#TAB006 - SLOW DANCING IN THE DARK
Free Tabs + Pro Tips
SLOW DANCING IN THE DARK
Difficulty Level: ⭐️⭐️
Song: SLOW DANCING IN THE DARK
Artist: Joji
Genre: English/R&B
Tuning: Standard (EADGBe)
Capo: None/Fret 3 (accompaniment/strumming)
BPM: 89
Personal Take
I guess most of you have seen this guy right?
I remember discovering the Pink Guy on YouTube years ago, running around in that full-body pink suit. One song that stuck with me was “STxU” (age-restricted video, not suitable for children!). Then, he suddenly disappeared. But I didn’t think too much of it, assuming his videos were no longer going viral.
Years later, I stumbled upon a song called “Glimpse of Us” (I did a cover before, press HERE) by Joji. It’s super nice, and I had it on repeat. Until one day at a gathering, a friend who’s a big Joji fan mentioned that Joji used to be the Pink Guy.
I was stunned. The same guy who made beautiful, emotional music was once the funny guy in the pink suit? It was MIND-BLOWING 🤯🤯🤯.
“Slow Dancing in the Dark,” one of Joji’s most popular songs, has a sad melody and heartfelt lyrics about heartbreak, which is one of my favorite genres. I especially love the intro melody from the song, so yea here we are!
Vocal Melody
Before we look into the details, let's talk about something new today. You might have seen this before but wondered what it is:
This is called multi-measure rests, indicating exactly how many bars/measures to rest at a given point. It appears at the very start of the score, having an "8" above the bar. So it is telling you to rest for eight bars from the start before starting to play.
When writing vocal melody tabs, I prefer not to use a capo. This approach allows for different hand positions and utilises the entire fretboard, not just limited to the few frets or open strings. So no capo is needed, and this tab does not require you to move around the fretboard, mainly just around the first 4 frets, except for the last few bars where your fingers are positioned around the 6th-8th fret.
Other than that, the rhythm can be tricky, as there are a lot of dotted quaver (eighth note) and semiquaver (sixteenth note) combo. For those who is new to the term:
The dotted quaver (blue) lasts 3/4 of a beat, and the semiquaver (red) lasts 1/4 of a beat. Be extra careful when you are counting the beats! You can try splitting a beat into "1 e + a 2 e + a", where each character represents a quarter beat.
Accompaniment
Double bar line with 2 dots, and a repeat wording above the bars, if you do not know what this is, I have it covered in the latest post below - feel free to check it out!
There is only one tricky part i would like to bring up:
The last 3 notes of the 1st bar + the first note of 2nd bar, "3 7 7 | 3" on the first string. If you look closely at my video, you'll notice that I keep my index finger on the 3rd fret, while stretching my pinky to reach the 7th fret. The reason why I'm doing this is because of the second "3". We do not have to spend time relocating my finger to the 3rd fret again.
In short, hold 3rd, stretch to 7th and return 3rd.
Strumming
Capo on 3rd fret, common open chords are used in the intro, verse and pre-chorus. When it comes to the chorus part, C and F chord are used. Further down, two uncommon chords used here at the last part of chorus, which are Cadd2 and Fmaj13. So, it is time to practise new chords instead of the common open chords we've been playing!
PS: What’s the #1 thing that made you want to check out this newsletter? Reply to this email and let me know, I READ EVERY REPLY!
Vocal Melody:
Accompaniment:
Strumming:
Refer to this video: