My Monkey Tabbed Out and Demonstrated

I've been working on the guitar part for Jonathan Coulton's song "My Monkey" for the Mandelbrot Set virtual cover band. I recorded a track of doubled electric guitar that I think sounds great -- but unfortunately I realized a little too late that the transcription I was using is not quite right. Some of the chords were a bit over-simplified: there are some 7ths and major 7ths in there that are notated as plain old major chords in the transcription.

It's a valuable reminder that the material you find for free online, especially if it is not transcribed by the original artist, may be wrong. If you want to play a piece as recorded, always listen carefully yourself, and slow the part down if necessary to figure out what is going on. In particular, note that things like 7ths and add 9ths and what-not add color to the chords; if you play straight up major or minor chords that match the basic harmonization it will sound OK, and you won't have any minor second clashing notes or sound wildly out of tune, but it will lack the feel of the original and the chords won't help suggest and support certain sung notes in the melody quite as well.

I memorized the part as it was transcribed and practiced it so I could it smooth enough to record, and now I have to un-learn that muscle memory, re-learn the part, and record it again. It is always a bit of a dice roll as to whether you can get it to sound as good as your first successful try.

With 4 kids ranging from age 14 to 3 months, I don't get a lot of time to record videos -- I'm usually trying to throw something together late at night. But warts and all, minor errors included, you can see me playing these riffs on my Ovation acoustic in this video.

Here are my revised chords and tab, which follow the way I'm playing the part now. I'm pretty sure it is accurate, although I may be a string off in my finger-picking pattern here or there.

My Monkey - Jonathan Coulton

Transcription by Paul R. Potts

Chord Shapes Used:

E  02210X
B7 X2120X
C#sus2 X4664X (altered to C#m X4665X)
A X0222X (altered to Asus2 X0220X)
B X2444X
Amaj7 X0212X

Riff 1:

E   B7     C#sus2   A 
e :------------|---------------|
B :--------0---|--4h5------2p0-|
G :--1-----2---|--6--------2---|
D :--2----1----|-6--------2----|
A :------2-----|4--------0-----|
E :0-----------|---------------|

Last Repeat:

E   B7     C#sus2   B 
e :------------|---------------|
B :--------0---|--4--------4---|
G :--1-----2---|--6--------4---|
D :--2----1----|-6--------4----|
A :------2-----|4--------2-----|
E :0-----------|---------------|

Riff 2:

Amaj7          B7
e :-------------|-----|
B :--2---2---2--|--0--|
G :--1---1---1--|--2--|
D :-2-2-2-2-2-2-|-1-2-|
A :0---0---0----|2----|
E :-------------|-----|

Last Repeat:

Amaj7     B7
e :---------|---0-2--| (hold fingering, let notes ring)
B :--2---2--|--0-----|
G :--1---1--|-2------|
D :-2-2-2-2-|--------|
A :0---0----|2-------|
E :---------|--------|

Ending:

E
e :----------0------| (slowly, let notes ring)
B :--------0--------|
G :------1----------|
D :----2------------|
A :--2--------------|
E :0----------------|

The song is structured as follows:

Intro: Riff 1 x 2

Verse: Riff 1 x 4 (the last time, play the variant)
Chorus: Riff 2 x 4 (the last time, play the variant)

Verse: Riff 1 x 4 (the last time, play the variant)
Chorus: Riff 2 x 4 (the last time, play the variant)

Verse: Riff 1 x 4 (the last time, play the variant)
Chorus: Riff 2 x 4 (the last time, play the variant)

Play just the variant Riff 2 twice

Play the final E chord slowly and let it ring.

Note that Coulton plays some of the chords a little 
more freely than the tab suggests. For example, he 
strums a few notes of the Riff 1 opening E chord 
instead of just plucking the single bass E note on 
some of the repeats.