Charlie17

I'm giving this a quick listen so hopefully I can help out in a few minutes. first chord in the progression sounds like F#min7 (2.4.4.2.2.0) from low E to high E in standard. then Emaj. Then Amaj (5-7-7-6-5-0) then Bmin__(7-9-9-7-10-0) That's what I heard. Hope it's somewhat useful. If you think it's way off, I'll spend more than a few seconds on it. seems to work though..cheers Charlier

Great. Let me know if it sounds ok, or you think i misheard or didn't transcribe something right. Take care!

Senescence, I haven't sat down with a guitar and played any of this. but looking at the tabs, and hearing the fourth chord in my head, I imagine that Cubie255 is correct that it is a minor chord, not a Maj7. The way Chris Martin plays this particular chord shape, which he uses pretty frequently, is using his thumb to cover the sixth string. If you check out the video for "the scientist" on youtube, when the played at a radio station live with guitars, the Dmin7 chris makes is this exact shape. you can see how he plays it, or rather, his fingering. That song on acoustic guitar has the high E tuned to C. But it's the same chord shape. It's doable. On a classical guitar, i doubt anyone with normal sized hands could manage it. But any acoustic or electric with an average sized neck on the guitar should be manageable. Regardless, it sounds like a minor chord. Sorry to interject. That is a pretty chord though you wrote down though. Never dawned on me to play an Emaj7 (or F#maj7 with a capo on 2) like that. it's nice

Ok. Here is my transcription for the rhythm guitar. To solo or play lead, the key of Gmaj should work fine Standard Tuning. Capo 2nd fret. (E-A-D-G-B-e) and frets are NOT relative to capo. These are the frets regardless of capo. When it's distilled. The same chord progression is basically used throughout the entire song with slight alterations or a passing chord here or there. Intro and Verses before first chorus. I hear CM playing a D power chord with the fifth interval switching down to the 3rd interval then 4th then back to the fifth. so (x-5-7-x-x-x), (x-5-4-x-x-x), (x-5-5-x-x-x). You can hear how he uses those rhythmically before switching to Csus2. I like the sound of it as Csus2/G but whichever sounds better to you. Csus2 (x-3-5-5-3-3) or Csus2/G (3-3-5-5-3-3) then (only in the first bar of the intro and first bar following chorus, Gmaj (3-5-5-4-3-3) to Gsus2 (3-5-5-2-3-3). Remember the 2 is just played open cause the capo's on the second fret. then it's just the D power chord thing followed by Csus2 and Gsus2 cycled. You have to pay attention to his choice of timing cause it varies but those are the chords. For the passing chord prior to the chorus. i'm slightly sketchy on this one. I like the sound of a G6. So something like (3-5-2-4-2-3) or (3-2-5-2-5-3). That second one is a G 6/9. I like it better personally. Then the chorus is a Dmajor however you'd like to play it. sounds to me like it might be a D6/A. (5-5-7-7-7-7) or just a plain Dmaj (x-5-7-7-7-5) then the Csus2 from the verse (3,3,5,5,3,3) and the Gsus2 (3,5,5,2,3,3) For the second two chords in the chorus, I think it's most doable (and actually in the style of Chris Martin) to cover the 5th and 6th strings with the thumb and just move whichever fingers you use to cover the fifth frets from the 3rd and 4th strings up to the 4th and 5th strings, leaving that 3rd string open when you do that. That's all there is to i think. Feel free to correct me or disagree or anything. :)

This might be my personal favorite on the "album," can't believe they didn't keep it for the standard version of "ghost stories," but I'm glad they released it one way or another. I've attached a link to a cover I put together this weekend. Although the chords themselves are not what you would call exotic, working out this one out so that it sounded to my ears to be the way CM plays it proved a little bit of a challenge. Think I got it though. I'm going to try uploading some chord diagrams and if that doesn't pan out, i'll suck it up and write out tablature, something i'm just frankly bad at. This cover is a full step down (or two frets/full step) but the chords I post will be according to the album track, not my cover. Cheers, Charlie https://soundcloud.com/cedmo013/disappear-1

Hey guys. Sorry I kind of dropped the ball on this one. Looks like it's been taken care of! Sometimes's johny's riffs can be a little tricky to hear note for note cause he uses all kinds of delays and reverb. Does anyone have a good way to post pictures? I have some good screen shots from an app called "guitar toolkit" for the chords to the song "ghost story," that might be useful to some people.

are you at a level of guitar playing you think that this riff would be doable? Or actually. something i've done for people in the past is just record a short tutorial where i go though it and put it on sound cloud. Just let me know man. I'm happy to do it. But just confirm what works for you before i take the time. Take care my friend. -Charlie

gotcha. how would you like it communicated? i mean, i don't read music as far as classical notation. maybe i could just sit down with a guitar for a sec and tell you what notes he's playing and sliding from what to what?

ok. i mean, he's playing individual notes with some slides. can you usually work out music by ear or is it usually tough? A lot of times coldplay's songs aren't in tune with the standard reference pitch of A=440 hz. so if it seems like no notes work, it's probably cause the whole song is like 15 cents sharp or flat or something

are you talking johny's guitar? or chords

Thank you man :). Song is too pretty not to attempt a cover that doesn't ruin it completely. Haha. All that Chris Martin thumb on the 6th string is starting to make that joint crack a little. Not a sound one wants to capture with a guitar recording. Haha

Hey guys. Just wanted to share a guitar based rendition/cover of "O." Originally did it on piano which was a major challenge even with MIDI post note editing cause I'm not a piano player. Actually came out ok, but I thought it'd be worth seeing how it sounded on guitar. Pleasantly suprised. If anyone would like the chord shapes I used, tuning etc. just let me know. Thanks. -Charlie. https://soundcloud.com/cedmo013/o-acoustic

It's a good one right? Many songwriting "experts" claim that there aren't truly original chord progressions or that chords are not as important as melody. Last part maybe true somewhat, but some of Chris Martins' progressions are just plain original and not overly complex, but amazing. Just figured out "O" on the piano, it's another one. So good, and not contained within a major or minor key.

This is the chord progression from the verses of "Don't let it break your heart" Not played on guitar on the record if I recall, but sounds great on any instrument (well any polyphonic instrument, it'd be tough to pull off on a tuba or something). It's Bsus4 / Bmaj/D# / G#min11 / E sus2. I think it's kind of genius.

Yep. just throw a capo on the 6th fret. try some of these chords. From Low E to high e and frets relative to capo. (0-0-0-3-0-0), (5-5-0-3-0-0), (5-5-0-5-0-0), (3-3-3-0-0-0), (4-2-0-0-0-0). cheers man

i'm not great with Tablature either. Basically, each chord is organized in column, either a number, an 0 for open or an X for muted is given. The numbers mean the fret being played and the string it's being it's being played on is which row it's in. So. for example, an Eminor chord. in standard tuning. (E-A-D-G-B-E) would be (0-2-2-0-0-0) the way I write tab. the way most write tab it would look like this, or the way it's written above, I'm assuming the high e string is at the top and low E at the bottom, (Which by the way I believe tab is traditionally done) an Eminor would just look like this E--0 B--0 G--0 D--2 A--2 E--0 Does that help? Hope it does. let me know. take care

I love this song as well. I'll give the above suggestion a try. I've been messing around with some odd tunings though. Chris likes to play his chords in very untraditional ways so I have a suspicion, based on the sound of the guitar as well as history that he's doing something unique here.

let me know if you'd like to know how i played this cover of Oceans. I tried to play it as faithfully to what I saw at BBC1 https://soundcloud.com/cedmo013/oceans

Forget that tuning I posted. Not exactly good detective work there. I think it's nice in standard tuning. You can play the D chord as a barre chord on the tenth fret and either let the 1st and 2nd string go open or fret either or both at the tenth fret or the 1st string at the 9th to make a maj7 chord. Same thing for the E chord two frets up. Here's how it sounded for me. (It's all pitched a half step down but it doesn't affect anything). https://soundcloud.com/cedmo013/magic-cover-coldplay

Here's my educated...or misguided...guess for the tuning used in the recording. Low to High. E-A-D-F#-A-E. If not, wouldn't be the first time

I've played around a little with this today. Think the song is is Amajor. So assuming Chris Martin is doing his go to which it kind if sounds like, and letting some strings in that key ring open, guess it could be standard, or possibly a string or two tuned to F#, C#, D, or A. Bet a lot or tunings would sound good I suppose. Think it's a good song personally. You guys like it?

Did any of those work for you? I apologize if i sounded at all preachy about songwriting technique. Basically just regurgitating what I read. I typical start out with chord progressions too, and I"ve heard Chris Martin share that he does as well. And there are definitely chords that seem to complete a chord progression better than others. My tabs were using DBDGBE as the tuning so I hope i interpreted that correctly in your post. Take care. Charlie

The answer depends almost entirely on the melody. but try these. (3-1-2-0-2-0), (X-1-2-0-3-0), (5-1-2-0-0-0). The names of your chords are Dsus2, Dmaj9, Asus2sus4/D. So you could always try looking at the circle of fifths and working out which key your in or approximately in and then seeing which chords might fit the bill. It's also worth considering if this is the progression for a chorus or verse or bridge. generally, you can go with a less "obvious" sounding progression in a verse whereas in the chorus, a stronger, more predictable progression is what's generally advisable. Take "Atlas," for example. The first time you hear the song, many of the chords in the verse are difficult if not impossible to see coming. But the chorus is solidly in a major key and the listener can anticipate what's coming, which is a good thing. Last of all, and coldplay are masters of effective songwriting as we know, the melodies in choruses are almost always pitched higher than the verses. Hope one of those chords fits your ear, if not, guess it's just a patient process of elimination until you stumble on the one your looking for. No shame in that, especially with a unique tuning. Take care

(4-2-2-0-0-0). Capo on 2? Or, hey, what's wrong with a key change. bet it sounds cool man. If anyone ever gets frustrated with this song playing along with the album track. it's cause the reference pitch for all tuners these days is 440hz for A. This song, every instrument is just slightly flat of that so if your tuner has a way to adjust the reference pitch. set it at 434 hz.

I had some limited luck with this one after spending some time with it. the main chords here are c, f, and g. he or whoever is playing guitar does some variations on the chords at times. for instance, if you play an F (in standard tuning) X-X-3-2-1-1, (ill just say "he" cause chris martin wrote it), he might do something like X-X-2-0-1-0 or with a c chord, he might use the fifth string 2nd fret (b note) as the base note occasionally without changing anything else (X-2-2-0-1-0 or X-2-0-0-1-0). see if that helps and if not i'll try working it out better. cheers