My latest pop transcription and misheard chords - Space Man Sam Ryder

allen

I thought I'd have a go at this great pop tune.



So I got the lines of the verse as

E B F# G#m

The 'official' tab has this as

E B D#/G G#m

Bit annoyed with that error on the third chord as I thought I could hear it clearly. Also not sure how they think it should be voiced.

Quite pleased with myself for getting the last line of the verse with the IV chord major to minor trick, so
E Em B for the last line of the verse.

Then it goes to the high pitched chorus. I quickly got the fact that it starts on an E and ends in a C#m, but couldn't get the passing chord in the middle. I had a variety of options, one of which was G#m (also had , so for each line of the chorus.
E G#m C#m

Unfortunately the official tab says E B/D# C#m. I can console myself that B/D# looks a lot like a G#m.

Then I had real trouble with the run down at the end of the chorus - never really got it together and always come a cropper with those chord runs in songs. At least I knew the end of the chorus lands on B.

I didn't go near the middle 8 as I had run out of energy by then.

Any thoughts anyone? Particularly interested to hear about strategies to work out those faster chord runs at the end of the chorus.

By the way, great pop song and great pop album.

viz

Awesome. So, first things first, to build a baseline off which to analyse everything: The home note, the “tonic” is B, and the 3rd degree is a D#, which is a major 3rd, so yep, the song’s in B major and the I chord is a B major chord. 

The “dominant”, or V chord, is F#, or F#7. But as you rightly say, that’s not the chord used in the verse. What’s happening is that the progression is aiming towards the B’s “relative minor” chord, the vi chord, which is G#m, and momentarily treating it as a minor tonic, or i chord. 

And the pre-chord before that G#m is its dominant chord, or V chord, a D#, or D#7. This is called a secondary dominant. In reality it’s a III-vi cadence, but it’s acting like a momentary V-i cadence. 

This is a really effective way of landing on the vi, and he makes it even smoother by accentuating the major 3rd of the D# chord, which is G (actually F## but never mind), by playing the chord in 1st inversion with G at the bottom. That G slips really comfortably up to the G#m chord. I’d play it like a barred C chord shape - 365343. That way you can enjoy the G note sliding up to the G#m 466444. 

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For the chorus there’s another 1st inversion. The progression is E - B - C#m, but the B chord has its 3rd note on the bottom to get that downward tune (E D# C#). I’d play the E chord as x7999x, and the B as a G-shaped barre chord without the bottom note - x6444x, or x6447x - and then C#m as x46654. 

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In the “searched around the universe” section (fuck me, I’ve JUST realised this is the very song I was unsuccessfully searching for in my own thread just the other day!!  https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/245694/what-s-that-song#latest )

Anyway, it’s F# - D# - G#m - G#m - C#m

^ That D# is the secondary dominant in 1st inversion again - in other words D#/G. 

The second G#m is a repeat of the first one, but this time it’s in 1st inversion, so it’s G#m/B. This is done just to keep the bass line moving. Notice it’s a G# minor chord, so the 1st inversion has its minor 3rd, a B on the bottom, not its major 3rd which would have been a B#.

So F# is 244322. D#/G is 365343, G#m is 466444, G#m/B is 76689x, and C#m is x46654. 

You could also play the G#m/B as a B major or even better, a B6 (x24444). But I prefer the G#m inverted.

Then in the “nothing but space man” bit, at the very end of the C#m he plays a D# quaver before the E chord. I’d personally just play that as a single note - you don’t want a full chord cluttering it up. You can even miss it out entirely. So then it’s a full E chord which I’d play as 07999x to get that low E sounding because it’s such a massive chord, then as in the chorus, a B/D# (x6444x) then a C# x4666x (but major this time). I love the swapping of the frets on those two chords. Then F#, then B.

^ at the end there, the F# is the proper dominant chord. See how strong it is - you have it here before the final V-I resolution at the very end (the most common song ending of all); you also had it on “searched” where it was really strong too. But what’s also interesting is the pre-chord to the F# - the C# major - which is a major II chord, where normally you’d expect a minor ii chord - C#m - as we’ve had in all the other occasions. But here it’s majorised, and it’s acting as another secondary domininant to the F#, so the II-V behaves like a V-I; and them the F# to B is the “proper” V-I. That II-V-I is a really strong ending. Much stronger than the ii-V-I you normally hear, where the ii is minor. That II chord is known as “the V of the V”. 

For the bridge, it flips properly into the relative minor, G#m. You could just about call this a modulation, where the song “establishes itself in a new key”. The previous times that G#m was treated like a i chord it was very momentary; this isn’t permanent as such, but it is properly established. So I’m gonna call the G#m a “i” for a bit. Ok, so the chord numbers are i - V - i7 - IV, which is G#m - D# - G#m7 - C#. Those are the vanilla chords. But it’s more interesting because you want that semitone descending line. Because “Gravity is pulling me down”. Isn’t that just great?! So the G#m is played normally (466444), the D# is played in 1st inversion with a G in the bass again, D#/G (365343), then the G#m7, inverted so that the 7th is at the bottom (G#m/F#). This is a difficult chord to play (2x110x works, just) so it’s easier to play the relative major, B, with the F# on the bottom, which is a 2nd inversion. 22444x. It’s almost the same thing. Then the fourth chord is a C#, in 1st inversion with F at the bottom (143121). So those bass notes are 4, 3, 2, 1. 

Then it’s time to set up the re-modulation back to B as the tonic. So first, the descending run is completed by a full E chord with 0 on the sixth string, so we’ve had 4, 3, 2, 1, 0 on the low E string. Then a II-V-I to bring us to a close on the original tonic, B, but with the following points:

Firstly, the II is a major chord (C#), so this is another secondary dominant cadencing to an F#, before the proper V-I to B. I’d do a C#7 here - x4646x. 

Then it’s the F#, but there’s an extra chord beforehand, which is either an F#sus4 or a B in 2nd inversion (B/F#). They’re virtually the same chord - 244422 vs. 224422. I think I prefer the B/F#

Then it’s the V chord, the F# (or F#7). 

Then it would be the I chord, but the II-V-I isn’t completed, so the B isn’t played, we go back to another chorus starting on E. At the very end of the song, the II-V-I is completed, finally. 

allen

Wow. Thank you!

 I need some time to digest all of that and incorporate it into my listening. 

allen

viz said:

This is a really effective way of landing on the vi, and he makes it even smoother by accentuating the major 3rd of the D# chord, which is G (actually F## but never mind), by playing the chord in 1st inversion with G at the bottom. That G slips really comfortably up to the G#m chord. I’d play it like a barred C chord shape - 365343. That way you can enjoy the G note sliding up to the G#m 466444. 

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Had a little dabble last night.

I think it is easier to play the D#/G as 10 888, but you can't really slide from G to G# as you are starting from the wrong finger. Assuming that most players play as economically as possible I'm guessing that was the way that it was written.

Still a lot more to work on on this one for me.

viz

 Well you can if you go x 10 8 8 8 x to X 11 13 13 12 11, 

but I really highly recommend getting the C shaped chords under your fingers - I use them all the time, they’re fantastically useful. 

allen

that's the way I was going, but on the D# your third finger is on the A string, but on G#m your first finger is on the A string.

viz

Ja but you can still slide up to it, switching fingers at the same time. But I know what you mean. 

Evo

I haven't listened or analysed to @viz standards by any means,

But just to offer an different set of ears and a different brain, my first instinct on the D#/G was to think Gdim7 (or F#7/G if that makes more sense). 

Whenever I hear that instant "tension", I always start thinking dominants or dim7 chords and they're often hiding away in there somewhere. 

viz

Ja, the D# is a dominant chord, so you can play D#7/G if you like. And yep, you can definitely play a Gdim7, that’s a D#7/G with a flat 9.

Or Gdim6, which is D#/G. 

I do however like to stress the secondary dominant function of it.

prowla

Spaceman I always wanted to go into space, man.