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Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head with tips

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(@mattguitar_1567859575)
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Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 879
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Hi again gang.
Well after my last false start (The Verve “The Drug's Don't Work”) which I hadn't realised I had already posted (doh!)…I thought I had better redeem myself with another song.

Now…Coldplay..you either love ‘em, or you hate ‘em. But cast your minds back before they went all stellar and Mr Martin decided he needed a telescope to examine his internal crevices, and they did actually make some pretty good records. David's already done one lesson “God Put A Smile on Your Face” from 2002's “Rush of Blood to the Head” album, and I have decided to follow him and do another song off that album.

More and more Coldplay songs are written in alternate tuning, but rather quaintly this one isn't, and what's more its in a nice friendly key and apart from one chord (B flat) it shouldn't present you with any problems at all guitar wise. What's more, it's a nice slow paced tune with an easily copied strum pattern, sounds great on acoustic…what more do you want?

So what is it?

The signature song off the album, A Rush Of Blood To The Head.
Chords
Am x02210
C x32010
Emb6 022010
F x33211 or xx3211 if you prefer
Fsus2 x33011 or xx3011 if you prefer
D xx0232
Bb – x13331 (or play x1333x which I think is the chord actually played.

If you're struggling with the Bb, try this, grab the first fret of the A string with the tip of your first (pointer) finger, and use your pinky to barre the 3rd fret covering the B, G and D strings. With practice this is a good cheat for the A shaped barre chords generally – don't give up!

Timing / Rhythm
Song is entirely in 4/4 time, so count “One, Two, Three, Four” in your head, or tap your foot or whatever. The tempo is about 70 beats per minute for the metronomically minded.

Strum Pattern.
The main section of the verse (I'm going to buy this place etc) uses the following pattern
D D uud udu

It feels like this
D (pause) D (pause) uud (pause) udu

So keep this strum in mind for most of the song – I will detail where it changes as we go through.

Let's look at the whole song and break it down bit by bit.

First verse
First two words “you said” are spoken before the guitar is hit at all, then you start on Am with the strum pattern above. The progression looks like this
Am / C / Em(b6) /
Am / C / Em(b6) /
Am / Am

Couple of things to note – firstly the Emb6 just keep your first finger on the B string first fret – its already there from the Am and the C, so that isn't too hard….and secondly note the two bars of Am at the end, this is important and a lot of tabs don't show this, and trust me, they are inaccurate.

NOTE !!!!!!!!!
On the Am / Am parts, that is when you are NOT changing chord but just staying on the Am, on the last beat of the bar lift your middle and ring fingers off the fretboard so that you are just fretting x00010 then put them back down - Like this –
Am Am
e|-0---0---0-0-0---0-0-0-|---------------|
b|-1---1---1-1-1---1-1-1-|---------------|
g|-2---2---2-2-2---0-0-2-|---------------|
d|-2---2---2-2-2---0-0-2-|---------------|
a|-0---0-------0---------|---------------|
e|-----------------------|---------------|
D D u u d u d u

The pattern above then repeats for the second verse. There then follows a short instrumental break. The chords are F and Fsus2, repeated.
F / Fsus2 / F / Fsus2

Note that all you do to get the sus is take your finger off the G string 2nd fret – easy!
In this break a second electric guitar enters and plays “straight eights” (one and two and three and four and) of the chords, all in downstrokes. As a compromise, I usually change my strumming from the “verse strum” we've got listed above, to something a little more rhythmic, such as (played in sixteenth notes 1a+a 2 a+a 3a+a 4a+a)

DUDUD / UUD / DUDU

For each chord – however feel free to pretty much do your own thing here, as long as you are still in the same tempo (about 70bpm) it won't really matter.

The song then returns to the verse section for the third verse “I'm gonna buy a gun and start a war” before going into the chorus section with the following progression
F / F / D / D
F / F / D / Bb
F / F / D / Bb

You might like to throw the Sus's of the F and D in there to make things more interesting, for instance instead of playing
F / F / D / D
Play
F Fsus2 / F Fsus2 / D Dsus2 / D Dsus2
- its up to you!!! But it will break it up a little and make it that much more interesting to the poor old listener…

The chords then return to the verse pattern, there's then another chorus, a verse, and finally an outro that consists of the verse chords again.

And that's about it folks.. So here's the entire song, with a few notes thrown in to help you along the way.
Coldplay
A rush of blood to the head.
Standard Tuning

Verse one – D D UUD UDU STRUM

He said
Am C
I'm gonna buy this place and burn it down
Emb6 Am
I'm gonna put it six feet underground.. He said
C Emb6
I'm gonna buy this place and watch it fall
Am Am
Stand here beside me baby in the crumbling walls

Verse two – same strum
Am C
Oh I'm gonna buy this place and start a fire
Emb6 Am
Stand here until I fill all your hearts desires
C Emb6
Because I'm gonna buy this place and see it burn
Am Am Am
Do back the things it did to you in return

Break DUDUD UUD DUDU strum
F / Fsus2 / F / Fsus2
..ha……………………ha………………………ha……….

Verse three
Am C
He said oh I'm gonna buy a gun and start a war
Emb6 Am
If you can tell me something worth fighting for
Am C
Oh and Im gonna buy this place, thats what I said
Emb6 Am Am
Blame it upon a rush of blood to the head

Chorus
F F
And honey All the move-ments youre starting to
D D
Make see me crum-ble and fall on my
F F
Face and I know the mistakes that I
D Bb
Made see it all disappear without a
F F
Trace, and they call as they beckon you
D Bb
On…They say start as you mean to go
(returns to verse pattern here)
Am / C / Emb6
On
Am Am
start as you mean to go on..(said I'm)

Verse 4

Am C
I'm gonna buy this place and see it go
Emb6 Am
Stand here beside me baby watch the orange glow
C Emb6
Some will laugh, some just sit and cry
Am Am
But you just sit down then you wonder why

F F
And honey All the move-ments youre starting to
D D
Make see me crum-ble and fall on my
F F
Face and I know the mistakes that I
D Bb
Made see it all disappear without a
F F
Trace, and they call as they beckon you
D Bb
On…They say start as you mean to go
(returns to verse pattern here)
Am
As you mean to go on (to outro)

Outro (verse strum
Am
So meet me by the
Am
Bridge, meet me by the
C
Lake when am I going to see
Emb6 Am
…..that pretty face again
Am
Meet me on the road
C
meet me where I said
Emb6
Blame it all upon

A rush of blood to the
Am Am Am Am
Head

Slowly slow down and end on long strum
Am.


   
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(@sam334)
Trusted Member
Joined: 18 years ago
Posts: 37
 

Great acoustic song and all your tips are dead-on. Thanks!


   
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(@yashicamat)
Reputable Member
Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 271
 

Thanks for posting this - an excellent acoustic song! :D

Rob

If something's not worth doing it's worth forgetting about.
Epiphone Les Paul Std - Yamaha Pacifica 112XJ - Takamine EG340SC - Taylor Baby - Grainger Hammerhead 50 - Grainger Valve Five
http://www.youtube.com/yashicamatonline


   
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