I recently encountered a fascinating challenge in a guitar lesson: Peter Gabriel’s iconic song, “Don’t Give Up”. While familiar with the song, I hadn’t deeply considered its rhythmic intricacies for guitar playing. My initial instinct was to approach it as a straightforward 4-beat piece. However, listening closely with my student quickly revealed a captivating triplet feel, leaning towards a 6/8 time signature. The complexity deepened when we noticed the vocal rhythm in the verses seemed to float somewhat freely, defying a rigid structure, at least at first listen.
Despite the rhythmic puzzle, we managed to devise a workable approach that allowed my student to strum, sing, and play a functional version of “Don’t Give Up” surprisingly quickly. Yet, I felt compelled to delve deeper. This sparked a personal challenge: to learn to sing the verse while playing a guitar part rooted in the song’s bass line. This endeavor appears exceptionally demanding, and currently, it feels beyond my grasp!
Putting My Teaching Methods to the Test
I am confident that my established methodology will pave the way to success. The core principles are detailed in my blog post “Caught in a Trap? How to sing and play guitar at the same time!”. I’ve long advocated that these steps can unlock any sing-and-play challenge, and “Don’t Give Up” seems like the ultimate test of this claim.
My first step was to create a simplified guitar part that mirrors the rhythmic essence of the bass line in Peter Gabriel’s original recording of “Don’t Give Up”. By blending the rhythmic feel of “Don’t Give Up” with melodic nuances I often use when teaching U2’s “One”, I developed a pattern that harmonizes effectively with the verse’s chord progression: Am, C, and G (returning to Am). You can hear this initial guitar part in the video excerpt provided. I anticipate thoroughly analyzing and refining this part as I progress in this learning journey.
Back to the Notation Board
To further dissect the challenge, I transcribed the initial bars into 6/8 Taplature notation. This allowed me to visually map out the first few repetitions of the chord sequence and meticulously align the lyrical syllables with the corresponding guitar part.
Stay Tuned for Updates!
This is where my journey currently stands. Being a guitarist first and foremost, singing is more of a mental exercise for me than a purely musical pursuit. However, these explorations often yield unexpected benefits. Let’s see where learning to play and sing “Don’t Give Up” leads!
Join me in this thread to share your thoughts, offer encouragement, have a laugh at my attempts, demonstrate your own mastery of this song (if you’ve already conquered it!), or contribute anything relevant to this challenge. Hopefully, we can all learn something valuable along the way about tackling complex songs like “Don’t Give Up” by Peter Gabriel.
