It Must Be Love

As promised – I said we’d concentrate of technique and (supposedly) difficult songs.

The first one I inflicted you with at the last meeting was It Must Be Love by Labi Siffri.

 

This is the original https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTeGwNHEEFk 

It’s a lovely song, but if you check out the music here: HERE the chords are enough to frighten most players.

Aminadd9 ? Em7? Cadd9?? Am+7 ??
Surely there is no way anyone can play this song!
Why isn’t it just C F and G?

Here’s the secret : It’s an exercise in moving a single finger at a time to make the majority of the song.

Intro and start of song:
Play an A minor and every bar add a single finger on the second fret of the A string, then remove it one bar later.
Next play a G and every bar, you move from second fret of E string over to the A string.
Other parts include moving down one fret on the same string from Am to Am+7 to Am7 or moving from Em7 to A9 by moving one finger one fret.

It is honestly that simple.

Strumming.
This is something that I neglect in practises and it’s something that we all need to work on.
In this song, the strumming is quite fluid and changes in the chorus. But to play as a group and sound like we are playing the same song . . .

To start with try Down Down Down-Up-Down-Up
Listen to this: as I strum the simplest way to play this song. HERE

First part Am to Aminadd9 HERE
Press single finger on second fret of lowest string and lift on off on off

Next part is G to Cadd9 HERE
Moving single finger from third fret on second lowest string to lowest string with each bar.

Put part one and two together and repeat and you get this: HERE

The next part : Move from Em7 to A9 – by simply moving down one fret on the second string from the top.  This is followed by Dm and E7
In this recording I do it twice – as it such s short change.  HERE

The last part before the chorus is same strumming pattern, but moving down one fret on the top string,  then down another and finally off, followed by a D7 – which can be a single strum. HERE

Now the timing changes and there’s s flourish on the end.

For timing in chorus think two strums for each chord change until the D at the end. This, again is moving one finger, removing it altogether and then playing two “normal” chords. G – Gmaj7 – Em7 – C to D HERE

The final part of the chorus (to me) is three strums of each chord and a longish pause – followed by the chords from the intro/ start of the song. HERE

For a recording of me putting it all together listen to this HERE (stumbled a bit there)

Obviously I make mistake and the recording is terrible. But practise this.

The strumming is the simplest I can come up with.
I’d prefer it to be Down-Down Up-Up Down-Up – which feels more natural to me and probably has a name.

Playing the slow strumming pattern doesn’t feel natural to me, but it means that we can all play the same number of notes in the same timing.
This is me playing at my own pace – which we just can’t do with 15 – 20 people.  HERE  
It’s just a nice song to sit an dabble with quietly in a corner.
Perfect this and at the office Christmas party the chick will be all over you 🙂

If you poke around the few files on my SoundCloud account you’ll also hear some great poetry.

Thank you Mr Siffri

See you soon

John