Jacob Collier and Tabs HD…

[lkingston]

I was thinking about covering the new song “Little Blue” by Jacob Collier.

I guess the first step is to look it up on Tabs HD…. ;-)

[lkingston]

OK, maybe there aren’t any other Jacob Collier fans lurking around here.

For anyone who isn’t aware of his music, he is to harmony and melody what Tommy Emmanuel is to finger dexterity.

His song “Little Blue” is so beautiful and easy to listen to, but that belies the harmonic complexity. Hence the “Tabs HD” joke. Definitely one of those songs where you can’t just look up the chords!

[Deliberate1]

A fan here. He claims to be no musical genius, as one might expect from a musical genius - six Grammys in seven years, and the first British artist in history to earn a Grammy for each of his four albums. He is expert in multiple instruments.

I recently hear a fascinating interview with him. Among other things, he described his custom Taylor, with five strings. He got the tuning pitch by singing the note that he wanted as a reference. He said something to the effect that he tunes to the note that he hears in his head.

I found it - with Paul Davids - who was gob smacked:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WknT...nel=PaulDavids

This Tiny Desk is remarkable: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJR6...annel=NPRMusic

And he presents as extraordinarily modest, inquisitive and musically joyful.

Sorry I cannot help with the tabs, but thanks for bringing Jacob back up on my radar.

David

[lkingston]

Originally Posted by Deliberate1

Sorry I cannot help with the tabs, but thanks for bringing Jacob back up on my radar.
David

I actually just finished my own chart. There are a couple of YouTube tutorials, and they helped get me close, but they weren’t really correct either. I did finally get there (as far as I can tell at least). As simple and gentle as the song feels, it was the most difficult chord chart I have ever done!

The melody is crazy hard to figure out in a couple of spots. Most writers will stick to the diatonic notes on the melody. Not Jacob. If there is augmented fifth or a diminished tone in the chord, that is what he’ll sing! In fact, it wasn’t until I worked on the melody that I finally got the chord tensions right.

[lkingston]

Just for reference, Collier uses a custom five string guitar with his own tuning:

https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news...y_own_way.html