The Smiths - The Headmaster Ritual

Rayza1983

Does anyone know of accurate tab for this song. I can play most of it and I know and play it in open E major tuning but I can't get my head round the arpeggiated part at 1.10 of the tune, plays it a few times. Help please someone

Brize

http://www.smithsonguitar.com/2008/09/headmaster-ritual.html

Rayza1983

Brize said:

http://www.smithsonguitar.com/2008/09/headmaster-ritual.html

Think that tab is standard tuning

Rayza1983

My brain needs relief i've been trying to work this bastard out all fucking day urghhhh

DaiCapp

Rayza1983 said:

My brain needs relief i've been trying to work this bastard out all fucking day urghhhh

You'll feel good when you get it though... Have you had a search on You Tube - there's a few folks doing some really good Smiths lessons on there and if it doesn't throw up anything some of them will do requests...

BigLicks67

Is it the " I wanna go home ..." bit

if so check this video at 1.20 ish - there's a couple of other videos in open d capo II as well to look at.

.

Rayza1983

DaiCapp said:

Rayza1983 said:

My brain needs relief i've been trying to work this bastard out all fucking day urghhhh

You'll feel good when you get it though... Have you had a search on You Tube - there's a few folks doing some really good Smiths lessons on there and if it doesn't throw up anything some of them will do requests...

Who does requests mate? thanks for reply

Rayza1983

BigLicks67 said:

Is it the " I wanna go home ..." bit

if so check this video at 1.20 ish - there's a couple of other videos in open d capo II as well to look at.

.

It starts at 1.13 on this video

Wazmeister

It is notoriously difficult to work out Marr's stuff due to the overlaying...

Wasn't there something like 21 guitars on 'What Difference...' ???!!??

AvalonAndy

*

roberty

Necrothread! Everyone should watch this right now all will be revealed

edit: apologies it wasn't clear that he demonstrates how to play Headmaster Ritual here in open E tuning, I used to play this many years ago in drop D with capo 2nd fret and it never sounded right

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UI96b_bTrnI

UnclePsychosis

The captions on that are hilarious. 

"its a deluxe with no vowels in it" 

Erm, I think he means valves, Fender...

Heartfeltdawn

roberty said:

Necrothread! Everyone should watch this right now all will be revealed

edit: apologies it wasn't clear that he demonstrates how to play Headmaster Ritual here in open E tuning, I used to play this many years ago in drop D with capo 2nd fret and it never sounded right

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UI96b_bTrnI

either is acceptable. From the pages of guitar magazines in the past: 

"I've got an Epiphone Coronet with one pickup, and I string it with the high strings from a 12-string set. It's a really zingy, trebly guitar. I used that on a lot of things that people think are 12-string, like the end of 'The Headmaster Ritual'... I wrote 'The Headmaster Ritual' on acoustic. It's in an open-D tuning with a capo at the 2nd fret. I fancied the idea of a strange Joni Mitchell tuning, and the actual progression is like what she would have done had she been an MC5 fan or a punk rocker. I knew pretty much what every guitar track would be before we started. There are two tracks of Martin D-28, and the main riff is two tracks of Rickenbacker. I wasn't thinking specifically of the Beatles' 'Day Tripper' -- even though it sounds like it -- but I did think of it as a George Harrison part. The Rickenbacker belonged to Phil Manzanera of Roxy Music; I'm told that it was originally owned by Roger McGuinn. All the guitars are in open tuning, except for one of the chorus guitars, which is done on an Epiphone in Nashville tuning [the four lower strings tuned an octave above standard pitch], capoed at the 2nd fret."

- Johnny Marr, Guitar Player, January 1990

"The nuts and bolts of The Headmaster Ritual came together during the first album, and I just carried on playing around with it. It started off as a very sublime sort of Joni Mitchell-esque chord figure; I played it to Morrissey but we never took it further. Then, as my life got more and more intense, so did the song. The bridge and the chorus part were originally for another song, but I put them together with the first part. That was unusual for me; normally I just hammer away at an idea until I've got a song. It's in open D turning, with a capo at the second fret. Again, it was heavily overdubbed."

- Johnny Marr, The Guitar Magazine, January 1997

Pretty sure the first article had a bit of tab from the intro of THR and it was in dropped D.