Solving The Puzzle
This is the third and final part in our series of articles on figuring out songs by ear. Let’s put all the pieces together and and take out the guesswork.
Moving on to the chorus, I listen not only to the bass and the melody, but also to the harmonies in order to get a better handle on the chords. I detect the bass run up to B at the start, followed by C, then something else and then finally D. After several listens, I’m stumped. I’ve got the third chord narrowed down to either G or B minor and I try them both out and decide I like the B minor better. This may turn out to be wrong, but it sounds fine to me.
The last line starts out the same but definitely end up with IV to I. Again I am torn on the third chord – between B minor and D this time. I decide the D is more like the tape (but I still find myself playing the B minor from time to time). Of course it ends with the intro riff:
And now, taking note of the extra line in the last verse (which is a repeat of the line that precedes it), we have the full song:
