Mr Brightside - what is so difficult about it?

Danny1969

Grun 

That's a bit strange that tab, nothing like how I play it 

Grunfeld

Danny1969 said:

Grun 

That's a bit strange that tab, nothing like how I play it 

Yep, I know it's different to the way you play it cos I've seen your version and I just couldn't get my fingers around how you play it at all!

Whereas this, I can play it good this way!  But it's crampy not stretchy.  And the pitches of the notes are correct, pretty sure about that cos I went over it with Transcribe about a billion times.  Just one of those things about guitar where the notes can be played in different places on the neck.

Danny1969

@Grunfeld

Yours is a great pattern if you break the G string ,,,, I don't think you hit it once

Grunfeld

Danny1969 said:

@Grunfeld

Yours is a great pattern if you break the G string ,,,, I don't think you hit it once

Correct!  Not once... gotta be careful skipping it cos it sounds rubbish if you hit it. 

Albeit not as totally hideous as accidentally playing a B18 instead of a B17 (which is possible at any point in the second part of each phrase).  That is the bum note where Mr Brightside turns into Mr Shitsides. 

So it's a nice pattern if, like me, you don't have stretchy fingers... but it has a couple of deadly booby traps if one's not careful with the picking.

koneguitarist

Never heard of this song so just goggled it on spotify, for a cheats way of doing, play same pattern each time and tell bassist to do note run down higher up neck. Audience will never notice and by the time you are into song they will all be pissed up and singing along anyway.

koneguitarist

It's like when bands do Sweet home Alabama, no one ever plays 2nd guitar part, does anyone notice no, but when it's added, to me it makes the song.

stickyfiddle

koneguitarist said:

It's like when bands do Sweet home Alabama, no one ever plays 2nd guitar part, does anyone notice no, but when it's added, to me it makes the song.

I do! At least, I did, the one time my old lot did it live. Agree that is makes the song. It loses something if you don't have good keys on it too, much like Johnny B Goode, which is regularly ruined by 4-piece bar bands.

flatout

I refused to play it because I couldn't play it properly - and I'd seen so many bands bodging it because they couldn't play it properly either. People kept asking for it at gigs and the band used to send them to me for an explanation!

Eventually I took the view that Dave Keuning's only human, so it has to be possible, and I started woodshedding it. When I got to perfect at 130bpm, I told the rest of the band that I'd do it, and that forced me to work further on it til I got to perfect at 148bpm!

I still mess parts of it up at times - the bridge is much harder a stretch than the opening lick - but my only compromises are that my Eb-tuned guitar is a Gibson for the slightly shorter scale, and it's on a short strap cos I definitely can't do it lower!

Maynehead

Short strap is key, which is why I stopped trying to learn it as I don't wanna be doing a George Formby impression when I'm on stage...

flatout

Maynehead said:

Short strap is key, which is why I stopped trying to learn it as I don't wanna be doing a George Formby impression when I'm on stage…

Agreed - I really don't like playing guitar that high, but I do love the song and the reaction it gets!

Danny1969

That monster stretch, the one spanning from the low G on the low E string to the 7th fret of the G string can be fudged with a G5 and the open E string so no sense killing yourselve over that bit., the other 2 inversions are pretty easy it's only that one for me

gubble

Oh no i've just seen this thread.

 

Week in week out this is the song that I dread playing.

For some reason I find i have to make my strap shorter to play it properly otherwise I simply can't play the riff properly. No idea why

Nerine

It's not difficult to play Mr Brightside properly.

If you want to play it record pitch properly, your guitars needs to be tuned to Eb.

Cirrus

I was wondering how hard it was so I had a go last night and picked up the intro/verse and pre-chorus riffs (big stretch included) in a few mins. I consider myself a chancer on guitar at best and I suspect some who have trouble with the riff would put me to shame in many other areas of guitar of course!

I suspect the main challenge for me would be getting the transition back into the main riff tight and accurate while all the sexy girls who suddenly decided to dance for one song in our set wiggled their breasts at me.

markblack

I bought a used RC-3 Looper and about 15 of the recorded loops on it when it arrived were Mr. Brightside... he REALLY wanted to play that song bad. (some were pretty good I should ad).

supes

You don't need to shorten your guitar strap, you just hoist the guitar upright for the intro as if you're Slash doing one of his "on the knee" solos. I play it every week like this!

nickp

this thread has kept me amused for ages - and it seems to just keep on coming.

but the shit is going to hit the fan now as I've just volunteered to deffo learn it as my other guitarist refuses and we've agreed to do it for a wedding

I've gone through - put all the cheats onto one page and bookmarked the video on you tube

may the woodshedding begin - wish me luck!!!

rsvmark

The thread that keeps giving. I have another cheat: buy a shorter scale length guitar. I shit you not, it's bloody easier to play on my Lester than it is on my strat. Doesn't quite justify the R8 but I am working on it.... And I've agreed to learn it for a wedding too )

bluenose

markblack said:

I bought a used RC-3 Looper and about 15 of the recorded loops on it when it arrived were Mr. Brightside... he REALLY wanted to play that song bad. (some were pretty good I should ad).

:-)  How you getting on with the looper mate?

nickp

well this is going ok.  about 20 minutes on the opening/verse progression got me going along at about 70% of real speed so I'm pleased with that.

Regarding the pre-chorus, i'm playing the arps in the first/second position (right down by the nut) which then means that I can play the low g with my thumb so I'm not having significant problems there either.

The move down from the 17th fret area to the 2nd fret area is helped by playing an open D as the final note of the high arpeggio leaving time to scoot down to the other end for the next arp.