OK, here's another Marley classic for the few of a dying breed still out there.
This song is pretty easy since the chorus, verses and bridge all pretty much employ the same chord progression C-Em7/B-Am-F. You can play along to either the fast original version found on Natty Dread or the two live versions (the version on Live & Legend, or the one on Live at the Roxy, Songs of Freedom) which are considerably slower. I prefer the faster version because there are less open spaces.
Chorus
C Em7/B Am F
E:-|-------------0--0--x--0-|----0--x--0-----0--x----|-
B:-|-0--1--3--------1--x--1-|-3--3--x--3--1--1--x----|-
G:-|----------------0--x--0-|----0--x--0-----2--x--2-|-
D:-|------------------------|----------------------3-|-
A:-|----0--2-----3----------|-2-----------0--------3-|-
E:-|-3--------3-------------|----------------------1-|-
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
C F C
E:-|----1--x--1-----0--x--0-|----1--x--------0--x--0-|-
B:-|----1--x--1-----1--x—-1-|----1--x--------1--x--1-|-
G:-|----2--x--2-----0--x--0-|----2--x--------0--x--0-|-
D:-|----3--x--3-------------|-3----------------------|-
A:-|-------------3----------|----------3-------------|-
E:-|------------------------|------------------------|-
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
That's pretty much it for the chorus, but for variation you can replace the 4th measure with:
C C
E:-|-1--0-----------0--x--0-| -|-1--0-----------0-—x--0-|-
B:-|-------3--1-----1--x--1-| -|-------3--0-----1--x--1-|-
G:-|----------------0--x--0-| or-|-2--0-----------0--x--0-|-
D:-|-3--2--0----------------| -|-------3--2-------------|-
A:-|----------3-------------| -|------------------------|-
E:-|------------------------| -|------------------------|-
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
or
C
E:-|----------------0--x--0-|-
B:-|----------------1--x--1-|-
G:-|-2--0-----------0--x—-0-|-
D:-|-3--2--3--2-------------|-
A:-|-------5--3-------------|-
E:-|---------------------- -|-
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
That little run on double stops at the beginning is actually an F-C-Dm-C progression. Sounds even better as triple stops if you finger the Dm chord as (x5323x).
The verse begins with the same bass run as the intro before kicking into a repeating two measure progression
C Em7/B Am F
E:-------------|----0--x--------0--x----|----0--x--------1--1----|-
B:--0--1--3----|----1--x—-------3--x----|----1--x--------1--1----|-
G:-------------|----0--x--------0--x----|----2--x--------2--2----|-
D:-------------|------------------------|----------------3--3----|-
A:-----0--2----|-3--------3--2----------|-0----------------------|-
E:--3--------3-|----------------------3-|----------0—-1----(1)---|-
1 & 2 & 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
Return to the chorus by playing the C bass note followed by the pattern used in the chorus.
Where I've marked the chords with x's, I play then sharp and crisp by palm muting right after a strumming (downstroke).
To play the bridge (the part that begins with “everything's gonna be alrightâ€, you can play it as though it were a verse, or just strum the full chords in a rhythmic pattern to your liking.
Thanks alot... I'm glad there are a couple of Bob Marley fans still out there... heh.. the first the chords/notes play on that song are the same ntes/cords played on "Blackbird" by the Beatles. 8)
Stairway to Freebird!
Brilliant, I love Marley's music you can tab anything you like off of "LEGEND" and post it here. Its taking me months to get that reggae feel and sound, you know, muting at the right tempo and getting that really bright sound to ring out clear and short.
I have only found one instruction book on reggae, the one I have is by Ray Hitchins. Its quite good but what I really need is something like a dvd instruction or video, something with visuals....Do you know of any?
Well done !!!!
Be excellent to each other & party on dudes!
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=686668
Sorry, I don't know of any visual instructional material out there. I guess the next best thing would be live concert footage, of which there's quite a bit.
I tried to play it with the following pattern
bb ddu for each chord
muting the two bass notes (well my muting is far from being perfect but the pattern seems to work well)
Matteo
