Mirror in the Bathroom - Guitar Parts video free download

This video shows how I play some of the guitar parts to Mirror in the Bathroom by The English Beat. I also show how to play parts of the saxophone solo on the guitar. Sorry, no tabs. I make these videos in lieu.

The first part of the video shows me playing some of the guitar parts live against a backing track I made in GarageBand. The second part is a tutorial that aims to show you how I play the song.

TUNINGS

I use standard tuning (E-A-D-G-B-E) for the live video, but I also used Dave Wakeling's unique open D tuning (D-A-D-A-A-D) in my backing track, and I show you some of those chords in the tutorial section. I call his technique "Open D5 Tuning" because strumming the open strings gives you a D5 chord (or so I think). The beauty of these "5" chords is that you can play the same chord fingering in place of any major or minor chord.

While it is possible to play "5" chords in standard tuning -- and I do so in the live version -- Wakeling's open tuning has a shimmering feel, almost like a 12-string guitar. You get this from having the 3rd and 2nd strings play the same A pitch in unison.

Wakeling plays upside down. That is, not only does he retune his guitar to his open tuning, he also flips it around so he can strum with his left hand instead of his right. Most left-handed players restring their guitars, but he doesn't. That means he strums the high strings down to the low strings, while conventional players usually strum from the low strings up to the high. This affects his sound.

If ever you've watched the band's videos in hopes of deciphering Wakeling's strange chord fingerings, this is why you've been perplexed. Not only is he using a different tuning, he's fingering those chords upside down. Yet it's not as complicated as it looks. Strumming the strings open gives you D5. Barre on second fret and you have E5; barre the third, F5; fourth, F#5; fifth, G5; seventh, A5; and so on. To simplify things even further, you don't even have to refer to these as "5: chords. You can just call them D, E, F, etc., and they'll always work for you. This may be the fastest way to learn how to play rhythm guitar.

CHORD PROGRESSIONS

The rhythm chord progression in the verse and chorus is the same. It's just the strumming pattern that changes:

E5 / D5 / F#5 or F#m / D5 / E5 / D5 / F#5 or F#m or A major

F5 or F major / G5 or G major

F#min is very similar to A major, and you can get away with playing either. I switch between the two at random. When playing in standard tuning, I particularly like to end the verse and chorus sections with F major and G major, rather than F5 and G5, because the full major chords offer a sharp contrast to the rest of the chord progression.

A

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or

F#m

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The F major shape I use

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The G major shape I use

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SAX SOLO

It's taken me a long time to figure out the chords under the sax solo. I'm not sure I've actually nailed the chords from the original recording. I gleaned the chords I use from some live versions of the song I've heard. Where the chord says minor, you can play a "5" (ie. E5 instead of E minor).

Emin / G / Bmin / D

Emin / G / A / C

I play the notes in standard tuning. The sax solo uses an E minor scale. You could play this entirely in 7th position, but I like to slide down to the 5th and back up to the 7th. My versions of the intro and main solos aren't note-for-note perfect with the record. That's because I tend to improvise a wee bit each time I play it. There are a lot more sax breaks in the actual song, but I think they all tend to follow the basic patterns I'm showing in the video.

Emin scale pattern for seventh position.

Thank you for your interest,

Drew Hasselback