Acoustic Guitar cover of The Hardest Part. Chords and tuning too

[Charlie17]

Hey guys. Just heard the version of this song Chris did on the LeftRightLeftRight album, and thought i'd tty it out on acoustic guitar. I have been experimenting with a new reference pitch other than A=440Hz based on something I read in sound on sound. Evidently, A4=424Hz (approximately 64 cents flat) is the pitch that the great composers like Mozart used and also is related to the golden ratio, Pi, and other frequencies and numbers that occur repeatedly in nature and math. It might be gimmicky, but i like it for now. The album track and the live version album track of The Hardest Part is in standard concert pitch, so these chords and tunings will work fine even though my cover is not quite a semitone flat.

 

I looked at the "little black book" of coldplay guitar transcriptions, which really gets a lot of the tunnies and chord formations true to how Chris Martin plays them. For this one, I think they just posted the chords with a capo because he plays it on the piano. I did something more Coldplayish and Took the coldplay tuning of E-A-D-G-B-Eb and tuned that whole thing down a semitone. so strumming an E chord gives you an Ebmaj7. And then i just played the chords like Chris Martin does in this tuning which was doable because it's contained within a major key. I'll write the chords as if the guitar isa not tuned down a half step. So, when i write Emaj7, it's actually an Ebmaj7. Doesn't really matter cause i'll provide the chords in my form of tab. Here are the Chords (in order from the low E to the high Eb with the numbers indicating the fret.)

 

E (0-2-2-1-0-0), G#min (4-6-6-4-0-0), C#min (9-11-11-9-0-0) F# (2-4-4-3-0-0), B (7-9-9-8-0-0), D#min (X-6-8-6-7-0),

 

Intro: E then G#min then C#min then E then F#. Verses G#min then E then B then D#min (then back to the G# to start again) Chorus (E then B then F#)

Chorus Outro: (G#min then F# then E then D# (X-6-8-8-6-0 this time), then C#min then back to the Verse progression. The last time he does this, swap out the C# min for the F# chord.

When he sings "everything I know is wrong" it's E then G#min then C#min and the final little outré is just and E and F#. Here's what it sounds like. You can fret the first string first fret to make the Emaj7 an Emaj, which is more true to the song. I left it as a Maj7 for fun though. Cheers. Charlie

 

https://soundcloud.com/cedmo013/the-hardest-part

[oolon]

kudos dude, this sounds awesome :D

thanks for the guitar chords too, I'll try them as soon as I get home

[aviv201498]

Fantastic. And here my cover of the end of the song "white shadows' with synth& organ.

I'm hoping that you'll listen to it:

[Charlie17]

Man is that spot on or what?! Wow. I like playing that song on the acoustic with the same E-A-D-G-B-D# tuning as well. Works great

[uttamo]

@Charlie17 the Soundcloud link to your cover is now dead, do you have a new link? Eager to hear this!

Edited August 25, 2022 by uttamo