Andrew Bird's "Tenuousness". Folk guitar and lyrical genius.

In my last article in which I presented a tab for Kermit the Frog's 'It's Not Easy Being Green' a mentioned Andrew Bird and posted a video of him doing the same song his way. Andrew Bird is a musician in the truest sense, and now that I have stripped his song 'Tenuousness' down to it's essentials and taken note of his lyrics, I have all the more respect for him. He is amazing. 


The song is very simple, and playing it serves as a good beginner's exercise in finger-picking. I have tabbed the three parts of the album version. There is also a From the Basement version that I will post the video for at the end of the article. In the From the Basement version, Bird uses a sampler and plays the whole song without deviating from the key it begins in I.e.: C. It is awesome seeing him in action. He's like a little one-man orchestra.


First, the album song.

That's the verse. Note the hammer-on from the A note to the E. 

This is the guitar part that goes with the lyric, "Love of hate acts as an axis". The bottom staff shows the traverse picking part continued, while the top is the piano line. Then it's the verse again.

And then it's "Who want's to look upon this?" And the outro.

The Lyrics:

There you have it. Learn the three parts, and stick 'em together with the words, and what you have is a lovely little campfire ditty. 

The simplicity of the song amazes me. That something so great can be so simple. It's inspiring. 

Here's the From the Basement version. Enjoy.