I recently got a request for the Pina Colada song or "Escape" as people seem to prefer to call it. When I first heard this song, I couldn't help picturing a guy with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, greasy hair, polyester suit, and . . . well, I don't know. Picture musician in a dive bar in 1979.
Me = judgmental.
Guess what, I'm right. Guess what, in 30 years, I'll be the creeper.
Here is a quick tutorial of a SUPER EASY way to play this song. There is a complicated way, but guess what, it's a silly way to play the song. No offense to the talented musicians out there, but it is super unnecessary to play it more complicated than the two chord progression. Um, doy. A number one song gets its place through lyrics alone; the solo is what musicians get a charlie for. It's science.
Let me know if this is helpful to anyone interested.
I consider myself to be a mainstream, pop-punk listener. I feel that I should have shame in mentioning this, because the whole reason to like punk music is to be counter-cultural, against all authority, etcetera, etcetera. Popular punk is an oxy-moron. It's true.
Spoiler alert, I'm a pop-punk fan. The fact is, I like music that's rockin', but I also like music that follows a formula, has good singers, etc, and today's song definitely fits that mold.
Neon Trees is a fun band; their songs are great, they have a lot of character and I'm going to be honest, I've got a thing for female drummers. She is fantastic.
Today's song tutorial is "Everybody Talks" by Neon Trees, although everyone probably recognizes this song from "...It started with a whisper!!!"
Take a look at the tutorial video.
Structure of the song:
Count is 4/4, which means that a bar is four counts (yeah, like that makes sense). I will describe a bar as |----|. So if I say |D---|, that means play D for one bar. Simple. D for two bars is |D---|----|.
Strum pattern: up, down/up, chuck, up, down/up, chuck. Down strums are on the odd count (1 and 3) and up strums are on the even count (2 and 4). If this is too complicated, stick to a shuffle strum: down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up.
Intro: |D---|D---|D---|----| for 3 bars, then hold for one bar.
Verse: D 2 bars, G 2 bars; repeat three times. A for three bars then hold one bar.
|D---|----|G---|----|
|D---|----|G---|----|
|D---|----|G---|----|
|A---|A---|A---|Hold---|
I'm confident this makes no sense. I'm also confident if you're in my brain, it does. Good luck and hope this helps!
Side note: this follows a very common song formula, not only in the progression, but the entire formula of the song. If you figure out how these chords interact, you'll conquer many, many songs out there.
