Sixteen Blue

[thedroid]

Just thought I'd share this. I believe it matches how Paul plays the song live and also sounds correct for at least one of the guitars on the recording.

Sixteen Blue

Chords

From low E on the left to high e on the right, numbers are frets, periods separate strings, x is do not play string.

G(1)
x.10.9.0.8.10

Dmaj11
x.5.4.0.3.5

C
x.3.2.0.1.3

G(2)
3.5.5.4.3.3
or
3.2.0.0.3.3

Cm
x.3.5.5.4.3

Cm6
8.x.7.8.8.8

D
x.x.0.2.3.2

Am
x.0.2.2.1.0

Am7
x.0.2.0.1.0

Asus2
x.0.2.2.0.0

G lick

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
———0——0——0——0—————————————————————————————————————————————————
———0——0——0——0—————————————————————————————————————————————————
——5——4——2——0—————————————————————————————————————————————————
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Opening

G(1) — Dmaj11 — C [note, these are all the same chord form sliding down the neck]

G(1) — Dmaj11 — G(2)

Verse

[Drive yourself right up the wall . . .]
G(2) w/ lick

[It's a boring state]
C

[It's a useless wait . . .]
Cm
(You can also play Cm6 instead of Cm)

{I know]
G(2) w/ lick


repeat

Chorus

[your age. . .]
D
[everything . . .]
G(2)
[One day . . .]
D
[through . . .]
Am

[Sixteen Blue . . .]
G(1) — Dmaj11 — Am7
G(1) — Dmaj11 — G(2)
G(1) — Dmaj11 — Am7
G(1) — Dmaj11 — G(2)


On the final chorus substitute Asus2 for the Am7

Here' the solo:

Play first part twice over G, then second part over C — Cm

—————————————————————————8———11——————
————————————8—7—5—3——————8——————11———
———————5—4—0———————————9——————————12—
———2—0———————————————10——————————————
——2—————————————————————————————————
—3——————————————————————————————————


On the recording, when it gets to "Your age," I believe the 12-string guitar in the left channel plays Dsus2 (x.0.0.2.3.0) and G6 (3.2.0.0.3.0).

[besterberg]

Wow, I think you've finally solved the mystery of the Sixteen Blue intro. Well done. One suggestion, though. To my ears, it sounds like the G2 chord is voiced this way: 3.5.5.4.0.0. Live, I have no idea how he plays it. From watching live videos on YouTube, it looks like he changes the voicings constantly.

[thedroid]

Yeah, he likes to leave the high B and E strings open a lot. On the recording the guitar in the right channel is playing the more common open-position G during the verse. The 12-string in the left channel is noodling around a bit and probably does play the open B and E strings.

What I saw on the live video I watched is Paul starting with this: 3.5.5.0.0.(0) on the verse and then walking back the note on the D string to 3.5.4.0.0.(0) and finally x.x.2.0.0.(0). Not sure if he ever plays the open E, but there's no note fretted on it. The left-channel guitar on the record does something similar, which I reduced to the G lick above.