TAB: The Frames (Glen Hansard) – Falling Slowly

It’s three months late but nice job in the tab. It’s plays great for me.

Good to hear. Thanks Cake.

On listening to the soundtrack, and from what I saw in the movie itself, it actually sounds just a bit different.

(I won’t attempt tabs, the comment function will most likely bollocks it up.)

From the F, he keeps the G string down to 0, only bringing it up to the second fret for two of the four repeats between the B and G strings at the end there, before dropping it out to 0 again for the last two.

That sounds kind of ridiculous saying it out loud but think about it.

(P.S. – I think mayhaps the guitar is mislabeled?)

Aaaand since I forgot to include it, maybe you can help me out with this, I think I remember from the film that the pre-chorus part (Am – G – F – G – Am – G – F), that the chords are held and sort of arpeggiated rather than just strummed.

Thoughts?

Hey Conner, thanks for commenting and the correction. Not “mayhaps” though, the strings were definitely mislabeled. I’ve corrected them now.

I’ll try tabbing in the comments and see if it works. Is this what you mean?

e ---------0---------------1---0-----------0-----------------------
B -1---3-------3---1---3-----------1---3-------0---1---1---1---1---
G ---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---2---2---0---0-
D -----------------3-------------------------------3---------------
A -3-------------------------------3-------------------------------
E -----------------------------------------------------------------

If so, I think you might be right actually–especially about leaving the open G string drone throughout the first part of the verse. The last F though is hard for me to confirm from the soundtrack. I also tried listening to the version of the same song from The Frames’ “The Cost” album and it was also hard to verify there. Going to have to wait for the movie to come out on DVD.

Let me know if I interpreted your comments correctly though. And thanks again!

Dead on, that’s precisely what I meant.

Yeah, that last bit is terribly hard to hear on the soundtrack (and apparently you’ve two different versions to check!). I just have the feeling from remembering the movie itself.

December 18th we’ll know for sure, right?

Cool. I’m very much looking forward to the release of the movie too. The other version is from the “Cost” album (also linked to in the post above)–it’s got the full band playing the song though which makes it quite a bit heavier. Great album though if you haven’t listened to the full band much before.

I actually am also going to see Glen and Marketa in a few days as they’re playing in Seattle on Nov 5th. I’ll see if I can catch how he plays it then too.

Gus,

Love the tab for “Falling Slowly.” Thanks to you, I have the intro and verse down. Now, I’m having difficulty with the bridge, “games that never amount to more than they meant will play themselves out.” I’m a relatively new player and haven’t developed a keen enough ear as yet. I love this song. For me it was the highlight of the film.

Thanks Satch and glad it helped you out some. Note I called the “pre-chorus” what you’re calling the “bridge.” Those are the chords you should play during that part though you’re right I haven’t tabbed his fingerstyle for it. I’ll see if I get around to doing that as well soon.

Thanks Gus. I truly appreciate your efforts. I’ve watched the DVD, but can’t seem to pick out the fingerstyle as his right hand is pretty much hidden.

Happy New Year! Great tab Gus, loved the movie, amazing that the internet let’s us see your work. Add me to the list of people awaiting for a tab of your pre-chorus, I’ll be checking your blog regularly.

The pressure mounts. I really will try to get to this soon.

Happy new year to you as well Mike.

Posted how I play it. Hope that helps folks out. Sorry if it doesn’t though but that’s as good a guess as I could make at this point…

Gus, you rock! Thanks for the updates, you’ve certainly helped my relationship with my girlfriend.

That’s great to hear Mike.

Thanks so much Gus. You’ve been a huge help. I appreciate your attention to detail when tabbing songs. I look forward to checking out future songs you may choose to tab out.

So this is my attempt based on the film and soundtrack. It sounds me it could be quite close, but I am not very experienced musician so I am not sure…

I think Hansard uses his thumb on the E when plays F accord – you can see it in the film, where he plays this song (slowly and with real accords, so you can learn it well;)). But I have too short fingers to do this, so I have tuned the E to the F on my guitar. Now I also use thumb – when I play G accord – but on the second fret its not so difficult for me.

INTRO:
   C               F               C               F
e ---------0---------------1---0-----------0------------------------------
B -1---3-------3---1---3-----------1---3-------0---1---1---1---1----------
G ---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---2---0---0---0--------
D ------------------------------------------------------------------------
A -3-------------------------------3--------------------------------------
F -----------------0-------------------------------0----------------------

PRE-CHORUS:
   Am      G       F       G       Am      G       F
e -----------------------------------------------------0-0-3--------------
B -----1---0-----0-----1---0-----0-----1---0-----0-1---1-1-1--------------
G ---2---2---2-0-----2---2---2-0-----2---2---2-0---0h2-2-2-2--etc.--------
D -----------------------------------------------------3-3-3--------------
A -0-------------------------------0-------------------0-0-0--------------
F ---------2-------0-------2---------------2-------0---0-0-0--------------

PS: Thanks for this page – it helped me very much in the beginning.
PPS: Sorry for my English (I’m from Czech rep.)

oops:-[
——

Thanks Paul! I’ve gone ahead and added the right html to have the tab you posted show up correctly.

Gus, I’ve just discovered this string of info on “Falling Slowly”–thanks very much! I’m a beginner and it’s fun to play. I just have one question–it seems to me that you’ve tabbed the verses, and the pre-chorus or “bridge”, but not the chorus itself? (Take this sinking boat…). The C-F-Am-F sequence? Any chance you can do one more public service and post this?
Thanks!

Hey Andy, thanks for the comment. For the chorus, I actually just strum the chords I listed and pick out a few strings along the way. I’m pretty sure Glen actually does the same as far as I remember. Just give the chords a try and see if it sounds right.

Not sure how much of a “beginner” you are, but just in case you’re actually asking for the chord fingerings, this is how I play them (at least on this song):

    C F Am
e ---------
B --1-1-1--
G --0-2-2--
D --2-3-2--
A --3-0-0--
E ----1----

On the F, I play the F on the low E string sometimes and I actually do it with my thumb on this one.

Hope that helps!

It does help, Gus! Thanks…

Gus, on your most recent posting (of how you play the chords) you might want to mute the A string from ringing. It doesn’t fit into the F chord. I play the F in this song like this:

e–1–
B–1–
G–2–
D–3–
A–3–
E–1–

I bar the first fret with my index finger and use ring and pinky for the C and F notes and middle finger for the A note. That’s the proper way to play an F chord, although it’s difficult to bar the first fret quickly enough to have each note ring clear. And I’m sure that’s why Glen uses his thumb on the low F note and simply mutes the A string, because it’s much easier to do on the fly.

your tabs really helped but my friend isnt a guitar player but she wants to learn how to play this song. is their any way you can make it in single notes and not chords for her?

Hi Rebecca, I’d suggest she just plays it using power chords. If you don’t know what those are, check out these links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_chords
http://guitaralliance.com/guitar_lessons/power_chords/index.htm

It won’t sound exactly like the song but it should be good enough to play along with or sing to…

Okay I will probroly just show her that. Thanks a lot!

Also, see if you can convince her to just learn how to play it the right way. I remember when I first started to learn to play the guitar I did it by spending weeks with my nylon string acoustic and the sheet music/tab pamphlet thingy they used to sell for Metallica’s Nothing Else Matters. It took me weeks and I drove everyone in the house nuts with the song but I eventually got to a reasonaly decent version of the song. Good luck!

i probroly will just teach her how to read tabs instead of confusing her with other stuff. thanks!