I think the song has High E tuned to D (Maybe?) and with a capo on the 7th fret, but I'm not sure about the chords. Someone posted some ages ago that didn't really work. So I was hoping does anyone know?

 

 

Side Note: There are so many songs played with that tuning. Princess Of China, Sparks, Wedding Bells, Warning Sign, Green Eyes; it's awesome.

i've tried to work this one out and always was a little frustrated. Don't recall any of the chord books having anything insightful. you play warning sign with e tuned to d? I can say with certainty that the studio version of warning sign will not work if you use a tuner that uses A=440hz and a capo on the second fret, or any fret, it will not sound good. the reference pitch is 9 cents flat, or 431hz for A. I did a little play along with the album track and was frustrated for a while. I really recommend the "aol sessions" warning sign performance. believe tuning is standard and capo on the second. as for prospects march. i've seen chords that were largely correct sounding, but there was a video i saw of chris martin playing it on guitar and he played very high up the neck and possibly with a capo as well, and no chord book showed that. the chorus is straight forward enough but the finger picking is pretty ingenious and seems to confuse my ear when deciphering it.

i also have found tuning high e to c to work as well. I play guitar through out this clip but blend in pretty tightly until the piano outro. used standard tuning, slightly flat on every string and capo on second. I re-"EQ'd" the album track a little to give the bass a little more presence. just my taste. think it sounds pretty good, and i don't think that about everything i do trust me. prospects march is a really good song i'd like to have in my repertoire as well. underrated for sure. what a chorus.

 

https://soundcloud.com/cedmo013/you-were-an-island

i forgot. i have melodyne. sometimes it's pretty helpful for breaking down a song into it's notes. i'll try it. sometimes it can't distinguish the snare drum from a piano note though so it's hit or miss.

I always thought it was in standard with a capo on the 4th fret. The first part you play a Am/Am7 then a F chord.

here's a video of chris martin playing prospekt's march on guitar. he has a capo the 7th. if i think i figure out how he plays it, i'll pass along. i know what the chords are, or i've seen them and played them. but putting the capo on the 7th and working out if it's tuned differently will make it sound more authentic. CM has some cool ways of making otherwise vanilla chords sound fresh. if it's not close to standard tuning it's very close cause the chord shapes are easy to spot.

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qM8AnkwtmM]Prospekt's March by Coldplay in Live ! - YouTube[/ame]

i'll just keep updating this reply. but i am pretty sure i'm on the right track now. Capo 7th. 1st string tuned to D. I get tab a little switched around sometimes. but capo on 7th fret and frets posted are in relation to capo. Strings = E-A-D-G-B-D

 

Em (Bmin7)= 0-1-1-0-0-0

Cadd9/G (Gadd9/D)= 3-3-2-0-1-0 (when he switches to this chord he strums with the fourth string open then hammers the second fret) (also when appropriate in the beginning, he presses the first string on the second fret)

1-0-0-0-0-0 (as a transitional strum before the Cadd9)

 

with the lyric, "Prospekt how could i forget?" I like both these chords. its a variation on an A7 (or E7 with the capo where it is)

 

X-0-2-0-2-2 or X-0-2-4-2-2 (the second one i just barre the second fret starting at the fourth string and use any finger to play the fourth fret. It's an add9 chord but it sounds like it might be the one. even though the sound of the chord on the track just sounds like a dominant 7 chord by ear.

 

Also worth noting. when the lyric "people talking with out speaking" begins the second verse, the order switches from Cadd9 then Emin to Emin then Cadd with the traditional chord with just the 3rd fret 6th string played between the two chords.

 

 

when he says drums... it's a G chord with the first string open and a hammer-on thing on the first string second fret. that switches to an Emin chord with the second string 3rd fret getting the hammer on thing this time.

 

i'm over this for now. haha. but the chorus is basically a d chord with 1st string open. then transition by adding 4th string fourth fret and 5th string 2nd fret then a C chord with your pinky on the first string, fifth fret (double dot fret) if you can manage it. That's all i got :)

What chord goes here?

 

 

-?-----------C

But I Wasn't One

 

Also I know its a big ask but could you write all the chords down and then put the lyrics up and tab the whole song? I know it would be useful for other people searching this forum years from now. I know from experience.

I don't have my guitar on hand, would it be a Dm chord?

did you find the chords i posted to sound ok? i was a little over caffeinated at the time and up for a challenge cause this song always seemed to out-wit me. yeah. i can do a full tab kind of thing. just a matter of finding some time. transcribing is not a strong point as i just play by ear usually. I do have an app on my iPhone called guitar tool kit. really a great app. it allows you to customize tunings. and to try out different finger positions on the fretboard, strum to hear how it sounds. gives you the name of the chord and you can save the tuning and chords with diagrams to a chord sheet. if i could figure out how to upload pictures it would be ideal for this kind of thread cause instead of painstakingly writing out each chord (this song must have a dozen at least), i could just upload a screen shot of the chord diagrams and at the top it would give the tuning and capo position.

They were good. Idk about this one though (X-0-2-0-2-2 or X-0-2-4-2-2) it sounds too high. How about removing the 3rd two. Like This X-0-2-0-2-0)

i've slowed the album track down to a slow tempo and i'm working out the kinks of what i wrote earlier. Do you have any idea of how to upload a picture or photo. because i can make a chord diagram sheet and instead of tabbing every chord for every lyric, i can just assign each chord a number and then i could just post the chord number over the lyric. otherwise i could just tab every chord and do the same. I can't believe people literally get degrees in music from serious programs, and end up doing this type of thing for companies who publish chord books for popular music. Or what i can't believe is how incorrect they typically are, or at least how much they vary from how it's actually played. I worked out Princess of China pretty much spec for spec how CM plays it on guitar and it's nothing like what any published sheet music suggests. I'll check out that chord you mentioned that sounds too high. if that's how it sounds correct to you, by all means, play it that way. :)

i've slowed the album track down to a slow tempo and i'm working out the kinks of what i wrote earlier. Do you have any idea of how to upload a picture or photo. because i can make a chord diagram sheet and instead of tabbing every chord for every lyric, i can just assign each chord a number and then i could just post the chord number over the lyric. otherwise i could just tab every chord and do the same. I can't believe people literally get degrees in music from serious programs, and end up doing this type of thing for companies who publish chord books for popular music. Or what i can't believe is how incorrect they typically are, or at least how much they vary from how it's actually played. I worked out Princess of China pretty much spec for spec how CM plays it on guitar and it's nothing like what any published sheet music suggests. I'll check out that chord you mentioned that sounds too high. if that's how it sounds correct to you, by all means, play it that way. :)

i've slowed the album track down to a slow tempo and i'm working out the kinks of what i wrote earlier. Do you have any idea of how to upload a picture or photo. because i can make a chord diagram sheet and instead of tabbing every chord for every lyric, i can just assign each chord a number and then i could just post the chord number over the lyric. otherwise i could just tab every chord and do the same. I can't believe people literally get degrees in music from serious programs, and end up doing this type of thing for companies who publish chord books for popular music. Or what i can't believe is how incorrect they typically are, or at least how much they vary from how it's actually played. I worked out Princess of China pretty much spec for spec how CM plays it on guitar and it's nothing like what any published sheet music suggests. I'll check out that chord you mentioned that sounds too high. if that's how it sounds correct to you, by all means, play it that way. :)

sorry. didn't mean to post that three times. on the video he plays it in an interesting way for sure. but i believe the chord you wondered about, "but i wasn't one", is an A maj (with the capo it's actually an E chord) but see how this sounds there.

 

X-0-2-2-2-0. or 3-3-5-2-0-0 (closer to what it looks like in the video) thumb on sixth string. this is one awkward song to play. i've heard CM say he doesn't "make up any new chords" as a way of saying "i'm not a music prodigy or music virtuoso, but that second chord i just wrote down. either he or i just made it up cause there is not a good chance with this tuning and capo position, that one has ever been tried prior. It could be called a C maj13/G. which would make sense in a way because it transitions to a Cmaj/G.

cubie. i totally agree about the A7 chord sounding better just played X-0-2-0-2-0. i'm trying to play through it and there's a lot to this song. lot of subtle things going on for sure

I think I finally got this one. if you know how to post pictures i could post the 24 chords in this song as diagrams. No wonder he didn't play that one live. awkward as anything i've tried.

 

Anything sound really off? i'm sure it's not exactly how he plays it but it can't be too too far off. I like the chorus for sure.

https://soundcloud.com/cedmo013/prospekts-march

 

 

/Users/charlesedmonds/Desktop/IMG_0963.JPG

In the reply box there is a link that says insert image. use that.

http://s1363.photobucket.com/user/cedmo013/embed/slideshow/

 

 

Ok. Starting with the slide with the title of the song. I basically just entered them in order. Notice the tuning and Capo position. This is a song you have to use your ear to play. there are at least a dozen ways to play it even with the capo and tuning where it is. Have fun! let me know if it works or not.

 

Oh. and when he sings, "oh, when I runnn......" take that A7 chord. X-0-2-0-2-0 and slide it down to X-0-1-0-1-0, then back to the g chord/hammer on thing

I would love to hear a piano version of this song! :)

Cubie. When he sing..."but I wasn't one..." it's an Amin7. so X-0-2-0-1-0. Then you add the top two strings 3rd frets to make a Cadd9 3-3-2-0-1-0.

 

I'm gonna re-record it and slow it down or something cause I have it better now

Here's my final take on it. That was a B!$%& to work out for some reason. I wish there was an easier way to post the chords. I will definitely try to do a thorough job. I didn't see anywhere on the internet that had this this right. K. Done with Prospekt's March for now!

 

https://soundcloud.com/cedmo013/prospekts-march

There's one spot, right before he says "But here I lie..." the first time. Does he go major to minor? Meaning, does he go from Gmaj to Gm? Because that's what it sounds like but I can't quite tell cause it doesn't have the exact same feel to it, it just feels a lot more light-hearted. I don't know, just thought I would share. :)

you might have a very valid point/question. let me take a quick listen and see if i can help either correct my interpretation or explain what i think he's playing. Here's a very brief tutorial that goes through that part you mentioned. Basically the missing link in the time from you're talking about is a C chord with the G note on the 6th string played, then he let's go of both the 6th and 5th strings and let's the chord become an Amin7. so X-0-2-0-1-0. So you are right that it goes from a major to a minor chord at the spot you mentioned. It Just doesn't really take much to change the chords. it goes from C maj. add9 (3-3-2-0-1-0) to an Amin. add11 (X-0-2-0-1-0). Without the detuned E string, it would be going from a C chord to an Amin7, like the chorus from What If. he does that in the chorus in standard tuning with a capo on the second fret. here's a link to a short walk through. Cheers :)

 

https://soundcloud.com/cedmo013/prospekts-march-partial

You're a very brilliant man. I appreciate it more than you could imagine, as this is practically my favorite song. I really appreciate it. :)