The 1975, Somebody Else

I get so wrapped up in film score stuff — that I’m living under a rock sometimes when it comes to pop music. I only recently heard Somebody Else, by The 1975, and I totally loved it. Great live performance from O2 London.

I knew this song would take on another dimension through the prism of my classical guitar. I really worked the arrangement for about a week: tweaking and eliminating notes, and even whole sections.

With everything I do on this blog, I try to pare it down till I get a guitar piece that is elegant.

If you like this arrangement, please check my version of Father Figure by George Michael. You can also explore my Pop Music archive where I have plenty of music from, Radiohead, Lana Del Rey, etc.

Gear used

For this song I used my Cordoba Gk Studio. As you can hear, it’s an incredible and remarkably even sounding instrument. As the name implies, it’s a perfect studio guitar. (I play and record acoustically, though it’s an electric/acoustic.)

My camera is a Zoom Q8 with an SSH-6 Stereo Shotgun Mic. You can find all of my gear here.

How to play Somebody Else, for classical guitar

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Somebody Else is relatively easy to play. I really take care to use the easiest chord shapes possible. However, I use and fingerstyle technique (that I picked up from learning Gustavo Santaolalla songs) where I use my thumb, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd fingers to arpeggiate the chords. You can see what I mean on the very first chord. I love the way this technique expresses chord shapes and it’s a mainstay of my technique.

The guitar tab is spaciously written across 3 pages. My order of play, in accordance with the guitar tab, looks like this: Intro, Chorus (middle section 2x), Post Chorus — Verse 2x, To Chorus, Chorus (middle section 2x), Post Chorus 2x, End.

Enjoy, the guitar tab is available below:

Somebody Else is played in a trick tuning where you’ll tune every string 1/2 step down except for the Low E (6th string). Your tuning is as follows from low to high:  E G# C# F# A# D#. Or, depending on your tuner: E Ab Db Gb Bb Eb.

Somebody Else for classical guitar

Please comment to let me know what you think or if you have any questions.