Travis. Why does it always rain on me?

Hello again everyone! I haven't done a song for a while but someone reminded me earlier on that I had promised to put a Travis song up. So here goes. And given the weather here in the UK at the moment, its very approproate!!!

Travis have had a lot of hits here in the UK, I am not sure how well they do outside the UK so this one might only interest UK players, let me know!

First things first. Stick a capo on fret 2!!!
Here are the chord shapes. The one in brackets is a “cheat” chord for the Bm for those of you that can't get to grips with the barre version – it will do just as well.
Chords
D xx0232
Bm x24432 (or xx4432)
G 320033
G/F# 2x0033
Em7 020033
Am x02210
C x32010
C/b x20010
Am7 x 02010


The song is in 4/4 time and starts out with a short cello intro so we won't bother with that, then the drums come in, then there's a short strummed intro, D, Am, G, G/f# and Em7. BUT NOTE TIMING, the D and Am are held for 4 beats (see strum pattern) then you go to G for 2 beats, G/F# for 2 beats (make sure you can hear the bass descend on the low E string from the 3rd fret to the second fret) and then its back to four beats of Em7. Note that throughout all the sections where this little descending bass comes in, you can keep your pinky and ring fingers firmly planted on the 3rd fret of the high E and the B strings. I have given a way of playing the desceding bass a little later, read on....

You then go into the “I can't sleep at night” part. The best way (in my opinion anyway) to play this is a really firm downstroke on the D chord and let it ring for 8 beats while you sing the first line. The same goes for the Bm on the second line and so on – all the chords are held here for 2 bars, so its 2 lots of 4. Once you get that opening section over with the fun starts with the strumming.

STRUM PATTERNS
The song uses a couple of patterns that are quite similar. The first pattern is your regular D D Dudu (One, Two, Three and four and..). Mix that up with a pattern that goes D D D Du (one two three four and..) and you will have a nice pattern that you can repeat for all the strummed sections. You want a feeling that the song is bouncing along, so do try and be as rhythic as possible for this part.

Further timing issues.
The biggest issue is getting the G – G/F# - Em7 section right. In the pre-chorus part “I get the strangest feeling…” its two beats of G, two beats of G/F# and four beats of Em7. I suggest you do a pick on the low E string for your first beat of the G, followed by a downstrum on the second beat, then repeat this for the G/F#, then go back to “regular” strumming on the Em7. This sounds pretty effective.

On the chorus do the same.

Theres one more thing to add that spices this up nicely. At the end when you get to the “its so cold” part, the chords go C – C/b – Am7. Its important that you get the descending bass on the A string right here. This is best played by playing the C for 2 beats, the C/b for 2 beats, then the Am7 for 4. But the clever bit is picking the A, D and G strings on each chord so its
CPick A string fretted at 3
Pick D string freeted at 2
Pick open D

Change to C/b
Repeat picking – use same strings

Change to Am7Repeat picking again. End the Am7 section by fretting the 3rd string of the low E string before going into your Asus4 chord. Note also that the Asus4 and the A are both full chords, held for 4 beats each.

End it with a nice full downstrum on the D chord.

And that just about wraps it up folks. Do PM me if you're struggling with this or ask a question on the furum.

All the best. Matt. Here's the full song….
Intro
D / Bm / Am / G (G/F#) / Em7

D Am G G/F# Em7
Why does it always rain on me?
D Am G G/F# Em7
Why does it always rain on....
D
(On)…….