Mr Brightside - what is so difficult about it?

nickp

another song we've just agreed to play.  "him" says it is too difficult.

what's so awkward about it - as per the hotel california post of mine - let me know and I'll play that "bit" coz i practice for fun and to get better etc 

ta dudes

N

benmurray85

its full of dodgy jazz chords if you play it PROPERLY!

The intro is tricky as fuck to play right and I've never seen any band where the guitarist plays it 100% correct.

we do it but as we are a three piece i literally just hammer it home with cowboy chords. coz im lazy!

it absolutely storms it at every gig tho! guaranteed

Col_Decker

Play it loud enough and you don't have to worry about playing it right, as the punters will hear the music in their heads (regardless of what you're playing)

Teetonetal

Col_Decker said:

Play it loud enough and you don't have to worry about playing it right, as the punters will hear the music in their heads (regardless of what you're playing)

That is full of wisdom... people spend way too much time trying to perfect every little neuance of covers.. fine for personal development, but all punters need is the 80% that tells them what the song is.. I blame over transcribed tab books for this..

I had the Queen Greatest hits one as a kid and trying to assemble a guitar part from pages of BM's overdubs was impossible...

Danny1969

The fingering for the intro is a bit tight but other than that it's pretty easy if you have a reasonable stretch. If you don't want to do the stretch parts you can get a very similar voicing without using it. Basically the whole guitar verse part use's Bm, A and D voicings with the high e open string always built on the end of the arp

nickp

as usual you are all bleedin geniuses.

happy days - we've got months before we have to play this and hotel california so in the meantime i'll learn it proper like cos I enjoy that sort of thing and then we'll see

thank you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

lustycourtier

If played correctly (tuned flat) its easy as you have the open e string to use. play it in tune but in concert pitch, the D# on B string is tricky. I play it on a 6120, which is tricky but its nice to see watching guitarists heads explode

Danny1969

I don't think you can play it any other way than in D - whever your in e flat tuning or standard as the whole point of all the riffs through the song is the open E string ringing .... a fretted D# doesn't ring in the same way 

RocknRollDave

It's a bit cramped up that end of the fretboard, it's an unnatural shape (unless it's a chord you are used to playing all the time...which I doubt) and it's tricky in the heat of the moment to consistently pick the correct strings when skipping about.

It's not impossible, but it's definitely one that suffers from the difference between playing sat down at home to practice and playing live, standing up, in the middle of a gig with everything else that's going on.

RocknRollDave

....or maybe I'm just crap!

Danny1969

Normally when you see a band play this song you can hear the guitarist put his hand in that strange position right up the fretboard and play a quick stab to check it's right .... check the first 30 secs of this video when I started playing it. It's called the Brightside Check 

nickp

got it.

RocknRollDave

Danny1969 said:

Normally when you see a band play this song you can hear the guitarist put his hand in that strange position right up the fretboard and play a quick stab to check it's right .... check the first 30 secs of this video when I started playing it. It's called the Brightside Check 

HAHAHAHAHA! I do that too!

stickyfiddle

*everyone* does that. 

I played it with my last band in standard tuning but with the high E tuned down to D and all chords shifted down 2 frets, which nets out to a semitone lower than the record. 

It's really hard to get your muscles used to forming that shape on the fly but once you figure it out it's actually fine.

Grunfeld

Oh this fecking song.  Until you play that opening with just slightly the wrong fingering you have never heard what true dissonance is... and neither has your audience!  Murdering this song live was probably the longest 16 bars of my life and even the bass player jumping to my rescue by playing as loud as fook wasn't enough... those wrong notes will cut through anything. 

I can play it now.  It may have taken a while.  Totally agree with @RocknRollDave that before you can think about playing it live the intro has to be learned standing up after you've nailed it sitting down; and yeah @Danny1969 -- the Brightside Check!  I do that too!  Essential!

chrisj1602

I had to learn this quickly for a wedding gig, it was a bit of a pain in the arse at first but I got it.  The band I stood in for already played it in the correct key, so I tuned to Eb and that made things easier.

nickp

I suspect we'll do it in D (but in standard tuning as long as I remember to warn the singer!)

David5150

My fingers cramp up at the thought of playing this one - remember doing it live once as an encore and found myself having to sit on my amp to try and contort myself to do the stretches.

Like other good folk have mentioned Bm A and D give the tune - which is plenty for our usual lashed up audience

 

nickp

I know I should be working, but the internet videos don't look too horrible - kind of stuff that classical guitarists have to put up with all the time

benmurray85

find a decent live version of the killers playing it live and you will see that the guitarist (dave keonignshbfashbkaj?) absolutely never plays straight chords at any point in this song, hes a serious jazz dude. However for pub bands you can achieve the same result, just add OD and tonnes of delay in the right place!

FWIW we dont tune down I just bang a capo on 1st fret and use C chord as the basis! Like I said, Im lazy

Grunfeld

nickp said:

I know I should be working, but the internet videos don't look too horrible - kind of stuff that classical guitarists have to put up with all the time

Well that’s cos they have been at the classical academy for clever bleedin’ classical guitarists playing Pagani Paganniii Paggann,  Mr Brightside, while we’ve been out being tarts, wearing the proverbial Spandex, and throwing shapes and avoiding putting our fingers into anything more awkward than pentatonic box 1 and the odd groupie called Rupert.  What I’ve heard, can’t attest to the veracity, is that Mr B was originally written on keyboard and that’s why it’s such a sod to play.  We can play it, but it’s fiddly.

EDIT:  just seen @benmurray85 's observation that the Killers' guitarist is a jazz dude.  Well they're worse than keyboard players.  Case solved.