David Bowie Space Oddity - mini lesson

Hi again everyone!!! Boy have I picked a challenging song today – at least in terms of the numbers of chords involved. The song is David Bowie's masterpiece “Space Oddity”. Although there are quite a lot of effects going on during the song, it does lend itself to a stand-alone acoustic version, so I hope a few people take up the challenge and learn to play it.

Note to Beginners – SURE there's loads of chords. SURE there are some difficult chords in it, but I have tried to give you an easy version that you can play along to – even the tricky bridge part sounds more than passable if you play it with open chords (I do!!!). And sure some of the chord names SOUND tricky – but Fmaj7##11/E is just an E chord slid one fret up from normal position! So try to see beyond the number of chords and just approach this with a view that “yeah, I will have a go at that!” and see how you get on.

Also note that if you find the C/g tricky, just play a C – no one will really notice.

As usual feedback appreciated.

Strum pattern
For most of the verse parts you have a whole host of choices. At this speed (68bpm) you have a lot of time to fill. A good pattern for each full chord would be D / dud / dud / du / ud or something similar. I find I never play it the same way twice so giving you a “you must play it like this!” strum pattern is going to be near impossible (note to GN members – any suggestions?)

Because of the complexity of some of the song I am going to break this down into sections and try and point you the right way. You can't really say that this follows a regular verse – chorus, verse, chorus type pattern, you just have to learn it and all its little quirks. For ease's sake I have named certain sections, verse 1 , verse 2 and so on – but even the chords might change from one to another. This is therefore going to be a LONG post, advanced players please accept my apologies (you might want to dive straight to the tab at the end), beginners please try and work through it step by step.

CHORD SHAPES - LOTS OF 'EM!
Fmaj7#11/E (aka F*) 033200
Fmaj7#11 (aka F2) 133200
Em 022000
C x32010
C/G 332010
Cadd2/G 330010
Am/G 302210
Am x02210
D/F# 200232
E7 020100
F 133211 (or easier xx3211 for beginner)
Fm 133111 (or easier xx3111 for beginners)
Em7 020030


Note – chords for the Bridge / “break” will be tackled separately!

Intro.
Nice and easy. Two chords – Fmaj7#11/E and Em. The Fmaj7#11/E (from now on I will refer to it as F* in the tab and description, for ease of typing!) is simply an E chord, moved one chord up the neck. So form your normal E chord 022100 and slide it to 033200 and you've got it. Told you it was easy. Both chords are held for 4 beats, just use this time to get your strumming going. So its 4 beats of F*, change to Em, again four beats. This cycle repeats four times in total. Note that to spice up the Em, take your finger off the A string to get to 002000 and then hammer it back on to 022000 towards the end of the bar.

“Verse one”Moving on to the first verse, the first two lines (“ground control to major tom) are just, C and Em, held for four beats each. Then switch to Am for two beats, stick your pinky on fret 3 of the low E string for Am/G for two beats, then its to D/F# (suggest you play a normal D but fret the low E string at fret 2 with your thumb) for four beats. On the change from Am to Am/G on the first bit of “pro(tein pills)” try and pick the low E string to highlight the change in bass, the same with the D/f# - hit the E string fretted at the 2nd fret. Once you get this far (put your helmet on) repeat the whole lot again and that's the first verse covered. Now the song changes “feel” – there is a spoken countdown, ten – nine – eight etc during which there isn't much music. In all honesty, you are best off ignoring that bit completely and just launching (pardon the pun) straight back into verse two.

Verse two
Similar timing to verse one, but different chords as follows

C – four beats
E7 – four beats
F – four beats (beginners use xx3211)
Fm – two beats (beginners use xx3111)
C – two beats
F – four beats


This then repeats again exactly the same, and ends on the lyric “different today”.

Right we are quite a long way into the song now. The next bit is the “here I am sitting in a tin can”. I am going to call this the “break”. This can be played in 3 ways depending on your ability…first off let's have a look at the chords and lyrics –

“Break”
F2 Em
For here Am I sitting in a tin can
F2 Em
Far above the world
Bb Am (both chords held for 2 beats)
Planet earth is blue
G F (G is just 2 beats)
And there's nothing I can do..


EASY BEGINNERS VERSION (note F2 is F* with thumb on 1st fret low E)
F2 (four beats) and Em (four beats)
For here……….. am I sitting in my tin can
F2 (four beats) and Em (four beats)
Far………………..above the world
Bb (xxx331)2 beats Am two beats
Planet earth is blue
G 2 beats F
And there's nothing I can do

So this beginners version uses all open chord shapes, with a “cheat” Bb of xxx331 – because you are only on it for 2 beats anyway, you will get away with this if all else fails. Sometimes you have to improvise a bit when you are learning! As for the F2, you can always play the F* if you find the thumb on the low E string 1st fret is tricky. Just don't hit the low E.

INTERMEDIATE VERSION
Use a “proper” Bb x13331 instead of the cheat version – other than that use same chords as listed above.

ADVANCED VERSION
This is what's actually played on the record but it needs all barre chords
Bb 688766 planet earth is
Am 577555 blue and theres
G 355433 nothing I can do..(F)

The break now goes into the famous little riff based on the following chords
C F G A
Again there are options here according to your ability. When I first learned this, I just played open chords – my guitar buddy went “yeah – Space Oddity!” so it can't be all that bad. It would look like this tabbed out:

EASY BEGINNERS VERSION
C F G A
e-0-0---1-1---3-----0-0--¦
B-1-1---1-1---3-----2-2--¦
G-0-0---2-2---0-----2-2--¦
D-2-2---3-3---0-----2-2--¦
A-3-3---------2-----0-0--¦
E-------------3----------¦


You have to be quite quick with your changes here. Its C , two downstrokes, F, 2 downstrokes, G, one downstroke and pause, A 2 downstrokes. Note that it uses an easy version of F – xx3211. With practice, you can get the flavour of the riff playing it this way.

BUT
The ulbum version uses barre chords again. An intermediate way of playing this would be to use the F shape I have given of xx3211 and to use it in the following positions. Just hold the shape and move it to the relevant position -

INTERMEDIATE VERSION
C F G A
e-8--8---1-1---3------5-5-¦
B-8--8---1-1---3------5-5-¦
G-9--9---2-2---4------6-6-¦
D-10-10--3-3---5------7-7-¦
A-------------------------¦
E-------------------------¦

ADVANCED VERSION
C F G A
e-8-----1-1----3------5-5-¦
B-8-----1-1----3------5-5-¦
G-9-----2-2----4------6-6-¦
D-10----3-3----5------7-7-¦
A-10----3-3----5------7-7-¦
E-8--0--1-1--0-3--0---5-5-¦

NOTE WHATEVER VERSION YOU CHOOSE, PLAY IT THROUGH TWICE

After this little riff the song has a little instrumental section in it, which returns to “normal” chords, as follows F2, Em7, A, C, D/e. For the D/e I suggest you put a mini-barre on the 2nd fret on the 4 highest strings xx2222 and then use pinky or ring finger to fret the 3rd fret of the B string to get to xx2232. Play each chord through for four beats each. End with a nice single downstrum on Em and then start again with the “though I'm past one hundred miles” part.

And that, my friends, is about it. Oh one last thing the E5 right a the end is 079900, if you can't manage that then play an Em!

Here's the whole song -

David Bowie Space Oddity
4/4 time, 68bpm.
Intro
F* Em and repeat 4 times (with alien sound effects etc)

“Verse one”
C Em
Ground control to major tom
C Em
Ground control to major tom
Am Am/G D/F#
Take your protein pills and put your helmet on

C Em
Ground control to major tom
C Em
Commencing countdown, engines on
Am Am/G D/F#
Check ignition and may god's love be with you

(sound effects for three bars with spoken countdown)
Ten, nine, eight, seven, six,
Five, four, three, two, one, liftoff

“verse two”
C E7
This is ground control to major tom
F
You've really made the grade
Fm C F
And the papers want to know whose shirts you wear
Fm C F
Now it's time to leave the capsule if you dare

Verse 2
C E7
This is major tom to ground control
F
I'm stepping through the door
Fm C F
And I'm floating in a most peculiar way
Fm C F
And the stars look very different today

“break”
F2 Em
For here Am I sitting in a tin can
F2 Em
Far above the world
Bb Am
Planet earth is blue
G 2/4 F
And there's nothing i can do

Interlude (see notes!!!)

C F G A
C F G A

F2 / Em7 / A / C / D/e / Em (one strum)

C E7
Though I'm past one hundred thousand miles
F
I'm feeling very still
Fm C F
And I think my spaceship knows which way to go
Fm C F
Tell my wife I love her very much she knows

G E
Ground control to major tom
Am Am/G
Your circuit's dead, there's something wrong
D/F#
Can you hear me, major tom?
C/G Cadd2/G
Can you hear me major tom?
G
Can you hear me major tom? Can you..

F2 Em
For here Am I sitting in a tin can
F2 Em
Far above the world
Bb Am
Planet earth is blue
G 2/4 F
And there's nothing i can do

C F G A
C F G A

F2 / Em7 / A / C / D/e / E5 / E5 to fade…