Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys - Winwood/Capaldi - Chords

Thanks for this, Electra!

Talk about a non-guitar song being played as one. Not too difficult once you get in the groove, and that didn't take long. I love the change of tempo and energy this song has, especially in the middle of the bridge. I go from 1/8th notes to a more agressive rhythm and then to that chord/rhythm change in last part of the verses and bridge that starts a D chord. Very fun. I did change up slightly. I play a Dm instead of a Dm7 for the main part. I think it sounds better coming out of my guitar than the Dm7.

I can't pull off a Winwood vocal, though. Like most everything else I play, it shall stay between me and the dogs. :D

I'm glad you like it! :D

Good to see this wonderful song here! Thanks for that, EB. We play this one every now and then at jams and I also use it for both solo performances and teaching group classes.

If you want to make it a little more interesting for a single guitar player, one thing to consider is using an open position Dm instead of Dm7 and then sliding the whole shape up two frets (xx0453) to create the Em/D. It's basically the same thing one does with D and E/D on Pink Floyd's Brain Damage.

Add a very easy bass line and you're good to go:
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +

E - - 1 - - - - - 3 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
B - - 3 - - - - - 5 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
G - - 2 - - - - - 4 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
D - - - - - 0 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
A - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 0 - - - - - 3 - - - - - - -
E - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Play the first line once and then repeat the second and third lines throughout all the Dm7 and Em7 lines.

Also, for whatever it's worth, I've never liked the F (or Fadd9 that many chord charts show) on "boys" of the title line. I know that this is taking liberties with the song, but in my ears, using an arpeggio of (x103030) Bb6(add#4) (what a mess), works nicely. You may find the F (or Fadd9) a lot easier and it may sound better to you, too. "Your mileage may vary," as they say.

Great song and thanks again, EB!

Peace

(x103030)
Is this too many strings? Is it (x13030)? I hope so. Doesn't sound bad at all. I agree too, going from F to the D7(no3rd) - G/D 1/8th notes thing seems like quite a break in song and does cause me a awkward musical moment. Same for coming out of it at the end of the bridge and getting back to a Dm7 for the verse.

I also took some of what you have and did a thick bass line. I recorded a few minutes of it so that I had something to play over. Worked out great. I used a LP neck position turned up a bit and tone all the way off, partial palm mute and sort of did a bit of a thumb pluck. Slightly moving the muting hand to deaden the muted string vibration when needed. Kind of like killing a zombie on Halloween. I digress.

Measure A
E - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
B - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
G - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
D - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 0 - 0 - - - - - - - - - -
A - - 0 - - - 3 - - - 5 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
E - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Measure B
E - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
B - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
G - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
D - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 0 - 0 - - - - - - - - - -
A - - 0 - - - - - - - 5 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
E - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I start it on the 2nd beat of measure B for whatever reason. I think one of the videos I watched sounded like that was what was happening. I might have the whole chart off by two beats. Not sure, but it ends up proper when I play over it.

Oh, ElectraBlue, I did change up and go back to the Dm7 in the verses as you originally had it. It really sounds much better for me going with the barred Dm7-Em7 combo at the 5th and 7th frets. That's also when I got the crazy notion of making a thick bass line out of my six string.

Yes, it's (x13030) and yes, I can't write somedays to save my life! Thanks for catching that!

And your bass line definitely works, especially if you're using barre chords. Very cool.

Forgot to mention that another option is, especially if you want a little more "oomph" in the bass, is to use Drop D tuning. With regular position open chords, the only change you have to worry about is with the G chord, which in Drop D is (550003).
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +

E - - - - - - - - 1 - - - - - - - - 1 - - - - - - - - - -
B - - - - - - - - 3 - - - - - - - - 3 - - - - - - - - - -
G - - - - - - - - 2 - - - - - - - - 2 - - - - - - - - - -
D - - - - - - - - - - - 0 - - - - - - - - - - - 0 - - - -
A - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
D - - 0 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

and so on...

You'll have to let us know when you post this up online!

Peace

I'll have to give that a try before I get too deep. :)

Heck, I got two things on soundclick already. No finished product. Description below. Remember to not listen to the whole thing. One is marked in the notes where parts of the song start and stop.

I learned this song on, I think, a Thursday. I might have figured out the basic groove Wednesday. By Friday , around noon or so, I had a rhythm track, lead guitar tracks and vocal track done. It was somewhat a proof of concept to see if I could at least construct something. Nothing you hear is staying. Oh, do see the notes on the soundclick page. It has when different pieces of the song start and stop so that you don't have to listen to the whole thing. Also in there, but won't be in the finished project is my vocals. I'm, um, no Steve Winwood. :cry: :cry: However, it is the song in a very crude fashion.

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=8319032

So, a fake bass piece came to me Friday afternoon. Did it and slept on it. Decided to change it to what I described in an earlier post. Having done that, I decided that I liked the barre chord Dm7 and Em7/D instead of the open chords I was using. After hearing it, I decided that I liked a four strum per measure rhythm instead of the 5 strum per measure. The combo really drives the groove feel that I wanted. Remember, I'm "competing" with a drum set, 4 foot high floor hand drums, tenor sax, a real bass player, piano and Steve Winwood's pipes.

So, I made about a 3 1/2 minute jam track and then spliced it end to end twice to come up with a backing track to mess aorund with. After one go round with it, I decided I really liked in on it's own for a couple of purposes. First as a jam track to practice on, and that I did. In the following link there's the two tracks I just talked about, a lead track and bongos. I threw everything I could imagine doing into the bongos. Never done them before, but my son has 'em. What the heck. That one I did post on Hear Hear, hoping to get some comments about things that worked and didn't. It's just too long and maybe too obscure to really have to listen too. At any rate, the link to the Sparky Mountain Jam as of Saturday afternoon.

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=8323298

I think I'll be able to take a few things from the lead and the bongos back over the the Low Spark project. Anyhow, massive experiment. It's a little shakey the first couple minutes, but later on it really did start to meld together nicely as I got a feel for each instrument. So anyhow, it's a start. :D