How did Tom Petty get his huge acoustic guitar sound on Free Fallin'? Obviously, the background rhythm guitar adds to the effect but I'm interested in the full-frontal acoustic assault of the main rhythm guitar. You know, the guitar sound everyone thinks of when they think of the song.
Huge guitar on Free Fallin'
- Thread starter natmj
- Start date
Free Fallin' big guitar
I believe there are two acoustic guitars, one capoed on the second fret played in D (key of E) and one with no capo played in E. This gives Tom two different inversions of the same chord, almost sounding like two different chords seperately. This gives him a much "bigger" sound, with one guitar having a lot of body (the one with no capo) and one with a ton of brilliance (the one that is capoed on the second fret). We only have one guitarist at church and when we play this song on sunday mornings we debate about how it should be played, since the guitar with the capo can do sus chords a lot easier, and does it on the album, but doesn't sound as full, and the guitar with out a capo sounds fuller but can't easily put those higher notes that are crutial to the familiarity of the song with the first few strums of the guitar. Do you follow me?
Ben
I believe there are two acoustic guitars, one capoed on the second fret played in D (key of E) and one with no capo played in E. This gives Tom two different inversions of the same chord, almost sounding like two different chords seperately. This gives him a much "bigger" sound, with one guitar having a lot of body (the one with no capo) and one with a ton of brilliance (the one that is capoed on the second fret). We only have one guitarist at church and when we play this song on sunday mornings we debate about how it should be played, since the guitar with the capo can do sus chords a lot easier, and does it on the album, but doesn't sound as full, and the guitar with out a capo sounds fuller but can't easily put those higher notes that are crutial to the familiarity of the song with the first few strums of the guitar. Do you follow me?
Ben
Heck Yeah Dude,
You will love what you sound like if you record two or three or even four guitar tracks with each guitar capoed somewhere else to give you a different chord inversion. Technically (only pay attention to this comment if you know your music theory) as long as the bass note of the chord (the lowest note) is the root of the chord (in an A Major chord, the A is the root, in c minor, the C is the root) than it is in what we call root position. But for most pop folks, an inversion is anything other than a 1-3-5 triad (the chord built on triads, like C Major is C-E-G and g minor is G-B flat-D). If you play a D chord capoed on the 2nd fret, you get E-B-E-G sharp...if you play an E chord with no capo you get E-B-E-G sharp-B-E, so you end up getting a lot more tones than just one guitar could accomplish, if you play a G chord capoed at the ninth fret, you get E-G sharp-B-E-G sharp-E, or E-G sharp-B-E-B-E, depending on how you finger your G, and that is all the way up on the twelth fret or something like that, so you can imagine the color, body, and fullness a capo and a few extra tracks can give you.
Ben
You will love what you sound like if you record two or three or even four guitar tracks with each guitar capoed somewhere else to give you a different chord inversion. Technically (only pay attention to this comment if you know your music theory) as long as the bass note of the chord (the lowest note) is the root of the chord (in an A Major chord, the A is the root, in c minor, the C is the root) than it is in what we call root position. But for most pop folks, an inversion is anything other than a 1-3-5 triad (the chord built on triads, like C Major is C-E-G and g minor is G-B flat-D). If you play a D chord capoed on the 2nd fret, you get E-B-E-G sharp...if you play an E chord with no capo you get E-B-E-G sharp-B-E, so you end up getting a lot more tones than just one guitar could accomplish, if you play a G chord capoed at the ninth fret, you get E-G sharp-B-E-G sharp-E, or E-G sharp-B-E-B-E, depending on how you finger your G, and that is all the way up on the twelth fret or something like that, so you can imagine the color, body, and fullness a capo and a few extra tracks can give you.
Ben
bball jones
New member
Such a great tune . . .
Tweedville
New member
Huge sound
Don't forget a haelthy dose of compression.
Don't forget a haelthy dose of compression.
Tweedville
New member
spelling.....
uh.........that was supposed to be "healthy" dose of compression.....I gess my spill chicker ain't werkin.
uh.........that was supposed to be "healthy" dose of compression.....I gess my spill chicker ain't werkin.
bball jones
New member
Hey - Tweedville,
after you post and then notice you botched the whole thing,
if you hit - edit - you can fix it up and no-one will be the wiser. There is a time limit though, not sure what it is.
after you post and then notice you botched the whole thing,
if you hit - edit - you can fix it up and no-one will be the wiser. There is a time limit though, not sure what it is.
Tweedville
New member
uh.......thanks.