Bobcaygeon by The Tragically Hip | acoustic - electric
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An acoustic electric guitar lesson on how to play “Bobcaygeon” by the Tragically Hip from their 1999 album, “Phantom Power.”
It's been another horrible week for music lovers with the passing of Gord Downie... I did a lesson on "Ahead By A Century" last year in honor of GD so I felt like I had to do a lesson on this one too. In both songs his poetic and storytelling talents really shine through. The town of Bobcaygeon has been immortalized in this tune but according to GD, he said it could have been any small town, but that one rhymed the best with constellation. I always get a kick out of that! The trick to playing it is that it's in open G tuning. Rob Baker is a great guitar player and a fine musician and he came up with a fantastic guitar part for this song. There's always something magical about open G. It's almost like the guitar was made to be in that tuning...I'm sure Keith Richards would agree! You can easily strum it in standard but it won't sound or feel the same...
One of the electric guitars basically doubles the bass in the verses and the other one is more or less just ambient sounds so I didn't try to go note for note on that one but tried to capture the overall vibe instead. A lot of that is the delay and using a compressor to squish everything down so it doesn't jump out at you. Playing this just on an acoustic by itself sounds fantastic too. It was a very sad day for all Canadians when Gord passed away. He'll always be a huge part of the Canadian music scene. I hope you enjoy these videos and I hope they help you to learn the tune. Cheers Andy |
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