From God Above

[Kenny: there's a mistake in the verse! Because of the harmonics, you should tune down your guitar half a step (i.e. lower by one fret), and play the tabs half a step higher, except for the harmonics. Everthing else is good nonetheless, keep the contributions coming! :)]


By Chris



Here is my take on the song. There is already a tab for this song on the site, but it's in a different key and left out a few parts, so I figured I'd share the way I play it. It's really fun and not as hard as it may sound at first, but you may need a few things to play it.

First and foremost, a good overdrive tone with enough gain to hit some hard harmonics. This is important for the beginning of the song. Secondly, a Dotted 1/8th note delay, set at 150bpm. Same setting as The Time Has Come. Lastly, a slide, but this is optional. I didn't use one for the instrumental, but it is done with one in the album.

The gear I used is a Line 6 Pod X3-Live going straight to my guitar. I have the tone and other tones available if anyone wants it, just give me a shout on Xfire messenger or skype! (screen name cool29801)

So lets get started!

(if the tabs look funny, just copy and paste them into notepad)

Intro:
Play the 13th fret on the high E string (not as a harmonic) a total of 12 times, then you play a harmonic on the G string between frets 9 and 10, 3 times, followed by 1 last harmonic in the same spot but on the B string. I don't know how this would be tabbed, but to help with what I'm saying, it would probably look something like this.


x = Harmonic between the frets in () before and after it.
/ = Slide up
\ = Slide Down
# = Pick slide

e-13-13-13-13 e-----------------------------------
B------------ B---------------------------(9)x(10)
G------------ x3 G-(9)x(10)-(9)x(10)-(9)x(10)--------
D------------ D-----------------------------------
A------------ A-----------------------------------
E------------ E-----------------------------------


e-13-13-13-13 e----9----9---------
B------------ B--8----8-----------
G------------ x3 G-------------------
D------------ D-------------------
A------------ A-------------------
E------------ E-------------------

OR if you want to play the rhythm, it goes like this:


e------------------------- ------------------------
B------------------------- ------------------------
G------------------------- ------------------------
D--10-10--------------8-8- -10-10------------------
A---8--8--11-11--8-8--6-6- --8--8--11-11--8-8-8-8--
E----------9--9--6-6------ ---------9--9--6-6-6-6--


The next part of the song is where it gets fun with the bends.

e----------------------
B----------------------
G-8b-8-8b-8-8b-8-8b-8--
D----------------------
A----------------------
E----------------------

e------8--------8-------8---11-9-8----
B----9---9----9---9---9---9--------9--
G-10-------10-------8-----------------
D------------------------------------- Repeat back to Bends above
A------------------------------------- Second time move into chorus instead
E-------------------------------------

Chorus:
I use triads through this part, it sounds great when you have 2 guitarists, but if you only have one, you might want to stick with power chords.

Here is how I play it. I'm just going to post the frets of the chords, since you guys more than likely know the easy rhythm.. it will save me some typing :P

Each chord 8 times if you strum as fast as I do in the video.
e-------------------------------
B--9--11--13--6--13--11--8---9--
G--8--10--13--6--13--12--8--10--

Instrumental:

e---------------------------
B--/13----------9-11-8-9----
G--/13-----8-10-------------
D---------------------------
A---------------------------
E---------------------------


e-----------------------------------
B--/13-\-----------------------/13--
G--/13-\-----------------------/13--
D-----------------/10\--------------
A-----------4-----------4-----------
E-----------------------------------

And after a bit, just hang out on the first chord of the chorus, then pick-slide your way back into the final chorus.

Pretty much, that's the whole song!

9 comments:

cool29801 said...

I never knew that the way I was playing it was wrong. I matched the harmonics as close as I could for standard, sounds close enough to pass in my opinion too if you do not feel like down-tuning or transposing the song. Hope it helped :D

samuel said...

it sounds nice brother and what do you think about the boss gt-10???? that's the one i use for now... im new with this thing, learning everyday

Warrior4jc said...

what kind of tripod for camera did you used?
Blessings

cool29801 said...

I actually used a Logitech Quickcam and clipped it to my headstock. As for the Boss GT-10, I have never used it, but I have heard great things about it, so it must have some good potential for worship. I use a Line 6 Pod X3-Live for majority of my tones, no real amp yet. Working on it though!

TonyMac said...

Could you make the POD setting available through another method, because I don't have access to anything you mentioned?

cool29801 said...

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=D2NMU4G3

Here is my tone. I don't know how well it will sound for you, since it is tweaked to my guitar. (stock humbuckers with gold plates on them)

cool29801 said...

After taking the song into an audio editor and snipping/looping the harmonics, I noticed my first harmonic is a tiny bit higher pitched compared to the song, but the second one is correct. Though the way I play it isn't the exact way, I would vote it as passable for if you wanted to use it live, since it's short and close enough. Mainly a convenience since it keeps you in standard. If anyone can find a different way to catch the first harmonic in standard, please let me know! I hate dropping my tuning :P

"Erudio" - to educate said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Tim van Limpt said...

Hey!

Great blog! I like it that you add video's in every post.It makes the blog more vivid.

I just created a guitar blog as well. It's especially to help out beginners to play their favourite hit songs.

Best wishes!
Tim van Limpt
www.playittheeasyway.blogspot.com