Mystery No More

No Bonus!!

Yesterday’s Bonus Round (and today’s subject): The song “Let The Mystery Be”, written by the great Iris Dement (and I presume copyrighted by her or her music company) from her 1992 album “Infamous Angel” was used as a theme song for the HBO series “The Leftovers”.

Yesterday’s Easter Egg: Matchbox 20’s song “How Far We’ve Come” is an absolute blast to learn to play!! Fast chord changes, interesting dynamics - great fun for the guitar!!

Iris Dement is a gem! Often associated with the great John Prine (their famous duet “In Spite of Ourselves” is classic!), her vocals are instantly recognizable. Today, let’s learn how to play “Let The Mystery Be” using the things we’ve talked about so far.

When I hear a song for the first time, or hear again an older song that I decided I want to learn, I start researching it. I’ll start with the app SoundHound if I’m not sure or just don’t know the title - starting a SoundHound search with my phone mic while the song is playing audibly in the background will (hopefully) result in a return of the title and performing artist (which may or may not be the original artist or writer). Then I’ll go to the Ultimate Guitar app to see if there’s a chord chart available, and to the Chordify app to see if the song is available there. “Let the Mystery Be” is on both. Here’s a partial screenshot of the chord chart on Ultimate Guitar:

I’ve just grabbed a portion of the song here, so that we can talk a bit about the information you’ll see in a chord chart, at least most of the ones you’ll see on UG.

First, you’ll see the person who uploaded this chart (whose name is in the header info to the chart, but not displayed here - there’s lots of other information in the header, but not all posters are consistent). Keep in mind, UG is user created content, so there will often be several versions of the same song, each reflecting the poster’s interpretation of the chords and timing of chord changes.

In the header there may be key and tempo information, and sometimes alternate tuning info - some songs are written to be played with a tuning other than the standard EADGBe tuning). In the screenshot above, the first thing you see is “Capo 3”, meaning you’ll play the chords indicated, but with a capo at the third fret on the guitar (we’ll get back to that in a second). Next you’ll see lyrics with chord symbols inserted above each line at the point where the chart author thought the chord changes should appear. In this song, the chord shapes you’ll play capoed on 3 are D, G, and A. Pretty easy chord shapes and easy to change chords quickly, but keep in mind you’re not actually playing a D, G, or A chord, just the shapes. The capo transposes the key to FMajor - that’s the key you’re actually playing in, not DMajor.

First, let’s figure out why. An open (no capo) DMaj chord looks like this:

The DMaj triad is D-F#-A. You’re normally playing the 4 highest strings, and the notes are D, A, D, F# - the order doesn’t matter, the ear hears a DMaj triad (if you play the open A, that’s fine, A is a note in the triad, if you play the open E, you’re playing a D/E chord, read as D over E, also fine).

When you capo on the 3rd fret, the open (unfretted) notes you’ll be playing if you strum across from low to high are now 3 semitones (half-steps) higher in pitch, thus: GCFA#Dg. When you play the DMaj chord shape capoed on 3 (we’ll assume you’re not playing the lowest string here), you’re playing xCFCFA (the “x” indicates an unplayed or muted string). Since the notes in the FMaj triad are F-A-C, you’re playing an FMaj chord, using the DMaj shape, again not in order, but the ear hears the chord.

Now let’s look at the chord progression Ms Dement used in writing the song: uncapoed in the key of FMaj, it’s FMaj, BbMaj and CMaj - a common I-IV-V progression. Since FMaj and BbMaj are more difficult chords to play in an open position and change quickly, it’s pretty easy to transpose to a DMaj I-IV-V progression by capoing on the 3rd fret and playing the open, and quickly changed, DMaj, GMaj, AMaj chord shapes.

So, why did Ms Dement write the song in FMaj, if she was going to capo on 3 to play it?In the YouTube video below, she’s pretty clearly capoed on 3, so it wasn’t just the work of the person who posted the chord chart on Ultimate Guitar making it easier:

I think, without knowing, the reason is she prefers singing in FMaj, because it fits her higher vocal tones or it’s just comfortable for her. Remember, the violin, mandolin, and upright base player don’t particularly care about chord shapes - they’re in the key of FMaj, playing notes from the scale, or arpeggios around the FMaj I-IV-V chords. Ms. Dement is playing rhythm, and you can see her using a lot of chord voicings (watch her lift fingers while playing the 3 main chords to play suspended or other voicings) and the gentleman on lead guitar next to her is also capoed on 3, but flatpicking much more freely during the instrumental break.

Here are some links to look at for next week as we analyze the song further from a lyrical perspective:

Ultimate Guitar chord chart:

https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/iris-dement/let-the-mystery-be-chords-1411687

Chordify requires an account

Lyrics:

Just note the song is kind of “John Prine-ish” in that it leads off with the chorus, then a verse-chorus, no bridge - just an instrumental break, then another verse-chorus, with an outro that repeats the hook.

No Bonus Round this week- if you get a chance to play “Let The Mystery Be” this week, please do - it’s a fun song with meaningful lyrics, pretty easy to learn. See if you can pick up the strumming pattern while you’re listening to the song.

Happy New Year to all!!

Cheers, and keep playing!!

Michael Acoustic