Hey board,
If someone with a keen eye and chord knowledge has a sec, take a look at this well-played YouTube video
of "I'm A Believer" and between 1:34-1:53 this fellow's on-screen tab says G--but it doesn't look like
a G shape. He has G in other places and his fingers are in right place, just not in the time bracket I noted.
I looked for alternate G shapes online but didn't see something like what he did.
Educate me, please. :D
Namaste.
Need linkie......
D'oh! Here it is...
Namaste.
I could say this until the day I die, I could even come back from the dead and say it but if it wasn't on video, no one would believe me - you've got to stop using your eyes and start using your ears and head. When it comes to music you have no better allies than both your ability to listen and your ability to think.
First - right at 1:34 he's playing the same G chord he's played all along. Because he's turned his guitar at a different angle to the camera lens it only looks like his fingering is different. But if you listen you'll hear it's the same chord. If you prefer, you can also watch him throughout the second verse as he gradually shifts the angle of the guitar that it's the same fingering. He's got long fingers and he can sit right on the edge of the frets very nicely. It's easy to think just by looking at him that his fingers are sitting a full fret higher than they are.
The other G chord in the "instrumental part" is playing a kind of "hybrid G power chord" - 35500x, I believe. He may not even be hitting the B string (making it a G and not a G5 if you're picky about this sort of thing). It's hard to hear it in the mix. Why this chord shape? Because he's doing the G -F - D - F - F# - G line that the keyboard/bass plays as a solo during the original version by the Monkees. The easiest way to get those notes would be to use this shape and then quickly barre at the third fret to play something like this:E - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
B - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
G - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
D - 5 - 5 - 3 - - - - - 3 - 4 - 5 - 5 - 3 - - - - - - - -
A - 5 - 5 - - - 5 - 5 - - - - - 5 - 5 - - - 5 - - - - - -
E - 3 - 3 - - - 3 - 3 - - - - - 3 - 3 - - - 3 - - - - - -
Once you hear the notes, it's easy to figure how to do it. There's not that many places on the guitar where this is all that easy to do, even with fingers as long as his.
I hope this helps. And I truly hope that I'm not coming across as a curmudgeonly old teacher. But if you truly want to get good at the guitar, or any musical instrument, you have to start relying on your ears to figure things out. And the only way to do that is to practice working things out. Again, I say this hoping to heaven it's not coming across as a rant my father might have given me ("...when I was your age I walked fourteen miles to school. In the snow. Seven feet of snow. Carrying my saxophone. And my younger sister.." :wink: )
Nice version of this song, by the way. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.
Peace
Wow, thanks for that David--and don't worry, I DID ask to be educated. 8)
Just call me grasshopper. Hrm...that's not a bad title for a song, no?
Cheers,
Arf.
Namaste.
