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Guitar tab and chords for Nude (Big Ideas) by Radiohead
Nude (Big Ideas) - Radiohead
------------------------------
From the album "In Rainbows"
transcribed by Howard Wright
howardw (at) jmdl (dot) com.
This track was the one that stood out for me on the first listening to the
superb new Radiohead album "In Rainbows". Previously known as "Big Ideas",
it's been performed live for a number of years, but this is the first time
it's been released as an official album version.
Most of the guitar featured in the song is an electric guitar, but there's
some acoustic (nylon string) guitar that joins in on the choruses.
It's the delicate arpeggio-style riff played on the electric guitar in the
choruses that's one of the highlights of the song for me. After trying to
work this part out I realised it must be using an alternative tuning (even
though the rest of the song sounds very much like a standard tuning guitar
part).
The chorus guitar part uses pull-offs on the 1st and 4th string which
always end on an open string tuned to E - this is the only way to get the
beautiful sustained, ringing sound as part of the chorus riff. The tuning
I've used for this transcription is an an Em tuning, where both the 4th
and 5th strings are tuned up a tone (to E and B). In fact, it's hard to
tell if the 5th string is tuned up to B or whether it stays at the usual A.
I think you could play the song either way (the chorus guitar riff isn't
affected), but an Em tuning somewhere feels more natural, and makes the
basic chord shapes pretty straight forward.
There are several parts of the song with no guitar featured at all. I've
written chords in brackets here to show the basic harmony, so use these
shapes if you want to play throughout the whole song.
Lyrics are written out just below the corresponding chords, and where
guitar tab is also written out this goes under the lyrics and chords.
(Make sure the tab is displayed correctly by checking that the tab for
each string is exactly the same length)
Tuning
-------
The electric guitar is tuned to Em (low to high: EBEGBE).
(i.e. tune A and D strings up one tone to give an open Em chord)
For those familiar with the "Joni Mitchell" tunings notation, the tuning
would be written as: E75345
The acoustic guitar that joins in on the choruses is in standard tuning.
Tab notation
-------------
p = pull-off
\ = slide down
Intro:
-------
(Am/E) (E) (Am/E) (E)
(drums enter at 0:12)
(A) (C#m) (A) (G#m) (Amaj7) (A)
Verse:
-------
The picking pattern in the second half of the verse looks more complicated
than it is. Just fret the appropriate chord shape and using thumb and finger,
pick pairs of strings starting with 6th (lowest) string together with the 4th,
and working up and down.
For the shapes where the add2 variation is worked in, the picking pattern
remains the same, you simply add/remove a finger from the fretting hand to
the appropriate fret on the 4th string to change the note in the chord.
(bass enters at 0:40)
(G#m) (G#)
Don't get any big ideas
(A) (E) (C#m) (B)
They're not gonna happen
(guitar enters)
G#m G#
You paint yourself white and fill all the noise
E--------4------------4------------4-----------4-------
B------4---4--------4---4--------4---4-------4---4-----
G----4---4---4----4---4---4----5---5---5---5---5---5---
E--4---4---4----4---4---4----4---4---4---4---4---4-----
B----4-------4----4-------4----4-------4---4-------4---
E--4------------4-----------(4)----------4-------------
A Aadd2 E C#m C#madd2 C#m C#madd2
but they'll be something missing
E--------5-------------0---------------9-----------9------
B------5---5---------0---------------9---9-------9---9----
G----6---6---6-----1---1-----------9---9---9---9---9---9--
E--5---5---7-----0---0-----------9---9--11---9---9--11----
B----5------(5)----0---------------9-------9---9-------9--
E--5-------------0---------------9-----------9------------
Badd2
Now that you've
E--------7-----------7---------------------------------
B------7---7-------7---7-------------------------------
G----8---8---8---8---8---------------------------------
E--7---7---9---7---7---9-------------------------------
B----7-------7---7-------------------------------------
E--7-----------7---------7\----------------------------
Chorus:
--------
Note: the chord names written out above the lyrics and guitar tab give the
overall harmony, based mostly on what the electric guitar plays. The
acoustic guitar that joins on the chorus plays "plain" chords, without the
7th and add2 variations (i.e G#m, A, C#m etc).
The main (electric) guitar part featured in the chorus uses percussive
strums across damped strings as part of the idea (marked with x in the
tablature below). The strings should be lightly damped with the strumming
hand as the strings are strummed. You'll need to experiment with amp/tone
settings to get the right sound for this percussive strum. Overall, the
part should be played very softly and delicately, allowing the open strings
from the pull-offs to sound clearly (though note that the open 4th string
is stopped by the xxx percussive strum soon afterwards).
The fingering works out nicely if you use a xx4442 chord shape for the
damped/muted strum, and then use the first finger for both pull-offs, so
that the first finger moves between 1st and 4th string while the 3rd and
4th fingers stay on the 3rd/2nd strings.
Use a similar idea for the shapes higher up the neck (fingering xx7657 for
the muted strum, then again switching the first finger between 1st/4th
string for the pull-offs).
G#m7
found it, it's
E-----------2p0---------------2p0-------
B----(4)---x----4--------4---x----4-----
G----(4)--x-------4---------x-----------
E----(4)-x----------2p0----x-------(5)--
B---------------------------------------
E--(4)----------------------------------
Aadd2
gone now that you
E-------------7p0---------------7p0-------
B------5-----x----5-------5----x----5-----
G-----------x-------6---------x-------(6)-
E--7p0-----x----------7p0----x------------
B-----------------------------------------
E-----------------------------------------
G#m7 Aadd2
feel it, you don't you've gone off the
E----------2p0---------------2p0---------------7p0--------------7p0---
B-----4---x----4--------4---x----4--------5---x----5-------5---x----5-
G--------x-------4---------x-----------------x-------6--------x-------
E-2p0---x----------2p0----x-------(5)-7p0---x----------7p0---x--------
B---------------------------------------------------------------------
E---------------------------------------------------------------------
C#m7 Aadd2
rails
E------------7p0---------7----9p7----------------------------
B-------9---x----9-----------0----9--7-5-------5--------5----
G----------x-------9--------x--------------6-------6---------
E---7p0---x----------7p0---x-----------------7-------7-------
B------------------------------------------------------------
E------------------------------------------------------------
Verse 2:
---------
The guitar strums chords for the first part of this verse. Try using the
side of your thumb (or pick?) and apply very light pressure, but using a
fast strumming action to get a quiet and slightly tense strumming sound.
G#m G#
So don't get any big ideas
A E C#m
They're not gonna happen
E-------------------------------------------------------
B-----------------------------9-----------9-------------
G--------------------------9----9-----------9-----------
E--------------------9--9----9-------9--9----10---------
B---------------------9---------------9--------9\-------
E------------------9---------------9--------------------
Badd2
E-------------------------------------------------
B-----------7------7-------------7----------------
G--------8----8------8--------8----8--------------
E--------7------9--------------------9------------
B------7--------------------7---------------------
E---7--------------------7--------------7\--------
(with normal strumming for the rest of the verse, add2 variations are
briefly used for the A and E chords)
G#
You'll go to hell
A E (C#m) (B)
for what your dirty mind is thinking
(guitar plays a single C# note for "thinking")
Chorus
-------
(guitar parts same as first chorus)
Outtro
-------
(E) (Am/E) (E) (Am/E)
(C) (C/B) (Am) (E)
Chord shapes:
--------------
EBEGBE EBEGBE EBEGBE EBEGBE
0x0210 000100 555655 999999
Am/E E A C#m
EBEGBE EBEGBE EBEGBE EBEGBE
444444 5546xx 444544 777877
G#m Amaj7 G# B
EBEGBE E B E G B E EBEGBE
557655 9 9 10 9 9 9 779877
Aadd2 C#madd2 Badd2
EBEGBE EBEGBE EBEGBE
x10010 x00010 555555
C C/B Am