Hi everyone.
This is the second track on Coldplay's new album X and Y. I have to agree with David Hodge - its well worth a listen. This track stand out for me and my missus loves it - reason enough to learn it! Anyway, moving swiftly on....
The song is played primarily on the piano on the CD, to make it more guitar freindly I have transcribed it (with a bit of help from my freinds here at Guitarnoise :wink: into Em. To play along with the CD put a capo on the second fret of your guitar. Its surprisingly close (for something transcribed by me anyway ha ha!).
Structure
On the CD it goes V1, V2, chorus, V3, chorus repeat chorus. The song ends on a Beatlesque rising series of chords ending in a bit of a crescendo - think "Day in the Life" sort of thing. Given that we only have an acoustic guitar to play with, I have rearranged it a bit like this
V1, V2, chorus, V3, chorus, V1 outro.
Not only does this let us actually end the song reasonable well, it does give a nice "feel" to the song as the first verse is quite haunting and returning to it after the strummed chorus just feels right, if you know what i mean.
Chords
Em- 022000
G - 320003
D7 - xx0212
Am7 - x02010
D7sus - xx0210 (D7 with open high E string)
C - x32010
Am - x02210
Am/C - x32210 (or play usual Am)
D - xx0232
Timing etc.
I think its easier to describe how i play a verse and chorus rather than try and tab it out. The song's in 4/4 time so that's a count of "ONE TWO THREE FOUR" over and over. Note however that there are often two chords in each bar, so you change chord in time for the "THREE" count.
Here's the chords with the count for the whole verse - to explain the "count" is along the top and the chord changes are underneath. Suggest you get a metronome and set it to a comfortable beat (say 60 - 70bpm) and just single strum your way through it, changeing when indicated....i decided to use single strums because Chris Martin basically just plays the single chord on the piano, with few fills. This mimics it pretty well....
one two three four one two three four
Em..........G..............Am......................
D7..........................Am/C...................
Em..........G..............Am......................
D7..........................Am7.....................
Am7........................D7.......................
Em.........Am7..........D7.......................
Em.........Am7..........D7.......................
D7sus.....D7...........chorus
Here's the corresponding first verse lyrics and chords, play it ALL with single downstrokes and let the chord really ring out, play it exactly as described in the table above -Em G Am
What if there was no life?
D7 Am/C
Nothing wrong, nothing right.
Em G Am
What if there was no time?
D7 Am7
And no reason or rhyme.
Am7 D7
What if you should decide, that you
Em Am7 D7
don't want me there by your side.
Em Am7
That you don't want me there
D7 D7sus D7
in your life.
So that's it, you can now play all the verses in this style. HOWEVER you will soon get fed up (as will everyone else....) with single strumming your way though it. What I suggest is that you single strum the first 2 verses. When you get to the chorus go into your strumming pattern which is...
one... and....two...and...three...and...four...and
down down down .......up down up down down
(NOTE ALL CHORUS CHORDS HELD FOR COUNT OF FOUR!)
At the end of the chorus you will be going into the third verse. Just keep the strum pattern going and you'll be fine! Or revert back to your single strum, its up to you. There's a million ways you could do this (even fingerpick the verse and strum the chorus) ...but i digress.
So all we need to is pull together the chords for the chorus like this - C Am
Oooh, that's right
Em D
Let's take a breath jump over the side
C Am
Oooh, that's right
Em D
How can you know it if you don't even try
C Am
Oooh, that's right
Once you're happy that you can strum your way through that, all we have to do is throw in an outro and we're done.
Outro
Because i have decided to end on the first verse, your chord progression ends like this
Em, Am7, D7, D7sus, D7. What I suggest is you play the last three of these chords (D7, D7sus and D7 again) arpegiated, that is, pick the open D string then pick the G string B string and high E string, for each chord. Then do a nice slow downstrum on an Em and we're done.
I would be really interested to hear what people think of this arrangement, both in terms of the chords and timing and the overall feel of the song. Good or bad comments received in good faith! If its REALLY bad, PM me!!
Here's the whole song. Don't forget - 1. Put your capo on 2nd fret and 2. start with single strums.Coldplay – “What If?â€â€¦
Capo 2nd fret
Funny chords – Am7 x02010
D7sus – xx0210 (regular D7 with open high E string)
Verse One
Em G Am
What if there was no life?
D7 Am/C
Nothing wrong, nothing right.
Em G Am
What if there was no time?
D7 Am7
And no reason or rhyme.
Am7 D7
What if you should decide, that you
Em Am7 D7
don't want me there by your side.
Em Am7
That you don't want me there
...... D7 D7sus D7
in your life.
Verse 2
Em G Am
What if I got it wrong
D7 Am
And no poem or song
Em G Am
Could put right what I got wrong
D7 Am7
Or make you feel I belong
Am7 D7
What if you should decide,
Em Am7 D7
that you don't want me there by your side.
Em Am7
That you don't want me there
.... D7 D7sus D7
in your life.
Chorus:
C Am
Oooh, that's right
Em D
Let's take a breath jump over the side
C Am
Oooh, that's right
Em D
How can you know it if you don't even try
C Am
Oooh, that's right
Verse 3:
Em G Am
Every step that you take
D7 Am/C
Could be your biggest mistake
Em G Am
It could bend or it could break
D7 Am7
But that's the risk that you take
Am7 D7
What if you should decide That you
Em Am7 D7
don't want me there in your life
... Em Am7 D7 D7sus D7
That you don't want me there by your side.
Chorus:
C Am
Oooh, that's right
Em D
Let's take a breath jump over the side
C Am
Oooh, that's right
Em D
How can you know it if you don't even try
C Am
Oooh, that's right
Verse one repeated
Em G Am
What if there was no life?
D7 Am/C
Nothing wrong, nothing right.
Em G Am
What if there was no time?
D7 Am7
And no reason or rhyme.
Am7 D7
What if you should decide, that you
Em Am7 D7
don't want me there by your side.
Em Am7
That you don't want me there
D7 D7sus D7 Em
in your life.
Enjoy, all the best
Matt
Ah....so that's what you were working on! I see you went with the C chord instead of C6.....
Couple of people have recommended this album now, think I'll have to give it a listen.....
Funny, isn't it, if you play piano chords on guitar, they never sound quite how they should....I wonder if it's anything to do with the fact that if you play, for example, a C chord on piano it spans 8 semitones, while a C chord on guitar spans almost 2 octaves.....
As always, nice work Matt....
:D :D :D
Vic
"Sometimes the beauty of music can help us all find strength to deal with all the curves life can throw us." (D. Hodge.)
cheers Vic.
Yeah its not quite the same even if you pick out the arpeggios is it, but having had a strum along to the CD, this is as close as you'll get i reckon.
If you haven't got any of Coldplay's stuff, don't buy this first. Buy Parachutes. Its much rawer, very acoustic and generally much "earthier". It was recorded in 6 weeks - the new album took over a year i think.
The new album is good - but in my view its a little over produced. Its a tad too perfect in every way, if you know what i mean.
There are some great songs on all their albums though.
Parachutes is fantastic - Yellow is just an amazing song.
All the best
Matt
Holy crap Matt, how many of these excellent mini-lessons have you put together? You deserve a sticky with links to all of these.
Nick
Well that's it for the time being, I have none left to do. I just figured it was time i gave something back to the site so got off my butt and did a bit of typing!
Mind you, I am sure if I had a good look through my tabs I would find something to put up here..... :wink:
All the best
Matt
Cool stuff dude, great song and a great mini lesson! To get it somewhat closer to the feel of a piano you might want to pluck the strings simultanously instead of strumming, and do some appergios whehn you aren't singing. For example:
[F#m] [A] [Bm] [E7] [Bm/add11]
E|---2------5------2-------2-----2---------------------0--------0---------|
B|---2------5------3---------3-----3------0------0-----3------3---3-------|
G|---2------6------4-----4-----4-----4----1------1-----4----4-------4-----|
D|----------------------------------------0------0---0----------------0---|
A|---------------2-----2----------------------------------2-------------2-|
E|-2----2-5----5------------------------0----0-0---0----------------------|
Shouldn't be that hard (maybe even easier since you are hardly doing anything while you'r singing). Tabbed without capo, using the chords placed above:
F#m [2 x x 2 2 2]
A [5 x x 6 5 5]
Bm [x 2 x 4 3 2]
E7 [0 x 0 1 0 x]
Bm/add11 [x 2 0 4 3 0]
The Bm/add11 is not really what they play themselves but it sounds good and is easy to play, easier then a Bm barre chord if you don't like barre chords that much. Note that you can play the F#m with one finger (just the barre) and the A with two fingers (one barre and an extra finger for the sixth fret third string).
Matt - beautiful song, EXCELLENT arrangement. A tip of my hat to you sir.
Well done - thank you so much for this.
Matthew
