When it doesn't fit anywhere else
 #80761  by Mick
 
I was trying to play along with the melody of this song last night, and couldn't seem to find the right key. It seemed to be mostly in D, but then it seemed like it would change to C for just like 2 lines and then back to D. After 3 times through the whole song, I bagged. I'm really bad at identifying chords by ear, but I believe I heard a lot of D and G in there. Am I completely screwed up on this?
 #80762  by Grateful Dad
 
Ahh....C. Numb, I used to study this song w/ my guitar teacher back in the 80's

Key of D major (the C chord fits melodically but does not naturally occur in the key of D major, it is a "substitute" chord):

Verse:
Bm - A - G - Em - Bm (repeat until chorus)

Chorus:
D - A - D - A
C - G - C - G
D - A - D - A
C - G - C - G
Asus4 - A - C - G - D

Solo one over chorus.

Solo two over verse.

Hope this helps,
G. Dad
:wink:
 #80763  by Viceroy
 
great song. my opinion (please correct me if i'm wrong)is that the song is indeed in the key of D. The Bm chords used in the song seem to confirm that to me. The change to C that you talk about comes during the chorus part of "You are only coming through in waves, and lasts until you go back to D for the "when I was a child...", back up to C for "now i've got that feeling...". actually, this may help more..... thanks to ebick(the man) from this site from quite a few years back.

Comfortably Numb

The Wall
(Gilmour/Waters)

Last Updated 07/27/96

General Rules On Chord Charts

Bm A
Hello, is there anybody in there?
G G G/F# Em
Just nod if you can hear me
Bm
Is there anyone home

Come on now, I hear you’re feeling down
I can ease your pain
Get you on your feet again

Relax, I’ll need some information first
Just the basic facts,
Can you show me where it hurts

D A
There is no pain, you are receding
D A
A distant ship’s smoke on the horizon
C G
You are only coming through in waves
C G
Your lips move, but I can’t hear what you’re saying
D A
When I was a child I had a fever
D A
My hands felt just like two balloons
C G
Now I’ve got that feeling once again
C
I can’t explain, you would not understand
G
This is not how I am
A C G D
I-I-I have become comfortably numb


OK, just a little pin prick
There’ll be no more (aaaahhhh)
But you might feel a little sick

Can you stand up (stand up)
Yes, I do believe it’s working good
That’ll keep you going through the show
Come on, it’s time to go

There is no pain, you are receding
A distant ship’s smoke on the horizon
You are only coming through in waves
Your lips move, but I can’t hear what you’re saying

When I was a child I caught a fleeting glimps
Out of the corner of my eye
I turned to look, but it was gone
I cannot put my finger on it now,
The child is grown, the dream is gone

I-I-I have become comfortably numb


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This File contains merely an interpretation of the represented musical piece.
It is not intended to replace any commercially available publishing, nor is it
guaranteed to represent an exact transcription of any commercially or otherwise released
piece.

Ed Bick's Tab Archive, 1997
 #80773  by jeffm725
 
ah...comfortably numb is semi-required note for note learning for pretty much every aspiring lead guitar player along the way, The taste, tone, and touch applied to Gilmours solos here are exquisite.

The final solo is pretty much a modal study. use: B aeolian
 #80780  by tcsned
 
jeffm725 wrote:ah...comfortably numb is semi-required note for note learning for pretty much every aspiring lead guitar player along the way, The taste, tone, and touch applied to Gilmours solos here are exquisite.

The final solo is pretty much a modal study. use: B aeolian
Yep, Gilmour isn't going to get all chromatic on you just tasty diatonic or pentatonic rockin' playing. I was a couple of years too young to see them with Waters - though I thought that the reunion they did on TV (was that Live 8?) was really good. I did see the post-Waters group in like 1987 or so - it was a great show. They didn't miss Water's bass playing as much as his song writing. Too bad those guys couldn't work things out for a tour. My Dead band did that tune years ago when we had a bassist who could sing Floyd tunes - I learned the solo note-for-note but never performed it that straight. Nothing that Gilmour does is that gymnastic or impossible - he just does it really fucking well.
 #80794  by Tennessee Jedi
 
Does anyone know if he did the solo in one take ?
Or did they slice it together ?
That high note he hits - its not on my guitar !
:D
 #80795  by tcsned
 
Tennessee Jedi wrote:Does anyone know if he did the solo in one take ?
Or did they slice it together ?
That high note he hits - its not on my guitar !
:D
I found this on the intarwebs - don't know how accurate this is:
"I just went out into the studio and banged out five or six solos. From there I just followed my usual procedure, which is to listen back to each solo and mark out bar lines, noting which bits are good. In other words, I make a chart, putting ticks and crosses on different bars as I count through - two ticks if it's really good, one if it's good, and a cross if it's no go. Then I just follow the chart, whipping one fader up, then another fader, jumping from phrase to phrase and trying to make a really nice solo all the way through".

Gilmour's classic guitar solo was recorded using a combination of the guitarist's Hiwatt amps and Yamaha rotating-speaker cabinets. It is suspected that Gilmour played the solo using his '79 black Strat, with a '62 neck, DiMarzio pickups a rosewood fingerboard, and a custom switch allowing him to turn on the neck pickup in conjunction with other pickup configurations.

While recording The Wall, Gilmour favored his Big Muff pedal, an MXR Phase 90, an Electro-Harmonix Electric Mistress, an Orange Treble/Bass booster, an Arbiter Fuzz Face, and custom tone pedal.

Apparently, both Gilmour and guitarist Lee Ritenour used high-strung guitars - a standard guitar with four of the strings tuned higher - for the some of the acoustic parts of "Comfortably Numb". The goal of a high-strung guitar is to recreate the sound of a 12-string guitar. The first (E) and second (B) strings are in standard tuning. The third (G), fourth (D), and fifth (A) strings are tuned an octave higher The sixth (low E) string is a duplicate of the first string - two octaves above the low E string in standard tuning.
 #80892  by Liberty
 
tcsned wrote:
Tennessee Jedi wrote:Does anyone know if he did the solo in one take ?
Or did they slice it together ?
That high note he hits - its not on my guitar !
:D
I found this on the intarwebs - don't know how accurate this is:
"I just went out into the studio and banged out five or six solos. From there I just followed my usual procedure, which is to listen back to each solo and mark out bar lines, noting which bits are good. In other words, I make a chart, putting ticks and crosses on different bars as I count through - two ticks if it's really good, one if it's good, and a cross if it's no go. Then I just follow the chart, whipping one fader up, then another fader, jumping from phrase to phrase and trying to make a really nice solo all the way through".

Gilmour's classic guitar solo was recorded using a combination of the guitarist's Hiwatt amps and Yamaha rotating-speaker cabinets. It is suspected that Gilmour played the solo using his '79 black Strat, with a '62 neck, DiMarzio pickups a rosewood fingerboard, and a custom switch allowing him to turn on the neck pickup in conjunction with other pickup configurations.

While recording The Wall, Gilmour favored his Big Muff pedal, an MXR Phase 90, an Electro-Harmonix Electric Mistress, an Orange Treble/Bass booster, an Arbiter Fuzz Face, and custom tone pedal.

Apparently, both Gilmour and guitarist Lee Ritenour used high-strung guitars - a standard guitar with four of the strings tuned higher - for the some of the acoustic parts of "Comfortably Numb". The goal of a high-strung guitar is to recreate the sound of a 12-string guitar. The first (E) and second (B) strings are in standard tuning. The third (G), fourth (D), and fifth (A) strings are tuned an octave higher The sixth (low E) string is a duplicate of the first string - two octaves above the low E string in standard tuning.
I believe it was sliced together on The Wall Album hence the above post......There is also a bootleg floating around of demos from The Wall, it contained many different guitar solos as well as some alternate lyrics for Comfortably Numb. This is also the album that caused all the friction between Gilmour, Waters and Wright and ultimately lead to the break up of Floyd. In Nick Mason's book, Inside Out, he talks about all the conflicts and arguments that took place during the recording sessions. He also mentions how some of the sound effects you here in the album came to be. On Run Like Hell, you here what sounds like an engine revving. This is Phil Taylor, an equipment tech doing burnouts in a Fort LTD van with Roger screaming his head off riding shotgun.
 #81847  by Mick
 
Great stuff everyone, thanks!

I haven't messed with this since the night before I wrote that post. Now I have a plan for tonight....