We Are The People | TAB
Let’s go through how to play We Are The People using TAB, here’s the intro and verse 1.
Theat Em is like a Cm shape with open strings, it gives the chord a chorus-sounding effect as the note B is played twice on two strings.
The Bm7 is hard to fret, as you need to release the pressure for the rests anyway, at least you get some relief from that.
The Cmaj7 uses the same trick as Em did, now combining an A shape with open strings.
The last two bars have a new rhythm, notice the last 8th note of Em is open strings to get you to the next chord.
Bmadd4 is called so as it has both a m3rd and 4th.
Here’s the next verse and bridge:
This is so much more focused which is nice for the singer.
Should you accidentally hit string 4 once in a while that’s OK. Make sure you fret the correct note for each chord, like this:
- Fret 2 for Em
- Fret 4 for Bm
- Fret 2 for Cmaj7 and Am7
- Open string for B7omit3, which would make it a Bm7 if you hit it.
Here’s the chorus:
Experiment with making that D6 a D or D5 as well, I like the 6.
We Are The People chorus melody
Now then, the melody!
There is so much to learn here, this is a real musical treasure. The chords are IV – VI – V. First, just learn to play it as the TAB says:
Once you can play it, look at what each interval is in relation to its chord:
- Cmaj7 – 7 – 6 – 5 – 3 – 2
- Em – R – m3 – R – b7 – 5 – 4
- D6 – 5 – R, 6 – R
- Cmaj7 – 3
- Em – 5 – b7
- D6 – 2
What you saw above is the melody, those intervals hitting the lovely extensions is what makes it.
However, there’s a second layer here and that is the G major pentatonic, or the Em pentatonic (same notes).
Play the melody again and notice how all you’re doing is playing the pentatonic, it’s the chords that give it the flavours maj7, 9, and 6.
Now that you know this, can you move it anywhere on the neck?
And what do you think about your starting note? is it the maj7 of the C, the 3rd of the G, the 5th of the Em?
Here’s a different area of the neck, can you see all intervals? Can you see the pentatonic scales?
And here’s a third area. how do you visualise this?
The exotic flavours of the intervals, paired with the familiarity of the pentatonic is what makes this melody so memorable.
The chord progression starting on IV, and ending on V creates the feeling that we want to loop this forever.
We Are The People TAB | Related Pages
We Are The People | Chords + Lyrics
You can learn to play We Are The People by Empire Of The Sun using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, a chord chart, and the original recording.
| Em | Em | Bm | Bm |
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Empire Of The Sun tunes
Australian Empire Of The Sun was formed after an A&R man from EMI introduced Luke and Nick to each other.
The duo are best known for their first two singles and massive hit tunes We Are The People and Walking On A Dream.
Empire Of The Sun on the web
About me | Dan Lundholm
This guitar lesson by Dan Lundholm features TAB and cover We Are The People. Discover more about him and how you can learn guitar with Spytunes.
Most importantly, find out why you should learn guitar through playing tunes, not practising scales, and studying theory in isolation.