After long deliberation and talking to fellow music lovers I've finally decided on the song I want to learn and record. For this project I will learn the song Karma Police by the popular band Radiohead. In the past, I had never really given the band it's due attention until about a couple of years ago when my friend of mine turned me onto their more recent albums. Since then I have gradually gravitated to their sound and have become more and more of a fan over time. Karma Police is one of Radiohead's most popular songs and comes from an earlier album called OK Computer released in 1997. While the song was relatively new to me, I stumbled across a few versions of the song on Youtube over the last couple of months and naturally it has made its way onto my personal wish list of songs I enjoy and want to learn.
The other songs I had on my list were hard to eliminate as I in some way shape or form enjoy all of them. With this in mind, choosing this particular song came down to a number of factors that swayed my decision as well:
Progress update
During my research, I was able to half attempt to play various tabs I found on guitar. As I began to lean towards selecting Karma Police as my song my consistency in practicing it over the last couple of days has grown as well. Overall, I'm fairly confident I have all the chords and rhythm memorized and down. As it stands, I'm still working on the flow of the lyrics and am currently trying to sing while I play. My intention is to record these separately but I find it helpful towards learning the song thoroughly. Below I have an example of the tab I'm learning from as well as a couple examples of covers I intend to use.
The other songs I had on my list were hard to eliminate as I in some way shape or form enjoy all of them. With this in mind, choosing this particular song came down to a number of factors that swayed my decision as well:
- Resources - The sheer number of resources associated with this song give it a heavy advantage. I was able to find multiple quality videos of covers, some highly rated tabs, and even some straightforward tutorials.
- Layers - The song has the ability to accommodate being played by both piano and guitar. Also, there are at least 3 mood/tone changes throughout which adds to the intrigue.
- Degree of Difficulty - The song is just complex enough to have me work at each piece of the puzzle, especially guitar, piano (no tutorials for this), and vocals. Yet it is simple 4/4 time and just playable enough to not overly exceed my current skill level. Note: This aspect, especially in the vocal department eliminated some choices in itself.
- Popularity Level - I mentioned before that I wanted a recognizable song but I didn't want to end up doing a cliche or annoyingly popular song. In my own opinion, and this is arguable, Karma Police fits that specification. Fittingly, it comes from a band that is both widely known and resistant to the spotlight (Radiohead self-released their 7th album In Rainbows and allowed fans to set the price of purchase).
- Flexibility - After watching several of the covers and digging deeper, there are a few nuances of the song that not only make it more interesting but seemingly add more room to play. Specifically, there are actually 2 versions of the 2nd verse. ("Karma police, arrest this girl her Hitler hairdo is making me feel ill...." vs. "Karma police, arrest this girl, she looks as me as if she owns the world..."). Furthermore, as far as the covers and live performances are concerned, everyone sort of takes subtle liberties with lyrics, structure, and chords of the song.
- General Interest - If I'm being honest, none of the other factors really matter all that much if you aren't genuinely interested in playing the music. At it's core this song is a great song with great lyrics and in the end I know it's gonna be fun to play.
Progress update
During my research, I was able to half attempt to play various tabs I found on guitar. As I began to lean towards selecting Karma Police as my song my consistency in practicing it over the last couple of days has grown as well. Overall, I'm fairly confident I have all the chords and rhythm memorized and down. As it stands, I'm still working on the flow of the lyrics and am currently trying to sing while I play. My intention is to record these separately but I find it helpful towards learning the song thoroughly. Below I have an example of the tab I'm learning from as well as a couple examples of covers I intend to use.