"Wonderwall": I Don't Get It

a collection of cliches that add up to nothing

i never liked this song or Oasis (though I fortunately missed constant exposure / it never forced itself upon me), so i never learned how to play it on guitar. as an American I also know it as the quintessential "annoying guy at the party with an acoustic guitar trying to get laid" song. anyway my brother asked me to play it on guitar as a joke so I looked up the chords and the chords are more sophisticated than I thought! not difficult, just not the easy peasy lemon squeezy open chords I assumed it was made of. lots of barre chords, in other words acoustic guitar dilettantes would have a shaky go at it.

But they are all open chords though, according to one of those crappy guitar chords website I've just this minute looked at.

isn't F#m the first chord?

I should say I didn't expect any barre chords in the song. I know there are thousands of guitar tabs that probably make it easier to play, I believe I looked up whatever the chords Oasis used.

Em7 according to what I've seen, once you put a capo on it's just an endlessly circling collection of Neil Young chords.

It’s played with a capo on the 3rd fret.

So easy peasy lemon squeezy after all (it's my wonderwall)

best thing about this song is how they got the reflection of the lights to fit inside his sunglasses in the video

'all the lights that lead us there are blinding' is a reference to stage lighting, obviously.

there are lots of songs that talk about being blinded by stage lights, it's a metaphor for feeling overwhelmed

So, there you go.

I don't like "Wonderwall" that much, not even because of its ubiquity: I didn't like it then. Don't know why, but hey.

Well this thread has introduced me to nick ciciriega.

Neil not Nick

My condolences

gettouttahere

Any incipient fans of NC are kindly directed to Lemon Demon, his project of original music, and its recent album Spirit Phone, which could cure anybody of Wonderwall in under an hour

It's played with a capo on the second fret and it's all open chords, but probably even lazier than using straight open chords as Noel keeps a couple of notes static throughout most of the song, only moving a couple of fingers at a time.

Anyway, I'll defend Oasis' '90s work any day of the week, but I agree with Mark G - I don't really need to hear this song again and, popular as it may be, it's never been one of their best.

A wall is a barrier, a means of protection from the potentially hostile outside world. Mr. Gallagher foreshadows this notion by asserting that the song's subject may be that which saves him, which protects him from harm. In this case, the source of his fears seems to be wonder, the very possibility of being overwhelmed by something both surprising and amazing. The person to whom he sings provides, after all, a bulwark against that very fear, by both grounding him and grinding his hopes and dreams to dust. We must, therefore, conclude that the titular 'Wonderwall' is none other than Liam Gallagher.

Mr. Gallagher, tear down this wall

It's played with a capo on the second fret and it's all open chords, but probably even lazier than using straight open chords as Noel keeps a couple of notes static throughout most of the song, only moving a couple of fingers at a time.

Far be it from me to defend Noel Fuckin' Gallagher but that's an aesthetic choice to use 7th chords.

As I said, upthread, Neil Young uses them all the time.

Or perhaps it's just the way he plays guitar since he uses those chords in quite a fair amount of his songs.

A few tracks emerged one or two years before Wonderwall all riffing on Serge Gainsbourg's 'Bonnie And Clyde' chords (MC Solaar 'Nouveau Western', Renegade Soundwave s/t single and Saint Etienne's 'I Buy American Records') so wondered if Noel just based it on one or more of those (albeit only to result in something a lot worse than them).

No, they sound nice, that's why he uses them, he likes them, they please him, that's how it works. (xp)

[o]It's played with a capo on the second fret and it's all open chords, but probably even lazier than using straight open chords as Noel keeps a couple of notes static throughout most of the song, only moving a couple of fingers at a time.

Anyway, I'll defend Oasis' '90s work any day of the week, but I agree with Mark G - I don't really need to hear this song again and, popular as it may be, it's never been one of their best.

― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Tuesday, April 3, 2018 8:58 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink[/i]

why is any way of playing guitar "lazy" if it sounds good or gets the sound you want it to?

replace gem archer with marty friedman!

actually nevermind that's a great idea actually

pick out a sequence of lazy string fingerings. tune the guitar to make it all sound acceptable.

the laziest way to play is to just strum and change tuning in real time

proposed oasis lineup:
liam gallagher
marty friedman
jad fair
tony levin on chapman stick
meg white

liam gallagher
marty feldman
jad fair
bernard levin on chapman pincher
meg white

i like this song because i was 10 when it was insanely popular

When I was 10 'Don't Worry Be Happy' was insanely popular.

Also a good song

No, they sound nice, that's why he uses them, he likes them, they please him, that's how it works. (xp)

― Buff Jeckley (Tom D.), Tuesday, April 3, 2018 4:18 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Of course he likes them, which is why he chooses to play them that way, which is why he plays guitar that way. Obviously. Also, because it's within his admittedly limited ability.

Oh go away and learn to play the guitar yourself, or do something interesting with your life, just leave us alone.

Tom - for one thing, I already know how to play guitar, and secondly it's not really my problem when someone tries to disagree with me by actually agreeing with me and gets pissy when it gets pointed out.

for you, turrican: https://youtu.be/LG4hOjJ9tEs

(xp) No, you're right, it's not your problem, it's our problem we're lumbered with you.

You'll get over it, I'm sure.

the chord sequence in wonderwall owns, turrican

"lazy" as a description of a chord sequence because it uses the same notes in multiple chords, michty me

When I was 10 Macarena was insanely popular and it sounds like shit.

fp'd

When I was young i learned survival
Taught myself not to care

"lazy" as a description of a chord sequence because it uses the same notes in multiple chords, michty me

https://www.premierguitar.com/ext/resources/images/content/2014_06/Blogs/Aug14_PG_CLM_Bass-Bench_photo1_WEB.jpg

"lazy" as a description of a chord sequence because it uses the same notes in multiple chords, michty me

― Louis Jägermeister (jim in vancouver), Tuesday, April 3, 2018 4:30 PM (ten minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah this is nuts, pedal points are great. almost all of Bob Mould's songs for Hüsker Dü feature drone notes that run thru the song.

https://i.imgur.com/pbuIBZi.jpg

Jim In Vancouver and flappy bird missing the point spectacularly. It's not the notes that are played, it's how much effort it takes to play them. I'm pretty sure that Noel didn't sit there thinking "wow yeah pedal tone" as much as I'm pretty sure flappy bird hasn't read the thread properly.

(As it happens, the chord progression of 'Wonderwall' is nothing spectacular - the most interesting part of the chord progression being the chorus, which is the weakest part of the song.)

Pedal point. I'm pretty sure what you know about guitar playing could be written on the back of a postage stamp and there'd still be room left to reproduce all of your most interesting and insightful posts to ILM.

interesting