Scott Paul Johnson
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Ear Training & Song Analysis | Elliott Smith - Between the Bars
🕑 Added 2025-07-28 17:00:36 +0000 UTCWhere to Start • Lesson Archive • Recommended Lesson Plan
Hi Everyone,
In this Ear Training & Song Analysis, I'm diving into Elliott Smith's "Between the Bars."
This is becoming a regular series, and my goal with it is to show the process of figuring out a song by ear using a combination of ear training and music theory. As you watch me figure out the song, I explain what I'm doing and how I narrow in on the key, the chord progression, and the specific voicings on the guitar. From there, we end up with a Roman Numeral analysis of how the song works and whats so cool about it.
In this particular one, I had to figure out the key, the chords, the bass line, and the specific voicings, which led me to conclude that the song might have been recorded with the guitar tuned a whole step down!
This was a fun one, I hope you enjoy it and I hope you learn something from it. As usual, if you have any questions, drop them in the comments or ask me on the next Office Hours Live Q&A, every Thursday.
Comments
Tasha McManus
Wow dude, bravo! Now I have even more appreciation for this beautiful song.
Timm Delfs
Hi Scott, thanks for having heard me! I didn't expect it to be so complicated. I'll have to watch this lesson a few times over again to follow your steps. I already have another song request I'm trying to figure out and would like to know if you come to the same results as me: it's 'Outside Tokyo', an old Stranglers song, but in the acoustic version played by Hugh Cornwell on his album Monster...
Bill MacDonald
Hey Scott! So what I like to do with these exercises is to try it myself and then see how we compare. When I heard that low note I decided right away that this was a dropped D tuning (low E down to D) and then I worked out the voicings as I heard them. Here's what I figured for the first few chords of the intro & opening verse: I'm having a hard time coming up with names for the first two chords, so I'm just going to tab out the notes. I hope it lines up in this post! First chord at the fifth fret (G with a 5th, flat 7th and no 3rd) D--5 A-----x D-----5 G-----7 B-----6 E-----x Second chord at the 1st fret (Eb over something that has a suspended tone to it) D--1 A-----x D-----1 G-----3 B-----3 E-----x Followed by these chords: Bb F (with open A bass note) Then, the first two chords again, followed by: Bb D (no third on the high E) Eb (second chord as above) That's to the bridge which I haven't got to yet....beautiful song. Thanks to whoever requested it!
Erin
Genius
Tasha McManus
Ooh, this will be a fun one!
