A Fingerstyle/Chordal Examination of The Sound of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel When you take a look at the material below, you won't notice (at first) anything more than just some notes. This makes sense as the song itself has a picked out intro. However, what you'll soon discover is something rather interesting. This song, when the capo is applied (6 th fret to match the original recording!) is in the key of D#m. The shapes of these chords won't look anything like that. The shapes will look and feel entirely different. This, of course, is due to the capo taking place of what we should call fret zero. In other words, the 6 th fret now becomes the open strings on your guitar. Since standard tuning, played from low to high, results in: E, A, D, G, B, and e... It would be wise to start there and recognize that shapes, when a capo is applied, don't actually produce the tones you might think. THESE are the actual tones you'd hear if you didn't fret anything. All on their own, and ONLY if fully strummed out, you'll get an odd chord name. The chord name would be a C#6add9. Well, that's not what happens, so don't worry. What actually happens in this song is that Simon gives us some serious food for thought to consider with his rather intricate fingerstyle approach. Again, this song is in D#m, so we ARE dealing with a minor chord progression. First, let's plot these notes:
While your fingers don't FEEL as though they are playing the chords listed (none of them are actually chorded out, but it's important to understand the implication) you can get an idea of the basic approach Simon used. The FIRST tell-tale here is the fact that he is working around suspended 4 th chords as well as what ends up being, again IF fully strummed, power chords. The overall implication of the first four measures is this: A#sus4 C#5 D#5 A#7sus4 Should we assume that we need to look at the D#m Circle of Fifths? Absolutely: DO NOT freak out, but you can't play an E# on guitar. Instead, you MUST call it an F diminished. I don't want to alter the circle, so keep in mind that E# MUST = F. While we ARE in D#m, Simon actually started the song hinting at what ends up being the V (Major, not minor!) in the key of D#m. Now, since the overall result is a suspended 4th it should be a quick indication that he didn't really use either the V or the v here. He just took the NOTE of A# and avoided the case sensitivity all together. He simply suspended the A#. C#(5) D#(5)? Those are power chords, and therefore LACK the 3 or the b3 that give them a true indication of their property. So, the C#(5) and D#(5) are merely based on the VII (vii) and the I (i) of the key of D#m. I am placing both Roman Numerals in this case because we don't actually get a definitive answer. However, the feel is that of: V/v VII/vii I/i at this point. So far I think you can easily see how this works, as there has YET to be a true indication of a single true chord. That's the beauty (and sometimes the confusion) that goes along with fingerstyle. Don't worry he does strum some stuff in a moment. For now, I wonder what the next run has in store for us?
The first one is VERY important, because with fingerstyle we tend to have notes that drone out through a progression. In the case of D#, it will likely carry over through the measure in terms of tonality. That being the case, those two measures above ultimately start with the same A#7sus4 (Bb7sus4) we had earlier. It then moves, in a logical sense, toward sounding like D#m. FINALLY, right? Ok, before we plot that, look at the next run. It's basically B F#. Then, the last measure, which is slightly hard to decipher due to the movement, ends up having a tonal centre of F#. This would be based on the F# Major scale itself, where the notes used are: F# (1) G# (2) - A# (3) - B (4) C# (5) D# (6) - F (7) (F# = 1) So, based on the D#m Circle of Fifths, the result is: A#7sus4 = V/v (neither Major nor minor) (truly minor!) B = VI (truly Major!) (truly Major!) The last F# (tonal centre) also hints at the III.
Here's the third run: Some of this is repeating, but the idea is still the same. The only thing we should consider here is the third measure directly above. You get an E5 with E and B. The next part, using D# and B, ends up giving you nothing, but if you consider that F# note coming in, you end up with a B chord. The FINAL run, which is a little bit of the B chord from the first measure in the tab directly above, ends up leaning toward somewhat of a C diminished, but we won't worry about that in terms of progression simply because this is NOT actually chorded out. At this point, there's no need to look at the Circle of Fifths, because we've yet to find a true chord name (or any real chord, yet) that takes us out of the standard Circle. We have one more measure to go for the intro, but it's all basically a repeat. I'll just show you the tab first:
Look closely at the second measure above. That sure looks like an Am shape at the beginning, right? Well, it's a D#m chord (x-x-2-2-1-x) if it were strummed. Before I show you the strumming that takes place, realize that a vast majority of what we did wasn't giving us MUCH of a true minor chord progression, but there are plenty of indications that the tones and/or implied chords are slowly building to the key of D#m. Now...it's about to get official when we begin the rest of the song, which starts the strumming during the second verse. I am just going to give you the chords as they go in order during the verse. This will help you identify precisely what is used: D#m C# - D#m B F# - B F# - B F# - D#m F# - C# - D#m Don't worry. It's not about playing this progression at this point. Instead, it's about FINDING this progression using the Circle of Fifths based on D#m. Here's the result: C# = VII B = VI B = VI B = VI C# = VII Put those in order and you have the verse (2) formula progression of: i VII i VI III VI III VI III - i III VII - i Take a CLOSE look at how Simon alternated (a BUNCH!) between the VI and the III. It might not seem like all that big of a deal at first, but these notes are B and F#. If you took a look at the D#m scale, you'll find: 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 (1) D# F F# G# A# B C# (D) i ii III iv v VI VII (i) D#m F dim F# G#m A#m B C# D#m
The D#m chord is constructed using the 1, b3, and 5. In other words, you use D#, F#, and A#. Take that same table from above, and this time highlight the ones that weren't already highlighted (the III and VI) and you have: 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 (1) D# F F# G# A# B C# (D) i ii III iv v VI VII (i) D#m F dim F# G#m A#m B C# D#m Consider how he moved DOWNWARD from VI III at first and then alternated: i VII i VI III VI III VI III - i III VII i This gives a nice contrast and yet balance because the listener becomes accustomed to hearing this in the progression. Basically, lots of B F# - B F# - B F#. He also made an initial usage of the tonic (D#m) into an immediate C#, but once he hit the C# at the beginning (VII) he...yep went back to the tonic. Why? Because it's the next closest safe point, and the C# is in the 7 spot even though it's a b7. It's natural and the tendency is to move toward the tonic. One might wonder what is the Major chord counterpart to D#m? F# Major! It's in the III spot and ANY time you use a minor key/scale, whatever is in the III spot will be the relative Major of the given chord with which it is based on. So, D#m and F# Major are relatives. Bam! In the NEXT installment we will hear how this whole thing sounds. For now, just be sure you understand how Simon composed this insanely awesome masterpiece.