Free Falling by Tom Petty

Nice easy one Missileman. Thanks.

Hey Missileman, I have a question about the strum pattern.Where it says the rhythm is kinda 1,2, and, 4, and, Is the 1,2 and 4 dowm strokes? and how and where are the ands played. Great tune, glad ya took the time ta post it. Thanks

I said kind of because I am not really sure of the exact count.
I do all down strokes myself, seems to sound better that way.
But here is another way to look at it.
D-down,Dsus-down,then a short pause and then play Dsus,D,Asus (all in about the same space of time as the first 2 chords)
Like da--da---da-da-da
If I was to equate it to notation I would probably say Quarter,dotted quarter,eighth,eighth,eighth.
The only place I use upstrokes is on the chorus. I still keep the same basic rhythm as the verses but add some extra strums to add more flavor.
I know the way I am counting it adds up to 4 beats but keep in mind that the first word of each verse is vocal only and the first chord is played on the second word. so there is at least a quarter pause at the begging of each verse. (I wonder if the song may be in 5/4 time?)

Good post, missileman. The strumming pattern I've worked out that I kind of like is this:

D Dsus4 D Asus4
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
D D U U D D U D U U D U

There are definitely more strums here than in the recording, but if you play strictly by the recording, it'll sound bare anyways (unless you've got other people playing with you). This strumming pattern doesn't capture the little pause between D an Asus4, but oh well. It's easy to play this way with straight eighth note pendulum strumming.
TZ

This song is one of the reasons I got a capo. I've got the strum down, now I just gotta get the words out of my mouth.

Thanks!

Rob

And a big GN welcome to Timezone :D

Thanks for the input all.

Excellent job
most ppl dont explain it
well done

Thank You :D

Nice easy song, and thanks for the detail. Now lets see if I can sing along. Thanks

Catchy riff. I've been listening to it over and over while I'm playing it, and maybe it's late and I'm tired, but I think it's actually like this...

D - Dsus4 - Dsus4 - D - Dsus2

D - Dsus4 - Dsus4 - D - Asus4

strummed D - D - D - U - D

Compare it to the recording and I think you'll like the Dsus2 better then the Asus4 the first time, and the Asus4 better the second time over the Dsus2. Then keep alternating every other one. Asus4 and Dsus2 are very similar chords.

Dsus2 = X X 0 2 3 0

Asus4 = X 0 2 2 3 0

Dsus4 = X X 0 2 3 3

D = X X 0 2 3 2

Johnny,
I have been playing around with just that myself.
Especially in the chorus so it allows me to do something like,
D,D,D,Dsus4,Dsus4,D,Dsus2,D,Dsus2
Try that a bit and you'll see what I mean.

you can actually play this song with those same chords without a capo. Just play the chords at the 5th fret. They're called F Fsus and C sus i dunno what to call it but it's kind of C but kind of not...

I actually played this on my acoustic in standard tuning and it sounds great with no capo and playing the chords 2 and 3 regular.. I will have to listen to Petty's version again maybe my hearing needs to be adjusted.. :lol: