.
Part I John McLaughlin, birth...
Part II: In A Silent Way, to Start, New York
Hello, I'm Sandy Freeze ( a.k.a.:guitalife ), and I've been a fan of guitarist
John McLaughlin since spring 1973, when I first heard the Columbia (LP) album
"Birds of Fire" by Mahavishnu John McLaughlin And The Mahavishnu Orchestra.
Many years, LP's, cassettes, one concert,(by John McLaughlin and the One Truth Band,
in Los Angeles 1979) and CD's later ,I'm still a fan. Well,enough about me . |
My links are from fellow McLaughlin-aholic links belOW, for "OW-er" musician
of most mutual interest,
The Musician
Guitarist JOHN McLAUGHLIN:
Born on January 4, 1942 in Kirk Sandall, Yorkshire, England, U.K. |
See John McLaughlin's Official Web Page
http://www.johnmclaughlin.com |
_ARRIVAL_
John McLaughlin had to do more than look out for New York City's right hand lane
traffic patterns in the Big Apple. Upon going to the U.S., the guitarist found
himself, a white English-born European, standing in The Club Baron in Harlem,
playing with the sparkplug of Miles Davis' late `60's rythym section, Tony
Williams, and another personal favourite, organist Larry Young.
In the club also, that evening was, the equally ground-breaking, Larry Coryell,
who related to the late Leonard Feather, in Down Beat magazine," I first heard
John at Count Basie's in Harlem with Tony Williams and Larry Young. After 30
seconds of his first solo,I turned to my wife and said,' this is the best
guitar player I've ever heard in my life' That night ,everybody was there..
everybody from Cannonball (Adderly)'s group; I think Miles was there...Dave
Holland... and we were all totally knocked out by that fantastic debut of John."
McLaughlin told C.B.C.'s Robert Karsten's (sic?) in 1978, that, to a European
jazz musician, playing in Harlem, was a major achievement.
That is, even in context, still British understatement.
Miles Davis wasted no time in asking McLaughlin, at the trumpet player's home
the next day, to come in and record.
Those present on "In A Silent Way" from Dave Holland, Tony Williams, and Saxophonist
Wayne Shorter, to the Keyboardists Herbie Hancock, Joseph Zawinul , and Chick Corea,
all took care. Miles' approach to the Zawinul compositions performed was
a bare bones harmony largely, but it is McLaughlin's guitar that that sings
first on the title cut. It predates "My Goal's Beyond" for an example of the
lyrical abilty of the otherwise tumultous guitarist.
More work with Tony Williams Lifetime, albeit poorly promoted, prevented McLaughlin
from accepting long stints in Miles' band, but several sessions including the
equally revolutionary "Bitches Brew" prove the Davis ear for talent did not
hear the word 'NO' as a case-closed status.
Miles would record hours of music for "BITCHES BREW", one cut, under 5 minutes,
features John McLaughlin playing over a couple of C Minor vamps. It shocked the
guitarist to see "JOHN MCLAUGHLIN" as the title of that tune! (Miles sat out.)
"ON THE CORNER" , another Miles Davis session, had McLaughlin riffing mean
lines over vamps and incessant percussion textures, guaranteed to tick off
Miles' fans of his '60's style.
Tony Williams' "EMERGENCY" and "TURN IT OVER" are the legacy of a trio, then
a quartet, with The Cream bassist Jack Bruce stepping on board. Any copy or
reissue of this work will reward the listener with a most exciting, and disturbing
sound. |
___A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS__
The circle of musicians that McLaughlin made from meeting Wiiliams, Young, Davis and
others turned into a mutual admiration society. Larry Coryell let McLaughlin stay at
his home for a while.
"SPACES" is an album that reflects the generosity and respect of the day. It's Coryell's
all the way. McLaughlin turns in on some tunes, one, "Rene's Theme", a pure
acoustic guitar gem, can still keep the word "woodshedding" in a musician s
vocabulary. (The album notes by the writer, the late Robert Palmer hold true)
Druumer Billy Cobham, bassist Miroslav Vitous, and Chick Corea round out this
classic of Coryell's. Music. Period.
Miroslav Vitous was an athletically driven Czeckoslovakian emigre. In the
1960's had impressed Joe Zawinul at a music competition in Europe and had
subsequently left the Communuist Block country, as had a young pianist ,Jan
Hammmer. The Berklee School of Music was in fact a magnet for maybe half of
the European musicians of this field to go the U.S.A.. Zawinul had gone
there briefly, before establishing himself on the American scene.
Guitarists may hang out together, but one singer that may seem an odd name in
McLaughlin's Discography is the assured self accompanist, James Taylor. They
had mutual acquaintances, luthier Mark Evan Whitebook, and Michael Brecker, the
saxophonist, being two of those. McLaughlin's song "Someone" is a very sincere
lyric of longing, which JT carries well on "ONE MAN DOG" .McLaughlin weaves
a solo in, quite nicely. I loaned out the album to a Brecker fan, never got it back!
"Don't Let Me Be Lonely", indeed! |
|
"Follow Your Heart" Vamp, bars 1-4. "Joe Farrell Quartet" version |
(Play 4x)where (,---)=1/4 beat & (;-)= 1/8 beat
~\,---,,,,,,,,,---;-/~
E|----Z2++++++++++Z4|E
B|----Z3++++++++++Z5|B
G|----Z2++++++++++Z4|G
D|----Z2++++++++++Z4|D
A|--k2++++++++++K4++|A
E|K0++++++++++K0++++|E
~/ 11/8 meter \
|_,---,---,---,---;-_|
|
"Joe Farrel Quartet" has McLaughlin 's "Follow Your Heart" in his single all-
out appearance (besides "scratching" in on another cut) ,while Corea (again)
sits out. The luminous tone that he had on "In A Silent Way" shines once more.
Wayne Shorter, the saxist/composer lynch-pin of Miles Davis 1960's group ,
once referred to McLaughlin, upon seeing the hirsute bearded hippie cat walk
in, "here comes Prince Valiant", in reference to the Classic Comics Character(?).
Shorter's "MOTO GROSSO FEIO" and "SUPER NOVA" feature the fierce nordic
swordplay of McLaughlin (heh, heh). And Chick Corea plays drums!
"MOUNTAIN IN THE CLOUDS" by Miroslav Vitous has a related spirit of music.
With Jack de Johnette on drums and Joe Henderson ,on board .
John McLaughlin was reportedly asked to join "WEATHER REPORT" but declined.
"PURPLE" by Vitous ,includes Zawinul ,McLaughlin,and Cobham,but I haven't heard it.
"A TRIBUTE TO JACK JOHNSON" by Miles Davis,may serve as the window on the
musical relationship that began between the young percussionist, Panamanian-born
Billy Cobham, and McLaughlin on various MILES DAVIS sessions. Cobham described
how McLaughlin started off a jam, supposedly while Miles had told the musicians
not to play. McLaughlin's harmonic twist from a demented E7 shuffle,
to a BFlat 7 SUS11, when the trumpeter steps in is my idea of musical Napalm. He
shoves old turnaround sequences into the mix, and spars with Miles in the
process.
|
...Right Off (M. Davis) 27:00...
~` `~
E|------------------------|------------------------|E
B|------------------------|------------------------|B
G|----k8----k8----k8----k8|----k7----k7----k7----k7|G
D|--K6++--K6++--K6++--K6++|--K6++--K6++--K6++--K6++|D
A|,---;-,---;-,---;-,---;-|,---;-,---;-,---;-,---;-|A
E|K6++++K6++++K6++++K6++++|K6++++K6++++K6++++K6++++|E
~` Bb7 Sus Bb7 `~ |
Some of McLaughlin's personal satisfaction with this album came from Miles
saying it was his favourite. The spontaneity was not altered by Teo Macero's
judicious editing with an electronic interlude. It is not the music for
the Jack Johnson bio-film "The Great White Hope", though.
"DEVOTION" was McLaughlin's venture into electric realms on his own terms,
with fellow TWL member Larry Young, Hendrix Band of Gypsy's Buudy Miles,and
(as much as I know) Paul Butterfield's bass guitarist Billy Rich. Not edited
well, by McLaughlin's standards, he was touring and left it up to the producer.
"Devoted" fans can only guess at the cutting room floor's gain, but the LP
never had Violinist Jerry Goodman on it, if you happen to see a current CD
copy! |
___SEX,POLITICS,AND RELIGION___
Charlie Parker once declared on a form at Customs, that music was his religion.
On the home front ,McLaughlin was married to one Eve, in the early 70's. She
and John fell under the influence of Sri Chinmoy, a poet/guru. A student of
non-Western customs and philosophy, if a lapsed Catholic, himself, McLaughlin
had experimented with meditation, hippie cat that he was, and had met Chinmoy
at a UN cultural event.The guru's sincere grasp of McLaughlin's spiritual quest
led to a change in diet,no meat,no alcohol, no Smoking(?), appearance (so long
Prince Valiant, hello G.I. John?),and dress: white . Absolutely dhoti?
McLaughlin had also began to focus on his music, disappointed to find The Tony
Williams Lifetime was so poorly managed. Miles still asked McLaughlin to join
his group (LIVE-EVIL album being the main example of John live playing with
Miles, read JACK CHAMBER'S excelllent biography MILESTONES), but further
request turned into advice. Davis realized that McLaughlin needed to be in
charge, and impressed on him three points ,eventually:
]A start his own group,
]B get a good drummer,
]C get Nat Weiss, an experinced music businessman, to manage him.
The other change in McLaughlin's life was that his other guru (heh heh),
Chinmoy had given him a new name from Hindu teachings .
_MAHAVISHNU JOHN McLAUGHLIN__
Sri Chinmoy's teachings about life, love ,and God let John McLaughlin focus
his music, on one hand, to the greater good. The guru's community of followers
had a worldly presence in a New York City neighbourhood, Chinmoy is still an
active spokesman (lately his demonstration of physical health led to a 2001
public elevation of my own Canadian Member of Parliament!). The purging of
various toxins from McLaughlin's physique may have aided in what soon became
a famous agility of fingers and imagination. Many guitarists have entered the
dexterity semi-finals in the 20th century, but so few had wielded a flatpick
with a sense of density in phrase. As his energized Lifetime volleys were
wicked skirmishes with Tony's "impeccable" sense of time, the electric guitar
gave John an underground reputation that couldn't have died ,in the ears of
club patrons that included members of the Allman Brothers Band, the late Janis
Joplin, and Carlos Santana, with his drummer Michael Shrieve. Oddly enough,
pictures of the trio show McLaughlin played an acoustic guitar with a pickup!
However, this current balance of McLaughlin's strength as a performer was not
a mere ticket, to indulging in the fast lane ,that took so many people besides
Joplin around that time . From his roots, Miles and the translucent work of
a one time Davis sideman Bill Evans, to Charles Mingus (the rampaging soul of
double bass until his death ),and various others, (that pesky Chick Corea!) John
McLaughlin greeted the world, clean shaven, and humble in the face of his own
human shortcomings offering an album that spoke a whole new voice of guitar.
|
At a time when acoustic guitar was slapped and tickled by singers protesting
the Vietnam war, or moaning about their "baby", McLaughlin spared us his
throat, and tuned up. Never a village square Yorkshireman, McLaughlin had
travelled on the ryhthms of various peoples' music. His early adulthood friend
Graham Bond had exposed McLaughlin to things like The Theospohists. The effect
of hearing Indian music, in the wake of George Harrison and the rest of the Fab
Four's sojourns was a deep response of wanting to learn the music. One of the
muscians John had met in New York,was Badal Roy, a tabla player.They jammed in
Indian restaurants,and the understanding of Indian music did not end there,
for OW-er John. From his wide circle of musician friends, to his wife, now named
Mahalakshmi, Mahavishnu John McLaughlin wove a particular masterpiece. |
~"Follow Your Heart" vamp;
My Goal's Beyond" version :
bass E dropped W-step to'D'** |
Bars 1-4 (play 4x)
E|----Z0++++++++++Z2|E
B|----Z1++++++++++Z3|B
G|----Z0++++++++++Z2|G
D|----Z0++++++++++Z2|D
A|--k0+++++++++k2+++|A
**D|K0+++++++++K0+++++|D**
|
The pedulum of lyrical melodies, on the foundation of western Anglo-Afro-
American song forms comes to the fore on the suite McLaughlin presents alone
(with some percussion) on guitars, measured in good weight between the melody
and harmony . Both 6-string and 12-string guitars are featured, the latter's
combination of octave bass-string pairs, and treble unison giving a rich
texture. Mahavishnu may have been the "lead" guitarist but John McLaughlin
definitely was the ryhthm guitarist, I'd say! The balance of his over-dubbing
fairs well, some of the more convoluted harmonies in juxtaposition with
vigourous rhthyms giving to a rich seamless transport. Beautiful.
Then there's the group... John McLaughlin's new friend Badal Roy may not
have known that the guitarist who "sat in" with him at the restaurant was such
a well known musician, but McLaughlin asked him to play on this recording session.
Billy Cobham,and soprano saxist Dave Liebman,as well, as the ubiquitous Airto
Moreira, Brazilian percussionist from the Miles Davis sessions, McLaughlin's
wife Mahalakshmi on an Indian gourd-string instrument, (the man Mingus
called "Bass") Charlie Haden, and a formally trained violinist, McLaughlin
culled from a band called "The Flock", Jerry Goodman.
It was once noted , Airto Moreira was common to the groups Weather Report, and
(equally ubiquitous) Chick Corea's original Return To Forever, by the way.
Billy Cobham had appeared on at least one tune on an LP by The Paul Winter
Consort, ~ICARUS~, which featured , in turn, some of the future members of the
group Oregon, where the guitarist/pianist Ralph Towner established a classical
guitar approach, no less stunning.
See some music transcibed from the MY GOAL"S BEYOND LP. Peace One and Peace Two
give the listener a day in the country, India, that is. Peace One's D Minor
bass line later MOdulated into ~OPEN COUNTRY JOY~'s D MAjor violin melody , on
~BIRDS OF FIRE~ ,at that!
|
___It's Hammer Time, m' Laird, not Murray , Divine Sarah ,and Buddy___
The chemistry McLaughlin found with Jerry Goodman's lyrical and dynamic talent
was a very resonant voice for the melodies McLaughlin wrote. The Mahavishnu had
a voice ,and in Cobham a force of nature. Where McLaughlin had turned down
the offer to join Weather Report, his bassist friend Vitous had recommended
fellow Czeck ex-pat Jan Hammer as a possible pianist for this new direction John
was taking. The keyboardist was impressing American musicians, currently
working with legend Sarah Vaughn. Since the record company CBS was looking
at McLaughlin's talent favourably, the prospect was good for a band lead by the
virtuso guitarist. Hammer left with Miss Vaughn's blessing.
Meanwhile, one of the few funny lines I've caught about "bad connections" comes
from bassist Tony Levin who worked around N.Y. .McLaughlin and Levin had
actually been involved with a public demonstration of Dr Robert Moog's
sythnthesizer that, in turn, went south when the lattice of patch cords
suffered a foul-up. But it is Tony's Mom, who relayed a phone message, from
McLaughlin, that "a Murray Vishnu Orchestra" called, short circuiting one
possible gig for Levin.
Another bassist, who was asked ,stuck to his upright stance. Stanley Clarke,
soon to form Corea's fluid ryhthm section with Airto, said he would only play
doublebass, not bass guitar. (Heh heh).
McLaughlin, had been talking with Buddy Rich's current bassist, old friend
Rick Laird, when Lifetime did a double bill with Rich, and the band that
eventually tested the limits of critics' descriptions, was born . |
_____Not Just Another 5-man Electrical Band____
Mahavishnu John McLaughlin informed his guru that he would be calling his new
group "The Mahavishnu Orchestra",and immediately had the blessing of Chinmoy
Ghose, whose poetry was a liner note and LP sleeve staple of McLaughlin's
albums for a while.
The stunning combination that emerged after a couple weeks rehearsal, caught
the ears of people weaned on forms of music that had all had their day, in the
20th century's second half. Beethoven ,Leadbelly, Muddy Waters, Tal Farlow,
Django, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Coltrane , Sonny Rollins, Bill Evans,
Gil Evans , America , Spain's Flamenco, India's tal rythym and ragas, all made
a formation on McLaughlin. Teaming up with 4 young but road-ready musicians,all
versed in different forms had to be a new challenge for Mahavishnu John
McLaughlin: leading a band.
The combination was rare; Violin was not a staple of the popular bands ; the
electric and acoustic piano music, that Hammer played, came out Europe's
rivers, not the Mississippi; few bass players could master the odd-meter and
polychordal recipes of McLaughlin's tunes, and, between John Bonham and
Tony Williams, few drummers ever drew the drum solo into a concert delight,
keeping the sum of the parts together, tutti, with the group. Last, but not
least, no guitar player mastered the guitar like Mahavishnu John McLaughlin.
Fast? Speed was an inadequate description of McLaughlin's approach. Percussive,
dense attack blended into jagged melodies, McLaughlin's riffs doubled and
tripled by violin, piano, and bass guitar, sometimes and soundly balanced by
Cobham's powerful kit, which included the double bass drums.
The intense musical interplay of all 5, 4, 3, 2, or just 1 member's outlay
could stun audiences and carry them all at once.
The LP " The Inner Mounting Flame" could floor a listener!
Oddly enough, McLaughlin, center stage in concert would first ask for 5-minute
silence of the audience. They'd give it. McLaughlin had an acoustic guitar and
an a electric guitar. The dexterity of his unamplified flatpicking (over the PA
as demonstrated on a later live LP) was exciting both in the execution and the
communication. The Les Paul that roared, and whispered through the standard
Marshall amp stack was nothing like the 4/4 shuffling of the day. Dynamically,
McLaughlin was all-embracing, from soft , to the grandest (LOUD!!!).
The Orchestra toured almost non-stop, but McLaughlin was sticking his musical
toes in the rythyms of India ,and had started to study the vena and
the "theory" of Indian Music at Wesleyan University. He was introduced to
violinist L. Shankar along the way, and the (unrelated ) sitar master Ravi Shankar
gave McLaughlin lessons in this music.
McLaughlin added an old session sound, 12-string electric guitar, by way of a
Gibson double-neck SG style. This let him express melody or signature arpeggios
in dense textures, courtesy octave and unison-paired strings. |
~Birds Of Fire~ came next from Columbia Records. The title track alone would
prove the fluidity possible in ,otherwise non-typical harmonies, and rythyms.
Aside from Dave Brubeck , odd meters were not a feature of Western popular acts.
The breadth of compositions is awing, intense ,and passionate. This was not
pizza'n beer party music in any way, and rarely hum-able in diatonic fashion,
but , IT KICKED! Grumblings from a couple of bandmates about using their music,
credited, or otherwise, added to the pressure of relentless touring without a
little reflection. McLaughlin aimed at a wider "goal beyond", a symphonic
project, which was not warmly embraced by the dissenting members. A studio LP
only released in the 1990's ,as "The Lost Trident Sessions", was this group's
last such non-live recording, but "(Live) Between Nothingness and Eternity"
captured some of that swansong material,with respectable flair. McLaughlin
disbanded the first Mahavishnu Orchestra late in 1973.
|
~~Brother John _/\_ Brother Carlos~~
~~ http://www.geocities.com/guitalife/bioguita/yonder_bros.html ~~~~
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John McLaughlin was approached along the way by Rex Bogue, a talented luthier
about guitars. McLaughlin challenged him to make a double-neck instrument, which
would accomodate artistic, philosophic and tonal parameters. One remarkable
eature , was sizing the 12-string headstock down (by angling every other tuning
head on both sides), to make it symmetrical with th 6-string head. A wide
harmonic selection from the pick-ups let McLaughlin follow his heart, for
a couple of years until "The Double Rainbow" fell from a perch backstage, and
split. This guitar was a treasure to hear.
|
MO II... the Apocalypse...Visions Of the Emerald Beyond...Inner Worlds |
John McLaughlin gave his MO band the boot, called another violinist up, and opened
the door to some even younger talent .
Jean-Luc Ponty, was heir to the French jazz violin tradition, if via Coltrane,
of Stephane Grappelli. He had been an early choice for that instrument in Mahavishnu's
lineup but immigration had been a hassle. Meanwhile while John found the very
admirable Jerry Goodman, Ponty (pon-tay) found his way clear to the U.S.A.
and landed a gig with the composer performer Frank Zappa. This was as good a
intro to the culture of America, as a Bengali guru would be to a India-Phile
like McLaughlin, one could say?
McLaughlin met drummer Michael Walden , Bassist Ralphe Armstrong, and a lovely
singer/pianist Gayle Moran , and added violin, viola, cello, and trumpet and
flute. He talked to the conductor Michael Tilson-Thomas about a symphonic / MO
collaboration and found another willing talent , the unflappable magician of
The Beatles works, George Martin to blend the sound in the studio. In his
book, "All You Need Is Ears", Martin relates how he put the now larger
Mahavishnu funk-band/meets-chamber quartet in one studio, with the London
Symphony Orchestra in another, cues being matched and watched through TV
cameras and monitors. It is a rich undertaking, "APOCALYPSE". |
Ponty stayed on through the next LP, "Visions Of The Emerald Beyond", which
made the most of the MO's wide talents, bereft of of the larger symphonic
tapestry, but equally deep in texture. Funk met pastorals, in moods and titles.
McLaughlin, a power engineer's son, waded into the electric streams beyond the
guitar, jack chord, and amplifier trinity, with a Frequency Shifter, giving his
imagination, "On The Way Home To Earth", some fly-bys that no Flight Controller
would sanction....
However, as personal life, and professional appearances abruptly took its toll.
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McLaughlin, ever-restless, gave most of the newer Mahavishnu Orchestra members
the pink slip, reducing to just a trio rythm section, now including a young
keyboard player Stu Goldberg. The guitarist expanded his pallete with a guitar
synthesizer capable of awesome expression. A third LP ~INNER WORLDS~ seemed to
reflect turmoil, distracted as he was, the depths of feeling almost ponderous.
A single 12-string acoustic guitar solo on ~IN MY LIFE~ let McLaughlin do as
much as the (multi-thousand-dollar) prototype syth did on the rest of the
album, and a pretty melody, ~LOTUS FEET~, was underlayen with a beautiful
waltz, a 3/4 time arpeggio pattern on acoustic guitar. The programming that
Goldberg and McLaughlin put into some pieces was incredible, though, and, as
ever, Ralphe Armstrong and Narada Michael Walden were solid and sympathetic.
This was still a holding pattern, until McLaughlin closed the electric guitar
door, for almost three years.
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http://www.geocities.com/guitalife/jrgig1977.html
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Shakti with John McLaughlin
An acoustic guitarist at heart, John McLaughlin had always practised on the
umamplified instrument. His on-going studies of Indian music and the vena, an
inevitable step to learning more about the two intersecting subjects, as such,
with a broader but ultimate pedagogy from Indian musicians such as sitarist
Ravi Shankar, took "Mahavishnu" to Connecticut, aforementioned.
From his meeting L. Shankar, a virtuoso violinist studying classical
violin, at Wesleyan University, to tabla student Zakir Hussain, the
son of the late Alla Rahka, at a California Indian music school, came the
unique group that would blend North and South India's two styles, with a
Western improvisational twist.
Add a claypot (ghatam) player, the equally able T.H. Vinyakaram,
and there was ~SHAKTI~.
The acoustic guitar won over McLaughlin's sensiblity and he logically let
his ~vena~ gather dust, as he mined the textures of Indian music in a rare
definition of guitar synthesis, contracting luthier Abe Wechter to build a model
that employed the usual 6-strings, plus a set of varying-guaged 7-strings:
A]suitably contrary...angularly displaced
B] placed under the main 6-course
C] short and indivually tunable to the piece played.
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__For tablature... I can only suggest the following!_
~` ______ `~
E|-------------///////-----------------------------|E
B|------------///////------------------------------|B
G|-----------///////-------------------------------|G
D|----------///////--------------------------------|D
A|---------///////---------------------------------|A
E|--------///////----------------------------------|E
~` `~
|
~` _Joy_ Bar One ' _Joy_ Bar Two `~
E|:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-k0K1------|:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-|E
B|--------------------K3----k3K5++|++++K3----k3--------------------|B
G|--------------k1K2k4----:-:-:-:-|------k4K2--K4k2K3k2K4k1K3k1----|G
D|K0k2K3k2K0k2K3------------------|----------------------------K3k2|D
A|;---;---;---;---;---;---;---;---|;---;---;---;---;---;---;---;---|A
E|,-------,-------,-------,-------|,-------,-------,-------,-------|E
~` ' `~
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