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Tuning: E A D G B E
Curtis Mayfield - Move on Up
Transcribed by Rob Krul (kaoxk@protonmail.com)
Tuning: F# A# C# F# A# F#
Almost every tab I’ve seen of this song is so horribly off, so I thought I’d write it out for easier voicings.
Curtis Mayfield used “Black Key Tuning” in which he tuned his guitar to the black keys on the piano.
The result is the tuning listed above. Getting the high E string to F# can lead to a lot of breaks,
so to mitigate that, you can tune everything down one step and capo at the 2nd fret, although
I think it doesn’t get the right ring that Curtis got.
F#|---x-x-3-3---------------------------(3)---------------(0)-----0-----------|
A#|---x-x-3-3-x----------------------x-x-3-3-x-4---------4-4-x-x-4---4--------|
F#|---x-x-3-3-x--8-(8)-8-x-x-8-(8)---x-x-3-3-x-5-----4---5-5-x-x-5---4--------|
C#|--------------8-(8)-8-x-x-8-(8)---x-x-3-3-x-5---5---5-5-5-5-x-x---5-x-5----|
A#|--------------8-(8)-8-x-x-8-(8)--------------------------------------------|
F#|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
That’s essentially the rhythm guitar of this song. Of course, like everything with Curtis, he uses his
inflections to modify the rhythmby jumping around on the chords, pulling off, adding dashes of dissonance,
and using ghost notes. It’s all playing with feel. Just
get the rhythm down and do your thing with it.
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| x Dead note
| (n) Ghost note
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