Ahead By A Century by The Tragically Hip | acoustic
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An acoustic guitar lesson on how to play “Ahead By A Century” by the Tragically Hip from their 1996 album, “Trouble at the Henhouse.”
This and “Bobcaygeon” have always been my favorite “Hip” songs. Gord Downie is a great lyricist. I can't say I know what this song is really about, but all the same, I feel like I get it. I wanted to do this tutorial as an homage to Gord Downie, who was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer a few months ago. It’s a very sad and ironically tragic situation. The Hip have been one of Canada’s biggest band for many years and will complete their farewell Canadian tour later this month. (August 2016) Anyways, a lot of folks play this one in standard tuning using standard D, C, A and G shapes. That will work, but the guitars on the record are open tuned and that’s what gives the song its unique sound.
It’s an open C tuning but with the high E string tuned all the way down to a C. That’s the trick of this song. C-G-C-G-C-C. Once you get the guitar tuned to this you put a capo on the second fret to bring it into the key of D. When you hear how it sounds and feels in the proper tuning, you’ll never play it in standard again! It’s not a hugely tough song to learn, but like most things, it’s the feel that will take a while to get down. I hope you enjoy this lesson and good luck to Gord and the rest of the band in this really tough time for them and their fans. Cheers Andy |
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