge: This section has a big drop in tempo and a time signature change to 6/8. Like the chorus, there are some challenging moves here. But the slower tempo makes it more manageable.
Outro: Closing off with a descending G minor pentatonic inspired by the live ending of the song.
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Nena – 99 Red Balloons (Tabs)
Today’s tab is Nena’s 99 Red Balloons. Originally 99 Luftballons. I worked from the English version for this arrangement, but there’s not a lot of difference between them.
Intro/Outro: The song closes with a slow, fingerpicked version of the melody. Nothing troubling to tackle here. It’s all basic chords in the first position. The g-string does some of the melody work, so make sure those notes are prominent.
Bridge: The song speeds up for the riff section. I’m fingerpicking the notes here with muted strums (plus a muted note on the g-string that’s picked with the thumb). Keep this section staccato to match the original.
Verse: The increased tempo and use of strums makes this section trickier than the first. But, as compensation, it’s more repetitive so it’s simple once you get it under your fingers.
Solo: The keyboard solo doesn’t seem any trickier than the verse, but I found it much more of a challenge.
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Bananarama – Cruel Summer (Tabs)
Here’s one to learn while sweating your bollocks (or lady bollocks) off: Bananarama’s Cruel Summer.
The intro is by far the hardest part of this one. It gets fiddly at the top of the fretboard. Apart from that, it’s pretty straightforward. There’s only three chords in the whole song (Em, D and C). And those are all in the open position until the break section where I use different inversions and things get sweaty on the strumming front.
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Billy Joel – Piano Man (Tabs)
Intro: The song kicks off with a couple of jazz licks that are completely unrelated to the rest of the song. But do sound cool. It’s fine to drop those if you’re not into it. Or adjust it to your taste.
That leads into the intro proper. I’ve changed this up a bit from the original. And I’ve shortened it since the original is 30 seconds in before the verse starts.
Verse: The verse is nice and straightforward. It’s all contained in the first few frets and uses familiar chord shapes. Be aware that the open g-string at the start åof bar 19 is a melody note, so make sure it stands out.
Pre-Chorus: Switching to strums for the build up to the chorus. I didn’t find a nice way to play the melody and the descending notes at the same time. So I sacrificed the melody and just hinted at it with the hammer-ons on the E-string.
Chorus: Almost identical to the melody in the verse. But it’s beefed up with a bunch of strumming.
Solo: The trickiest part of the song. There are some quick runs that use campanella picking and a bit of quick movement up the neck. There’s room for changing things here. But I wouldn’t move away from the original too much as it has a strong melodic sense to it.
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Band Aid – Do They Know It’s Christmas? (Tabs)
Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas? is one of the most lyrically disastrous songs ever written. But since this is an instrumental, we can ignore that.
The chords simple; just F, G and C with a few D minors and A minors thrown in.
The melody gets a little fiddly though. And it wanders all over the fretboard. A couple of bits to look out for are Bono’s legendary “Tonight thank God…” (in bars 38 and 39) and the pinkie stretch to the fifth fret in bar 32. You can make that part easier by using the open E-string instead of holding the third fret.
The other challenge is memorising it all. There are no repeats until the chorus right at the end of the song.
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Billie Eilish – What Was I Made For? (Tabs)
Here’s my take on Billie Eilish’s contribution to the Barbie soundtrack: What Was I Made For?
Intro: I went with a few spicy chords for the intro to emphasise the melancholy mood of the song. If you prefer, you can just pick through the standard C – Em – F chord pattern.
Verse: I’ve kept the arrangement for this simple and sparse. It’s a great melody, so doing that gives it plenty of room to breathe.
Chorus: Things get a bit more involved in the chorus with pull-offs, slides and a few trips up the neck to deal with.
Break: This section is only loosely based on the original. So there’s plenty of room to play about here.
Outro: The song is in C but it ends on a G chord (i.e. the V chord). That leaves the song hanging on a tense, uncertain note.