How does Sheryl Crow play 'Chances Are' on guitar - non-standard tuning?

October 24, 2011 3:23 AM

How does Sheryl Crow play 'Chances Are' on guitar - non-standard tuning?

Hello all - Struggling to work out Sheryl Crow's 'Chances Are'.

As you'll see from this video, she seems to be using a non-standard tuning: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7c5dscrdO4

One tab is floating around online (with capo on first fret) but it doesn't look right.

Any help gratefully accepted!

Cheers.

posted by Blackwatch to Media & Arts (3 answers total)

can't tell from watching her in this video. my ear isn't that good for intervals/chords, but if you gave me this for a project, i'd just strip the audio and put in in Audacity.

(if you don't have Audacity on your computer, how can you be audacious? get with the program, blackwatch! it's essential for stealing guitar secrets!! )

anway, with audacity, you can select portions of the audio that are just the guitar and suss out the tones one by one. (audacity can loop the same sounds over and over and over. just hit SHIFT when you select PLAY and it'll repeat what you marked.)

remember, she's got a guy on her left in the shadow plucking, too. she doesn't look to be doing a whole lot of picking. quite likely, most of the guitar sounds are coming from the shady guy. perhaps it's youtube sync, but as ancient guitar player, i don't really see her right hand doing what i am hearing. i also see overwhelming support from the orchestral backup, making the guitar part rather unimportant. it's really only filler for the quiet times.

non-standard tuning is only going to help you with the fingering, so rather than try and decode what tuning she may be using, i'd aim to understand what chords she is playing and go from there to decide whether you need to experiment with tuning alternatives. few things can't be played in standard tuning with some stretching, re-voicing, chord simplification. once you know what sounds to make, you can figure out how to make them easier. as you know, there are a kazillion ways to lazily pluck. she's not segovia, nor joe pass, nor chet atkins. for this particular song, she only qualifies as a guitar player because she's holding one. not that she's not a good performer, it's just that this isn't inspiring stringmanship, IMO.

i think this is a pretty simple song. what makes SC special is her vocals. unless you are planning to mime her in covering this, you can interpret it any way you want to. yours may be better!
posted by FauxScot at 5:59 AM on October 24, 2011

Response by poster: Much appreciated, FauxScot.

I reckon I can do my own version, but it annoys me when I can't work out EXACTLY how it's being played. As you say, it looks relatively simple. But, without knowing the tuning, it's hard to crack the code.

Hopefully someone as sad as me may have gone to the trouble of working it out!

Cheers.
posted by Blackwatch at 6:21 AM on October 24, 2011

According to United We Tab (which wants to sell you something), she is playing with her guitar tuned CAGCFC
posted by blob at 6:29 PM on October 24, 2011 [1 favorite]