Difficulty: Easy
Where to find this song – Fight For Your Mind track #3
Release Date – April 9, 2003
The Bio:
Ben Harper might as well be a direct offspring of Bob Marley himself.
Combining surf-style music, reggae, and folk instrumentalism into his
sound, Harper has created a very down-to-earth tone to his music. He now
headlines with some of music’s most prolific artists, ranging from Dave
Matthews to Carol King, and from Keith Richards to Isaac Hayes. He has
been known for his brooding sense of love song ballads, and for the empowerment
of everything as free speech to anti-governmental control. He is truly
a modern-day hippie in the nicest sense.
Verse
The riff itself isn’t difficult to play, but the moving chord arrangements
are a little trickier. In this riff, you will need to know how to play
a C chord, an Am chord, an Em chord, and finally a G chord. If you know
how to play those, you can struggle through by just playing them in that
order. What makes the riff interesting, though, is how he incorporates
the chords into his strumming patterns. Notice that you will begin by
placing a C chord, and then transitioning into the Am chord by walking
the fret with your 2nd finger on the second fret on the “A”
string. Notice that once you go into the Am chord, you will immediately
let off of it and play the same strings open. You will do this a few times.
As far as the timing, the only thing that may throw you off a little is
the transitional phrasings from C to Am. Just think like it is a Bob Marley
song, and allow your fingers to flow. After you have played the Am chord and
transitioned into the Em chord, notice that you are not playing the
typical G chord that you may have learned before. The note that you are
playing is the root G note. That would be on the third fret on the “low
E” string. Practice this song over and over, and you will hear how
the chords are so simple, but add a great deal of depth to the overall
sound.
