Roger&Me
Bluelighter
how to play "freedom of '76" by ween
this is not only one of the best ween songs, its probably one of the greatest songs ever written by anyone. the chord changes are so jazzy, and the progression is extremely musical. what sucks is all the tabs i've seen for this song are totally wrong. i mean not even close to being right, just the wrong chords entirely. luckily though, there is an instructional video floating around from miggy himself where he lays out the voicings he uses:
unfortunately, because of the video quality/size its really hard to see exactly where he's putting his fingers, and the names he gives for the chords are all wrong, so you have to sit down and fuck around with this mess and decipher what he's actually doing. i spent the last couple hours playing around and i managed to figure the song out, so i thought i would post up the results of my efforts in case anybody else wants to play the song too but hasn't been able to get it to sound quite right.
standard tuning
E
B
G
D
A
E
chord 1 - E9
4 G#
X (could play 3 D here but miggy omits it, making it a partial E9 voicing. try it either way and see how it sounds to you)
4 B
2 E
2 B
2 F#
chord 2 - F#m7b5
2 F#
2 C# --> 5 E (reach over and tag it with your pinky)
2 A
2 E
4 C#
2 F#
chord 3 - G#m7
4 G#
4 D# --> 7 F#
4 B
4 F#
6 D#
4 G#
chord 4 - F#7sus2
0 E
5 E
6 C#
4 F#
4 C#
5 G#
chord 5 - C6/Am7 (both have the same notes and are enharmonically equivalent)
0 E
8 G
9 E
7 A
X (could also play 7 E here)
8 C
chord 6 - B7 (partial voicing)
X
X
8 D#
7 A
X (play 9 F# to extend to full B7, you can get a little bobby weir type vibe going by hammering on and pulling off the F#,play around with it and you'll see what i mean)
7 B
chord 7 - D6/Bm7
X
10 A
11 F#
9 B
X (could play 9 F#)
10 D
chord 8 - C#7
X
X
10 F
9 B
X --> 11G# to extend the voicing, like with chord 6
9 C#
chord 9 - F#m7
9 C#
10 A
9 E
11 C#
9 F#
X
pull off to chord 10 - F#9sus4
9 C#
9 G#
9 E
9 B
9 F#
X
then you're going to form chord 11, a partial A chord voicing off the 12th:
X
X
X
14 E
12 A
X
and walk up like this
E--------------------------------------
B--------------------------------------
G--------------------------------------
D-------14E-------------14E----------
A---12A-----12A-13A#------13A#---
E---------------------------------------
then chord 12 - B7#9 (B hendrix chord)
X
15 D
14 A
13 D#
14 B
X
listen to the song and watch the video to get the strumming pattern. its a totally linear song and the progression just repeats.
cheers m8s!
this is not only one of the best ween songs, its probably one of the greatest songs ever written by anyone. the chord changes are so jazzy, and the progression is extremely musical. what sucks is all the tabs i've seen for this song are totally wrong. i mean not even close to being right, just the wrong chords entirely. luckily though, there is an instructional video floating around from miggy himself where he lays out the voicings he uses:
unfortunately, because of the video quality/size its really hard to see exactly where he's putting his fingers, and the names he gives for the chords are all wrong, so you have to sit down and fuck around with this mess and decipher what he's actually doing. i spent the last couple hours playing around and i managed to figure the song out, so i thought i would post up the results of my efforts in case anybody else wants to play the song too but hasn't been able to get it to sound quite right.
standard tuning
E
B
G
D
A
E
chord 1 - E9
4 G#
X (could play 3 D here but miggy omits it, making it a partial E9 voicing. try it either way and see how it sounds to you)
4 B
2 E
2 B
2 F#
chord 2 - F#m7b5
2 F#
2 C# --> 5 E (reach over and tag it with your pinky)
2 A
2 E
4 C#
2 F#
chord 3 - G#m7
4 G#
4 D# --> 7 F#
4 B
4 F#
6 D#
4 G#
chord 4 - F#7sus2
0 E
5 E
6 C#
4 F#
4 C#
5 G#
chord 5 - C6/Am7 (both have the same notes and are enharmonically equivalent)
0 E
8 G
9 E
7 A
X (could also play 7 E here)
8 C
chord 6 - B7 (partial voicing)
X
X
8 D#
7 A
X (play 9 F# to extend to full B7, you can get a little bobby weir type vibe going by hammering on and pulling off the F#,play around with it and you'll see what i mean)
7 B
chord 7 - D6/Bm7
X
10 A
11 F#
9 B
X (could play 9 F#)
10 D
chord 8 - C#7
X
X
10 F
9 B
X --> 11G# to extend the voicing, like with chord 6
9 C#
chord 9 - F#m7
9 C#
10 A
9 E
11 C#
9 F#
X
pull off to chord 10 - F#9sus4
9 C#
9 G#
9 E
9 B
9 F#
X
then you're going to form chord 11, a partial A chord voicing off the 12th:
X
X
X
14 E
12 A
X
and walk up like this
E--------------------------------------
B--------------------------------------
G--------------------------------------
D-------14E-------------14E----------
A---12A-----12A-13A#------13A#---
E---------------------------------------
then chord 12 - B7#9 (B hendrix chord)
X
15 D
14 A
13 D#
14 B
X
listen to the song and watch the video to get the strumming pattern. its a totally linear song and the progression just repeats.
cheers m8s!
Last edited: