Coldplay Style

by Gabriel Leopardi

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  • Hi GMC!

    Welcome to a new lesson based on British Pop bands. This time I will be covering the great band called “Coldplay”.

    I composed this track exclusively for this lesson to share with you their most used tools to create and arrange their music. Beginner players but also intermediate composers will find very interesting stuff in this lesson.

    Let’s start with some info about the band:

    “Coldplay are a British band formed in 1996 by lead vocalist Chris Martin and lead guitarist Jonny Buckland at University College London. After they formed Pectoralz, Guy Berryman joined the group as a bassist and they changed their name to Starfish. Will Champion joined as a drummer, backing vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist, completing the line-up. Manager Phil Harvey is often considered an unofficial fifth member. The band renamed themselves "Coldplay" in 1998, before recording and releasing three EPs; Safety in 1998, Brothers & Sisters as a single in 1999 and The Blue Room in the same year. The latter was their first release on a major label, after signing to Parlophone.” - Wikipedia

    Music Style:

    Coldplay is considered a Post-Bitpop band but is also labelled as Alternative Rock. Their influences are very wide and they have been compared with bands like U2, Oasis, Radiohead and Travis. In this tune I tried to emulate their music using their most used drum rhythms, chord progressions and also the way of creating guitar melodies. The lesson has influences from their first albums but also from their last ones in which they experimented a bit more.

    Tonality, Chord Progression & Scales:

    This tune starts in E Major and modulates to G Major in the chorus section. The chord progression can be found in the main video as well as over the tabs. The scales used to compose the guitar melodies are E and G Major.

    Techniques:

    As most of the Britpop bands, the guitar job is simple but effective. You won’t find tricky sections in this tune. The lesson is very useful for beginners that want to make their guitar playing tighter.

    Sound:

    I used my Pod HD 500 to record this lesson. If you want the tone you can ask for it at my personal board.
    My guitar is a Gibson Les Paul Studio.

    Tuning:

    I used standard tuning.

    Tempo:

    120 bpm

    Ok guys – let’s start dreaming!

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