Hi again all.
I recently bought a triple CD of acoustic songs. One of them stood out as a nice little strumming song for beginners. On the original recording there's a lot of power chords and distortion going on, but stripped down to single acoustic guitar and Michael Stipe's voice, i thought it was beautiful.
So here for your pleasure...To The One I Love. Basically you can just strum your way through this, those of you that feel a bit more daring can add some bass runs between the chords. Other thing to note is the change from Em to Em7 - beginners please note all you have to do is add your pinky to the B string at the 3rd fret, easy!
Even beginners can spice it up a little, on the D sections (on the word "prop") try adding your pinky onto 3rd fret high E string, to get Dsus4, and off again, and take your finger off the E string to get Dsus2 - this sounds better if you can accentuate it with up strums, but not necessary strictly. Things like that add variety.
As for a strumming pattern, he varies it throughout but its a kind of lazy Down, Down/up Up / Down for most of it i think. Its slower than the recorded version, no need to rush. I have put a note on how to play the "fire!" section below.
Hope you enjoy it -
The One I Love (Acoustic, live recording from album)
By REM strum = Down (pause)d/u/d/u/d (one, two and three and four and…)
Chords used (as they come up):
Em7 : [0 2 2 0 3 0] Em : [0 2 2 0 0 0]
Dsus2 : [X X 0 2 3 0] G : [3 2 0 0 0 3]
D : [X X 0 2 3 2]
Intro: Em7
Em Dsus2 Em Em7
This one goes out to the one I love
Em Dsus2 Em Em7
This one goes to the one I've left behind
G D Am C
A simple prop to occupy my time
Em Dsus2 Em Em7
This one goes out to the one I love
Em Dsus2 Em Em7 Em Dsus2 Em Em7
Fiiiiiiiiiire! Fiiiiiiiiiire!
Em Dsus2 Em Em7
This one goes out to the one I love
Em Dsus2 Em Em7
This one goes out to the one I've left behind
G D Am C
A simple prop to occupy my time
Em Dsus2 Em Em7
This one goes out to the one I love
Em Dsus2 Em Em7 Em Dsus2 Em Em7
Fire! Fire!
Em Dsus2 Em Em7
This one goes out to the one I love
Em Dsus2 Em Em7
This one goes to the one I've left behind
G D Am C
A simple prop has occupied my time
Em Dsus2 Em Em7
This one goes out to the one I love
Em Dsus2 Em Em7 Em Dsus2 Em Em7
Fiiiiiiiiiire! Fiiiiiiiiiire!
Em Dsus2 Em Em7 Em Dsus2 Em Em7
Fiiiiiiiiiire! Fiiiiiiiiiire!
For each of the Em Dsus2 Em Em7 Fire!
pieces, play 2 downstokes Em, one down of Dsus2, one down of Em,
and then down up down for Em7, before repeating for the second "Fire"
after the last "Fire!" as you are playing the Em7, strum slowly
and end on a solitary downstroke, almost picking each string
individually, in other words, make your final strum slow!
Hi again to you Matt!
You've done it again, I've just come in from work,sat down and opened up this forum. Saw this reach for the old acoustic and played a few bars. How do you do it Matt this is brilliant for us open chorders
Absolutly brilliant mate. keep em coming.
Chris
The guitar is all right John but you'll never make a living out of it! (John Lennon's Aunt Mimi)
This song rules, but this version you posted is not really from the MTV Unplugged. This was recorded in a guitar shop in Santa Monica (if I'm not mistaken) back the 80's. The MTV version is from 2001 and features Mike Mills' piano, and it's also quite beautiful.
Good job on the tab! :wink:
Guilherme Eddino
Check out my music at:
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/0/guilhermeeddino.htm
I love when people post a simple strumming chart just to get us going.
God bless you- Bull
Very nice post! The guys in the band play D while I play the way you do (Dsus2). I like the uneasy sound of the sus2. Also, while you play Am, I play the more mellow Am7 to the C. It's only a very slight difference. Also, we play the song pretty ramped up on electric guitar so it's nice to know it sounds good on acoustic, too. It is a good song. I love REM but only know that song on guitar.
"Nothing...can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts."
I try to play along to the live accoustci 80s recording, but it seems to be:
Ebm [x 6 8 8 7 6 ]
Dbsus2 [x 4 6 6 4 4]
Gb [2 4 4 3 2 2]
Db [x 4 6 6 6 4]
Abm [4 6 6 5 4 4]
B [x 2 4 4 4 2]
To me it sounds definitely like it's in Eb, and just the open chords don't sound exactly right either. Just for your info, your version seemed perfect when I tried it on my own, so it doesn;t really matter much.
Arjen
You're right, and so is the other post that this isn't strictly the "unplugged" version either. I was just trying to achieve two things -
1. A version a beginner could reasonably be expected to play
2. Get close to the version i have on an acoustic collection album (various artists).
This matches that version exactly. As you say, it does the job nicely.
I am glad that some positive feedback has been posted, there seems to be more and more songs on here that you couldn't reasonably call "Easy".
Seeing as this is the Easy Song Database, i am going to try and keep putting stuff on here that will encourage people to have a go
One of the biggest off putters for learners, is often not being able to play songs all the way through, I hope some of these posts address that issue.
All the best and thanks again
Matt
Seeing as this is the Easy Song Database, i am going to try and keep putting stuff on here that will encourage people to have a go
Sure, please do. Wasn't trying to be anal, just thought I'd post it since we were drifting towards alternative ways to play this one. As a matter of fact, I'd find your version more enjoyable for the simple fact that it allows me to sing while playing, which I can't do with my version. So thanks. :D
Nice one Arjen, cheers mate.
I agree, nice singalonga tune!
All the best
Matt
Matt,
Thanks from all of us newbies for your last post. I'm sure it takes a great amount of time to complete each one. Someday I hope to also contribute to the easy song database. Keep um comming Matt. 8)
Jim
Cheers Jim!!
Much appreciated
All the best
Matt
I love this song but I only have the regular album version. Does anybody have an mp3 for this?
Oktay
Hi Matt,
Been working hard on your version of this song over the past week. Its really going well and sound great to me, all I've got to do is sort the vocals out.
There's a strong possibility that I might be tempted to an open mic sometime this month. I've discovered one of the guys at work is a guitarist. A fair bit younger than me, he plays regularly at this venue and has said come along one night and have a go.
I feel pretty confident with this song guitar wise but not having a mic at home I have no idea how I'll sound vocally. Guess I'm going to just have a go and either die on stage or be applauded for my efforts. (Hope no one else gets on stage with this song first or I might be sunk with all hands!)
Oh and by the way I've also been working on your other REM post "Man On The Moon". I just love the slide up and back down to C to get the Dadd4/add2. The only thing I have found hard is where the Bm fits in (Oh and Yes! Vic and Rodders I can barre a Bm), its seems almost uneccesary to bother with it. Again vocally I'm not to sure if I have it right.
Well here's hoping I don't bottle out. Got to perform sometime!!
All the best,
Chris
ps 20:20pm
Scratch that Bm problem, I've got the timing right now after listening to the CD a few times. Can't think why I thought it was wrong now. Just goes to show practice makes perfect.
cheers,
chris
The guitar is all right John but you'll never make a living out of it! (John Lennon's Aunt Mimi)
Thanks for this Matt.....just wish I could sing and I could play this at our forth coming winter BBQ....
Nice to see you back after your bout of R& R
Nice one guys. I love this song. Its great to re-visit songs and realise you've improved as a player as well isn't it.
And yeah, I love that C slide to D as well Chris!!
all the best, might even put a new song up soon....!
Matt
