If you hum it...

Imitation is the best form of flattery.

I stumbled across a great song by Jonnie Wright on Youtube, my initial reaction is to be amazed by the use of the RC-50, but what I really love is the actual song, and would love to be able to play along with it, or a rough strummy version thereof.

Trouble is, my by-ear playing is at an embryonic level, so I'm hoping a more talented soul would be able to tell me what chords would go along with it?

While I'm at it, has anyone actually used those RC-50's? Look incredibly fun for noodling around at home but maybe in reality they're not that useful?

posted by Static Vagabond (3 comments total)

I'm nowhere near a musical instrument, so I can't help you with the precise chord changes at the moment. But:

While I'm at it, has anyone actually used those RC-50's? Look incredibly fun for noodling around at home but maybe in reality they're not that useful?

Yeah, they're fun. Doing something that's interesting to someone other than the person making the layers and layers of awesome noise takes some real discipline, though.
posted by The World Famous at 12:44 PM on June 30

Rough take on it is pretty simple:

Main verse vamp
Fm / / Db / / [repeat]

Chorus
Eb / Fm / Db / / [repeat]

with a little drop down to Cm for a second at the end of like the second repeat of the chorus, it sounded like.

Chord forms he's using, especially with all the layering, are more complex than just those roots; shades of Dbsus2 in there, Fmsus2 as well. But the basic harmonic stuff is super stark.
posted by cortex at 1:34 PM on June 30

Of course, dude in the video is at capo thirteen, so if you feel like emulating that you're really going to be playing forms a half-step down:

Em // C //

and

D / Em / C // [touch of Bm]

If you feel like doing something more normal and strummy with it, I'd suggest dropping down to capo 1. In any case, those are a lot more friendly than the barre-heavy no-capo chords in the original key.
posted by cortex at 2:00 PM on June 30