Hejira — Joni Mitchell
—————————————
From the album ‘Hejira’
Tabbed by Howard Wright
[email protected]
First things first — the tuning.
From low to high it is : CGDFGC
In ‘Joni’ notation this is : C 7 7 3 2 5
which means start with a C on the bottom string, tune the
5th string to match the 7th fret of the bottom (6th) string, then
tune the 4th string to match th 7th fret on the 5th string, and
so on up the strings at frets 3,2 and 5
I’ll just give you the chord shapes — the picking pattern is fairly
similar throughout — start by picking out the bottom 3 strings
(working from top to bottom) then hit one or two of the top
strings. A bit vague I know, but you’ll have to listen to the
song to catch all the subtlelties.
To give you a better idea, here is the intro bit in TAB :
C—————————————0———-
G—————————————0———-
F———0————0————0———0—-
D——-2—-2——-2—-2——-2—2——2——
G——2————2————2——————
C—2————2————2———————
C——————————————-0———
G——————————————-0———
F———-0————-0————0———-0—
D——-3—-3———3—-3——-3——3——3——
G——3————-3————3——————-
C—3————-3————3———————-
You should get the feel of the picking from this.
By the way — don’t be put off by the weird looking chord names.
The names are tricky, but the shapes are easy !
Intro :
——-
Dm11 Eb6/9 Dm11 Eb6/9
Verse :
———
C6/9
I’m travelling on some vehicle
Fsus2add4 F
Sitting in some cafe
Fsus2add4
A defector from the petty wars
F C
that shell shock love away
C6/9
There’s comfort in melancholy
Fsus2add4 F
When there’s no need to explain
Fsus2add4 F
It’s just as natural as the weather
C
in this moody sky today
Fadd9
In our possessive coupling
C
So much could not be expressed
Fadd9
So now I am returning to myself
Gadd9add4 G9add4
These things that you and I supressed
Gadd9add4 Fadd9
I see something of myself in everyone
C
Just at this moment of the world
Gadd9add4
As snow gathers like bolts of lace
Fadd9
Waltzing on a ballroom girl
Then back to the intro chords, and another verse…
Shapes :
———
CGDFGC CGDFGC CGDFGC CGDFGC CGDFGC CGDFGC
222000 333000 002222 555555 557755 002200
Dm11 Eb6/9 C6/9 Fsus2add4 F C
CGDFGC CGDFGC CGDFGC
555400 777600 777000
Fadd9 Gadd9add4 G9add4