No Surprises by Radiohead | rhythm
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An electric acoustic guitar lesson on how to play "No Surprises" on guitar by Radiohead from their 1997 album OK Computer.
The main guitar is capoed way up on the 15th fret! I never knew that until I started researching the song, I always thought it was a keyboard of some kind. This is a great tune. It has that real Pink Floyd kind of vibe about it and although it may be in the running for the most depressing song ever written lyrically, the music is beautiful and the production is first class. It's a really cool progression. The second chord especially is IMHO the money chord of the song. It's a Gmaj7 over a B bass going to an Em7. The way the melody plays against these chords is pure magic. It's really great song writing. I had a great time working on this song. The electric guitar sounds very whimsical capoed up that high and really gives the song it's signature sound.
I read an article where Tom York said that the sound of that guitar was the inspiration for the entire album! The acoustic part is pretty straight forward although I embellished a bit in the chorus by adding some of the melody lines. One of my favorite parts of this tune, which really brings up that Pink Floyd vibe I mentioned earlier, is when the backup vocals come in. In my demo I added an acoustic guitar track playing those lines, but there's something about female background vocals that adds so much to the song, you just can't recreate that vibe. I hope you enjoy the videos and have fun playing this great tune. Cheers Andy |
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