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Will Hay!WILLHAYGUITAR.COM

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!FREEBIES - HAPPY

Pharrell Williams

!Level: Beginner-Intermediate

Jan 2014

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Happy !This lively tune was released in November 2013 as part of the soundtrack to the

hit film Despicable Me 2 and has sat high in the charts consistently since. Having

been asked by many students if I could arrange a version I came up with several

versions to suit various difficulties. I’ve focussed on the sole piece of harmony in

the song: the organ. Like most popular music these days (Gosh I sound old!)

harmony can be scarce, with many songs being based around the rhythm track

alone, and the shift away from guitar driven popular music means if we want to get

involved we often have to interpret parts played on other instruments. I cover this

in more detail elsewhere. I’ve taken a two speed approach on this tune providing an accurate transcription of

the organ part for more accomplished players and a nice basic stripped back

version for beginners who are keen to join in the fun. There are lots of people on

youtube already covering a strumming approach of large chord shapes. Some are

good, some less so, but I thought I’d provide you with something that sounds as

close to the song as possible.

!!INTRO The intro is a simple affair, just four stabs on an F7 chord on the 8th fret of the A

string (bottom left). I have arranged the Easy version (bottom right) by simply

removing the root note on the A string. !

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VERSE- BEGINNER !The Verse is thankfully a little more interesting. Up first is the simple version which

continues on from the intro with the same rootless F7 chord. After the first stab

you have a little while to wait (7 more beats to be precise) before you repeat the

chord twice more in bar 3.

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We then switch the second and third fingers around to move to a small fragment of

a Bb bar chord which rings out for slightly longer, throwing the next chord on to the

offbeat (the ‘and’ count in-between the beats). The chord in question is the same

shape as before but it has now moved up two frets to become a C which rings into

the final bar before returning to the Bb to finish.

Rhythmically the verse is quite straightforward but bear in mind the final two

chords of the verse are both on the offbeat giving the piece a ‘pushed’ feel. The

chords land on the ‘and’ of beat 4 ringing into the final bar with the last chord

coming on the ‘and’ of beat 2 like so:

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!If you’ve never dealt with these rhythms before it may seem confusing and

unfortunately this piece is full of them. Some people will find the rhythm easy to

pick up by ear but if you’d like to see how it looks laid out on paper read on……

1 2 3 (4)+ (1) (2)+ (3) (4)



VERSE- PUSHED RHYTHMS Pushed (or displaced as they can also be called) rhythms are a rhythmic trick that

gives the listener a feeling of motion in a piece, as if the music was leaping ahead,

dragging the beat along behind it.

I feel the easiest way to understand pushed rhythms is to think about where the

beats would naturally fall without the pushed feel. If you look below I’ve written

out the same rhythm without the pushed feel. You can see below that the natural

position for the final two chords is actually beat 1 and 3 of the final bar.

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What has happened is we have dragged the chords forward in time by half a beat

(see arrows above). This means the first chord is now stuck right on the end of the

previous bar now. But what happens to the time we took away?

All bars have to add up so the time we have displaced from the chord at the end of

the first bar has to be added to the final chord ringing out at the end of the second

(see Arrow above).

Pushed rhythms are most common in Jazz and especially Latin styles but as we see

with Pharrell they can make cheeky appearances elsewhere. Its important to note

that you don't have to always push a rhythm before the beat (bringing it forward in

time like above) but can also push a rhythm slightly after a beat which gives a

slightly different feeling to a listener.

The technical word for pushed rhythms falls under the umbrella term

syncopation which is roughly defined as any music that puts emphasis on the

weaker beat. I say umbrella term because weaker beat doesn't need to mean

offbeat, in fact the context changes depending on which subdivision is being used,

but thats a story for another pdf…..



VERSE-INTERMEDIATE !Ok so next up is the intermediate approach to the verse. Surprisingly its not much

different: with the simplified verse providing the core harmony we only need to

flesh it out slightly.

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!It is rhythmically identical to the Beginner approach explained previously so I

won’t cover the same ground there. At an intermediate level you probably have a

good natural feel for picking up rhythms (pushed or not).

!The only major difference to the chords in this harder version is the final one,

rather than returning to a standard C triad it moves to a C7. This is played with a

bar so in order to build speed as you move between positions try and keep a low

profile with your hand, lock the shape in, and be ready to drop the first finger down

into the bar.

!This is an organ part so try and keep the part nice and bouncy with a slight staccato (this is an italian term which translates as ‘detached’ and means to shorten the duration of a note without affecting when it and the notes around it are played). If you watch my video you should get an idea of the feel. I play it clean and finger style for maximum control as the harsh sound and attack of a pick and the fact that you can never truly strike multiple strings simultaneously make a plectrum approach ill advised to get the sound right. !!!!



CHORUS-BEGINNER !Here we have the simplified chorus. I have had to strip back the chords far more

for this section as unfortunately the full harmony is a little too complex to remain

playable at a beginner level. The version I have settled for though is a good trade

off and does a good job of representing the original.

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The chords themselves aren't too hard though you may find the stretch in the

second chord troubling if you haven’t developed a good finger span yet. I would

recommend you use fingers 1 3 and 4 (below left) and use the natural distance

your hand covers to your advantage rather than stretch to use 1 2 and 3 (below

right) as many students tend to try in order to use more dominant fingers. The

sooner you start using that useless little finger the sooner it starts to become

useful!

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Here is the full fat version of the chorus. Compared to the beginner version we are

dealing with a lot more complexity. We start off with a C#Δ7 played with your

thumb over the top of the neck holding the root note on the 6th string. This then

moves to a Cm7 bar chord, a nasty change which will require isolated practice to

make smooth.

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We then move to a voicing of Eb7, arpeggiating two of the notes before playing the

chord then repeating the same arpeggiation before moving to an F7. It is

important you let the chords ring for as long as possible here so change as quickly

as possible.

I find finger choice is imperative here but rather than set it out here I have included

a slowed down video showing you exactly the finger choices I’ve made. As with the

students I teach one on one I tend not to make a habit of forcing people to adopt

the exact details I choose. The guitar is a wonderful instrument and very diverse,

with people finding myriad ways of playing the same things. What I would say is I

tend to take my time choosing fingering and it would be well worth your time

trying my fingerings first and trying to understand the reasoning behind them

before discarding them.

Will



NEED SOME HELP? !Not sure about some of the chords, scales or techniques in this lesson?

Please check out my website where there are products and courses to help. I will

be adding more as time allows but if you have any specific requests of topics you

would like me to cover, or any other feedback then get in touch via the contact

page of my website willhayguitar.com or email me at [email protected].

!!!!!!!

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