Mad World

Free download on SoundCloud.

As it would turn out, I got sick the first week of April; fever, body-aches, and chills. I'll save you the suspense, I'm COVID-19 negative. However, having those symptoms in the middle of a pandemic was disconcerting. I was able to get a test very easily, and they notified me within two days.

Along the way, my doctor, and my physician friends assured me it was unlikely that I was positive. [I'm shocked that I had picked up any virus, as I've been on the "cloroxing individual bananas level" of cleanliness for some time.]I was the only person at the testing facility, and the nurses seemed excited. I was the first patient they'd seen all day.

Where I'm located in Pennsylvania, things just aren't that bad. You can see by this cell phone tracking map that Pennsylvanians are dutifully staying home. Our state was under lock down sooner than most. To this date, my emergency physician friends aren't seeing many COVID-19 patients. We're pretty spread out in this state too.

I was inspired to play Mad World by the stay-at-home performance of Curt Smith (Tears for Fears) and his daughter. His daughter's voice is awesome, and he must be overjoyed to be playing music with her. Although written by Tears for Fears, I based my version on the Michael Andrews & Gary Jules performance from 2001's Donnie Darko.

Mad World is melancholic, and more than appropriate for these times. To me, this pandemic has illuminated the relentless (and often shallow) deluge of information, and content. It's forced me to slow down, reevaluate my priorities, and take a much needed breath.

The next time you're scrolling through Instagram or Facebook, think of Curt Smith's initial lyrics:

All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places, worn out faces
Bright and early for their daily races
Going nowhere, going nowhere

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Gear used

For, Mad World, I used my Cordoba GK Studio guitar. It's a super easy playing instrument with great tone. You can find a current list of my gear here.

How to play Mad World | fingerstyle guitar

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Mad World is a great example of The G Position on guitar. Although relatively easy to play, this song is best for intermediate guitar players and up. Beginners can definitely give it a shot though. The guitar tab is only a single page long.

In accordance with the guitar tab, my order of looks like this: Intro/chorus 2x, Verse 4 x, Chorus 4x -- Intro/chorus 1x, Verse 4x, Chorus 4x, Intro/chorus 2x, End.

Enjoy, the guitar tab is available below: