Tabs
Red House Painters
Song for a Blue Guitar, from Songs for a Blue Guitar ;)
Written by Mark Kozelek
Tabbed by Adzm Double-you ([email protected])
- 5/26/04 First submission
Disclaimer: This tab is all my own work. There are, also, no other
tabs for this song anywhere (that I could find).
Tuning: Standard, but a half-step down. Actually, about 20 cents lower
than a half step. Just tune to the record.
There is much else in here rather than a blue guitar, so I've only tabbed
the guitar. Sorry, but there is nothing else on the Web regarding this
song, so maybe this will get some people past the initial confusion.
I hope it helps!
First, this song is mostly in 
E MajorE major, so keep the following in mind to
help with learning this song
I - E MajorE hit the 
F#F# and 
G#G# while strumming in the intro
ii - 
F# minorF#m
iii- 
G# minorG#m
IV - 
A augmentedA
V - 
BB (024440 or 224442 or 024400 [
B5B5])
vi - 
C# minorC#m
vii- 
D#dimD#dim
The song is recorded with strumming almost entirely on the bottom four
strings, occasionally the fifth. However when playing solo it is easy
to add the bass notes, they usually just follow along in the scale with
a chord. You'll get it with a little bit of listening.
The song itself mostly goes E MajorE (022100), BB (024400 [B5B5] or 024440), then
F#m7F#m7 (242222). After repeating this for a bit, it goes from an
E5E5 (xx2400) and up two frets (xx4600, technically a F#m7sus4 if you
care, ha). Then back to the E.
E MajorE BB F#m7F#m7
when everything we felt failed...
While on the F#m7, do this catchy catchy catchy pentatonic hammer on
thing right before going to the next chord:
-2----------------------
-2---------------------- the strumming is slow and simple :)
-2-------------------2h4
-2---------------2h4---- follow this with the E. Cadence!
-4-(strum)---2h4--------
-2----------------------
Eventually, the progression goes to an Asus2:
F#m7F#m7 
Asus2Asus2 (x02200) E MajorE
... nothing more.... than my .. own .. soul
sometimes go from F#F# to G#G# to lead the bass to the A augmentedA you will hit next.
D--------|-2--
A--------|-0--
E--2--4--|---- etc
When playing acoustic, and possibly even in the song, it works out great
to use any barre-chord formation of the above chords. Try the BB at 7th
fret going down to the F# minorF#m on 2.
End of song -
strum out - xx2400, xx1102, x42222 (or x42232?)
- E5, Emaj7, F#m7F#m7
E5(xx2400) F# minorF#m (x04600), E MajorE (022100) (melody on frets 2 and 4 (F#, G#G#))
what's left to see
etc.
It is best to just play along with the song and you'll get all the little
variations and make your own. Good luck.
-Adzm
