Evan Handyside | Coldplay: Clocks | fingerstyle guitar + TAB @EvanHandyside | Uploaded July 2024 | Updated October 2024, 2 hours ago.
Guitar tab and blog: intellimusica.com/clocks-guitar-tab
Fingerstyle arrangement and guitar tab for Clocks, by Coldplay. This song is from their 2002 album, A Rush of Blood to the Head.
To this day, Clocks is still mesmerizing. A truly compelling 4 bar progression: Eb Major, Bb Minor, Bb Minor, F Minor. That's 3 minor shapes in a row -- yet the riff sounds overwhelmingly positive -- which is normally the domain of major chords. A true stroke of genius.
To my knowledge, I can't think of another song (other than Coldplay's The Speed of Sound) that doubles up on the middle (minor) chord. 'The Speed of Sound' was clearly a later attempt to capture the magic of Clocks. At the time, they weren't fooling me -- but I wonder if folks realized the two chord progressions are identical.
I'll give you a quick lesson on the chord theory of Clocks, you'll be amazed:
The Major Scale, if you remember from music class in Elementary School, is: "Do Re Me Fa Sol La Ti Do". That's 8 notes. They can also be numbered, simply like this: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8.
There is a corresponding major/minor chord built off of each of those 8 notes. The musical key of Clocks is Ab Major. Here are the chords built from each of those 8 notes, in order:
(1) Ab Major
(2) Bb Minor
(3) C Minor
(4) Db Major
(5) Eb Major
(6) F Minor
(7) G Diminished
(8) Ab Major (one octave higher).
The 1, 3, and 5 chords are a traditional progression for Blues, Folk, and Rock music. For "Clocks", Coldplay uses the 5, 2, and 6 chords. That's a very avant-garde progression. Even stranger, they double the 2 chord so their progression looks like this: 5 2 2 6.
Everyone has used 1, 3, 5 progressions since Blues music was invented. It's clearly in the public domain. That's why Tom Petty suing Sam Smith over "Stay With Me" was patently absurd. However, Coldplay was legitimately the first to use the 5 2 2 6 progression with Clocks. The chord riff is so mystical sounding that any attempt to use it, in any key, sounds exactly like Clocks.
My music on Spotify: spoti.fi/3bhbKcn
My music on Apple: apple.co/31c2Rzd
My Music on Amazon: amzn.to/3rmfEcx
#coldplay #clocks #fingerstyle #guitarcover #fingerstyleguitar
My name is Evan. Each week I create modern content for guitar. Here's some links to check out my work:
Guitar tabs and blog:
intellimusica.com
Spotify, Apple Music, and More:
intellimusica.com/evan-handyside-music
Contact Me:
intellimusica.com/contact
Guitar tab and blog: intellimusica.com/clocks-guitar-tab
Fingerstyle arrangement and guitar tab for Clocks, by Coldplay. This song is from their 2002 album, A Rush of Blood to the Head.
To this day, Clocks is still mesmerizing. A truly compelling 4 bar progression: Eb Major, Bb Minor, Bb Minor, F Minor. That's 3 minor shapes in a row -- yet the riff sounds overwhelmingly positive -- which is normally the domain of major chords. A true stroke of genius.
To my knowledge, I can't think of another song (other than Coldplay's The Speed of Sound) that doubles up on the middle (minor) chord. 'The Speed of Sound' was clearly a later attempt to capture the magic of Clocks. At the time, they weren't fooling me -- but I wonder if folks realized the two chord progressions are identical.
I'll give you a quick lesson on the chord theory of Clocks, you'll be amazed:
The Major Scale, if you remember from music class in Elementary School, is: "Do Re Me Fa Sol La Ti Do". That's 8 notes. They can also be numbered, simply like this: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8.
There is a corresponding major/minor chord built off of each of those 8 notes. The musical key of Clocks is Ab Major. Here are the chords built from each of those 8 notes, in order:
(1) Ab Major
(2) Bb Minor
(3) C Minor
(4) Db Major
(5) Eb Major
(6) F Minor
(7) G Diminished
(8) Ab Major (one octave higher).
The 1, 3, and 5 chords are a traditional progression for Blues, Folk, and Rock music. For "Clocks", Coldplay uses the 5, 2, and 6 chords. That's a very avant-garde progression. Even stranger, they double the 2 chord so their progression looks like this: 5 2 2 6.
Everyone has used 1, 3, 5 progressions since Blues music was invented. It's clearly in the public domain. That's why Tom Petty suing Sam Smith over "Stay With Me" was patently absurd. However, Coldplay was legitimately the first to use the 5 2 2 6 progression with Clocks. The chord riff is so mystical sounding that any attempt to use it, in any key, sounds exactly like Clocks.
My music on Spotify: spoti.fi/3bhbKcn
My music on Apple: apple.co/31c2Rzd
My Music on Amazon: amzn.to/3rmfEcx
#coldplay #clocks #fingerstyle #guitarcover #fingerstyleguitar
My name is Evan. Each week I create modern content for guitar. Here's some links to check out my work:
Guitar tabs and blog:
intellimusica.com
Spotify, Apple Music, and More:
intellimusica.com/evan-handyside-music
Contact Me:
intellimusica.com/contact
