“SAY IT AIN’T SO”

Weezer

THIS ENDEARING, MID-’90S alternative rock classic features some of guitarist-frontman Rivers Cuomo’s finest songwriting, with simple but effective rhythm and lead parts that serve the song perfectly. As the arrangement unfolds, Cuomo and co-guitarist Brian Bell create some powerful dynamic contrasts, with the intro and verses being relatively quiet and subdued, using jangly, clean guitar tones, and the chorus and bridge sections featuring full-tilt, loud, heavily overdriven power chords, which are supported by bassist Matt Sharp and drummer Patrick Wilson following suit with contrasts between light-and-laid-back accompaniment on the verses and heavy-and-bombastic bashing on the choruses and bridge.

The song’s signature chord, that “busted”sounding

G#add#2 is performed by playing the

G# bottom four notes of a regular major barre chord, but without barring the top two strings and intentionally allowing the open B string to ring. Although the chord has a sour sound, its use is very effective here, creating a brief moment of tension that gets resolved by the pleasing-sounding A and E chords that follow.

Cuomo varies the repeating two-bar riff pattern nicely between the 1st and 2nd verses, with a soulful, Hendrix-y melodic chord riff in bars 12-14. Notice how he uses a combination of single notes and double-stops with decorative oblique hammer-ons to outline and “dress

C#m7, G#, up” the underlying chords — A and E.

The song’s second and third choruses feature cool-sounding unison-bend fills between the power chord jabs (see section F). These licks, while not difficult to perform on their own, can be tricky to execute quickly and

C#5 G#5 cleanly transition to here from the and power chord strums that immediately precede them. Practice these bars slowly at first, to acquire the necessary muscle memory and muting moves that are required in order to play them cleanly, without unintentionally sounding any open strings. Use both hands to mute the lower strings immediately after strumming the second chord in each of these bars (the one with the staccato dot above the tab numbers).