DESCRIPTION:
Here's a tutorial on how I play Paramore's new single Hard Times on guitar. I demonstrate each part at full speed in context, followed by a slower playthrough, accompanied by the guitar tab in the bottom of the screen. It's a fun song to play, with a simple yet tricky single note line in the intro and verses, a nice funk groove in the chorus, and a pretty catchy outro melody. I've also thrown in some extras that aren't played on guitar in the original, but might be fun to play in a band setting.
It's suitable for intermediate or advanced beginner electric guitarists, although it's essential you know how to play barre chords and have a good strumming technique.

Good luck, please leave any comments and requests below, and if you'd like to see more lessons like these, please hit 'like' and subscribe!

A cover version will be up shortly, and I can do a backing track too if enough people are interested, let me know!
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Chapters:
00:13 Intro & Verses
01:27 Transition
01:43 Chorus
03:18 Bridge
04:49 Outro

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Used gear/setup:
DIY Stratocaster w/ Fralin Pickups & Callaham hardware
Digidesign Mbox 2 Pro Interface
Mogami Gold cables
Curt Mangan Strings
Squier Precision Bass
Chase Bliss Audio Tonal Recall delay (on intro/outro)

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Website: http://NilsBryant.com
Instagram: https://instagram.com/nilsbryant
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nilsbryant


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Transcript:

Good morning!
Here's my take on how to play Hard Times by Paramore.
It starts off with a xylophone melody, which is doubled in the verses by a semi clean guitar with a chorus effect applied.
This part can be played in various ways, but this is the one I found the most convenient.
That said, here's an alternative way to play the second ending.
The guitar intro doubles the melody but plays quick stabs in between using Fm, Cm and Ab barre chords.
These also use a slightly more overdriven sound with some phaser and slapback echo or reverb applied.
The various parts of the song remain fairly consistent throughout except for the reintro after the first chorus which has a slightly different ending.
Next up is the transition part that leads into the chorus.
Although this isn't played by a guitar in the original, here's two ways to play it anyway, first in octaves.
Or here in single notes.
The chorus is a Im Vm bVII bIII progression in the key of F minor, or a VIm IIIm V I, when looking at it in the relative major key of Ab.
It's a fairly fast funky strumming pattern with a few double stop hammer ons on the Ab/Fm chord shapes.
These embellishments are optional, and will only be worthwhile if you're already comfortable with the strumming pattern itself.
As with most funk grooves, focus your strumming on the treble strings, use proper left hand muting technique to control length of the notesand keep a light touch, which is essential at this tempo.
Here is the strumming pattern by itself.
Here are a few other voicings that will work over the chorus, try to mix them up to expand your chord vocabulary.
This part is similar to the intro, using short stabs on the Fm mixed with sustained raked chords on the Cm and Ab chords.
After 8 bars another guitar comes in and plays long sustained notes which are repeatedly bent up to the next note in the scale and released like a slow wide vibrato.
Here's the fast synth part, which happens to be a great picking exercise.
Make sure to use alternate picking throughout.
The last chorus ends with two hits (an Ab and an Eb/G), leading into an arpeggiated melody based on the main chord progression which also incorporates the aforementioned hits.
is it just me or is there a strong Daft Punk influence on this song?
Something about those funky guitars and the vocoder...
That's all for now, hope that helps, good luck!
Thanks for watching, please like, comment, and subscribe.