So, we’ve worked with a couple of ways to learn and play the song Hallelujah, but which one is the right way?
1. The music/tab notation
The complete tab transcription is, note-for-note, very accurate. It requires a capo on the 5th fret which transposes the song to the key of C and the notation accounts for that, but it gets kind of confusing when you’re looking at a G in tablature and above it says it’s a C chord.
Also, on a closer look at the score, I found a lot of the names for the chord voicings to be, while not technically wrong, not representative of what was really going on.
Complete Transcription To “Hallelujah” (PDF)
Complete Transcription To “Hallelujah” (Power Tab)
2. The chord/lyric sheet
This particular version does not take the capo into account and has the chords labeled in the key of C. The biggest problem with this that when I sit down to play it, I’m using the literal open chords to play it, but when Jeff Buckley played the song he used the capo on the 5th fret and used different chord formations to play it. Instead of and open C chord he plays an open G chord. Instead of an open Am chord, he uses an open E. With the capo on the 5th fret these chords transpose to C.
Now, this might not be a big deal to you. An C chord is a C chord. It doesn’t matter how you play it, right? But, to play it similar to the way Jeff Buckley did, you’d have to use the chord forms that he used. There’s a lot of intricate things that are going on that you can’t do otherwise.
The other BIG problem is that some of the chords are just plain wrong. After careful inspection of the sheet music and the chord/lyric sheet several of the chords should be changed to play it correctly. While this version still sounds good (I admit I’ve used it live for a few years now) it’s not the right way to play it (see the 3rd version below):
3. A more correct version…
After a close study of the tab, I’ve redone the song into what I think is the best version.
It takes into account the capo on the 5th fret. So, while we’re playing a G chord, it’s sounds like a C chord. This allows us to come closer to what Buckley played.
I also corrected the chords and added several of the subtle chord changes. Buckley style of playing in the song is better suited playing the chords as chord fragments and arpeggios, or fingerpicking the chords.
Please take the time to study all three versions and compare them. It’s this hands-on dissemination that brings you closer to the music!
