"Inside the guitar parts"

Part I :: Follow Down That River
from the album TIDES, 2006

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Hi everyone!

Over the last few months, we’ve been repeatedly asked about guitar notations/tabs to our songs.
Well, we aim to please, so here we go.

The song I’ve covered here is “Follow Down That River”. The notation should guide a guitar player with some experience through the song fairly easy. If you play along with the record, tune down one half step. I play my part with a seven-string on the album, the notation is for a 6-string (as in pretty much what Torsti plays). I’ve used rhythm (slash) notation in the most simple parts just to suggest the rhythm, also in the tab there’s only one of each chords written with fret numbers in those sections.

The intro/main riff (bars 1-3) is in the song’s key, D-minor, you’ll have to switch between the 3rd and the 7th position fluently to get it sound right (pictures 1 & 2). I use some pull-offs instead of picking at both positions and some vibrato at the end to make it sound fluent and not too machine-like. The breakdown (bar 3) is also played with the rhythm guitars and bass at their octaves.

The verse has a pounding guitar-bass rhythm underneath, the chords shown in brackets are played by Marko with his keys. The bridge and the chorus have the same idea, Torsti and me play 5th chords and Marko creates the major/minor harmony. Play the first two bars of the chorus behind the main riff, if you want to stay on that side of the ball.

The D-harmonic minor breakdown (bar 3) occurs before the scond verse and also takes you to the Interlude part which has the rhythm guitar,bass and the drums with their own rhythm underneath, the melody notated in bars 24-28 is what Marko and I play. On the album you also hear a nice “undulator” sound over this section. Notice the “half bar” right before the solo.

The solo takes the song to a different place for a second, which is something we often like to do. The first bars are pretty much just long notes in the song key, towards the end the solo modulates to F-minor family chords to create some tension before getting back to the main riff. The sweep-tap lick at the end of the solo is not too difficult, you can rake the strings at the regular playing position (picture 3) before getting your right hand’s middle finger to the tap position (picture 4).

Ok, that’s it for now. Have fun with the song, and let us know what you might like to learn from our stuff, so that we can write down something someone really wants. Use the guestbook or join our Forum!

Rock on!

TH