Saturday, November 7, 2009

Guitar Hero

I finally figured out the chords to Brandi Carlile's song "Dying Day" but I'm not web-savvy enough to post it on any of those open source chord sites, though having at various times benefitted from others work on those sites myself, I feel the need to put this out on the web somehow.

So - with an expression of great admiration for Ms. Carlile and the Hanseroth twins, and a disclaimer that this is the best I've come up with in attempting to interpret the song - it's in Bm and the verse is basically following the circle of fifths from Bm to G, but instead of going all the way around the circle to C F it finishes with E A (which not only sounds good but is kind of brilliant in relation to the lyric, which is about being away from the one you love - the singer hasn't come home yet, so you can't land there musically either, the circle remains incomplete). The tricky thing is, I know I'm hearing G#s in there occasionally, so I'm pretty sure her E chords are all major, not minor as the key would dictate.

The chorus is not circle of fifths but goes like this:
Bm G D G A D G
Bm G D G A D G A
G A Bm

The other tricky part is the chord played underneath her humming before kicking into the last time through the chorus - it took me a while but I finally realized it's an F# major - if you're barring the Bm just keep barring and shift your fingers over for the major, then back to the minor as you launch into the final chorus.

Enjoy!
C.

No comments: