“No Surprise” Daughtry 
Though Chris Daughtry wasn’t the first rocker to reach the final rounds of American Idol (that award goes to Bo Bice), he was the first to turn this success into pop-chart domination. Daughtry’s popularity was planted when he covered Fuel’s “Hemmorhage (In My Hands)” during American Idol’s 2006 season. Rumors began to fly that Fuel wanted Daughtry as their lead singer, after former singer Brett Scallions had left the group. The rumors proved true after Daughtry had been eliminated from the show, but he instead chose to forge on with his own band, Daughtry, which he used to springboard his American Idol success. Though Daughtry hadn’t won the show, the firestorm of publicity created by his possible relationship with Fuel pushed his debut release, Daughtry, into the top-selling rock records of 2006—making him a greater success than either season 5 American Idol winner Taylor Hicks or runner-up Katherine McPhee. Daughtry’s sophomore release, Leave This Town was released in 2009, topping Billboard’s 200 and Rock Albums charts on the strength of its first single, “No Surprise.”

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THE TUNING
Make sure to tune down a half step if you want to match the recording (E♭–A♭–D♭–G♭– B♭–E♭). The notation is written out as if you were tuned up to standard tuning, however, so if you’re playing with other instruments, they’ll either have to transpose down a half step or tune down with you. To make reaching those high notes a little easier, Daughtry sometimes tunes down a whole step when performing the song live (D–G–C–F–A–D)—especially when playing the song on acoustic guitar.

THE INTRO AND VERSE The Intro kicks off with an E power chord shape up the neck that takes advantage of the open first, second, and sixth strings to fatten things up. This figure carries through to the Verse, where the guitars split into rhythm and lead duties. Over strummed acoustic guitar backup, guitarist Josh Steely picks out Riff A on an electric guitar, using partial chord shapes up the neck mixed with open strings. Fig. 1 shows the chord shapes Steely uses, and he picks these shapes out with his fingers, using his thumb on the lowest note of each chord and alternating that with his index and middle fingers. He holds his pick up against his palm with his pinky and ring fingers, so that he can quickly access it to pick Rhy. Fig. 3. Check out the A notes sung by the harmony vocals in the Verse at the end of the ninth measure. Whether or not this is intentional, it creates some serious tension against the A# note in the F#vv guitar chords! On the next Verse, a layered guitar adds texture by adding sparse, single- note fills between the vocals. Those wavy lines next to the chords at the top of page 58 mean that you should arpeggiate the chords—just strum through them a little slower than you normally would. Arpeggiated downstrokes are implied whenever there isn’t an arrow; if you’re supposed to play an upstroke, you’ll see an arrow pointing up.

THE CHORUS AND BRIDGE
In the Chorus, a rhythm guitar chugs out power chords in the background. On top, guitarist Brian Craddock crafts the sweet, melodic line in Riff C by playing notes of the E major scale along the B string, adding the open E string on top for a thicker sound. Fig. 2 shows an E major scale on the B string with the open E string added, so you can get your fingers familiar with playing the down the length of one string, instead of the more common way of playing scales in positions. Note how the root of the scale actually comes at the 5th fret, and this version of the scale starts with the 5th on the open B string. Craddock puts the climactic final touches on his lead licks at the end of the Chorus by jumping up to the E string to outline the B chord with D# and B notes (the 3rd and root). Check out how his bend from the D# up to E anticipates the resolve to E5 in the next measure. In the Bridge, Craddock uses similar techniques to what he does at the end of the Chorus, parking at the 12th fret of the B string, and reaching up to bend the 11th fret D# up to E. Underneath, Steely picks out melodic octave lines on the 3rd and 6th strings. Grab this shape with your index finger on the 5th string and your ring finger two frets up on the 3rd string. Roll your index finger enough to dampen the 4th string, and you’re ready to slide this shape around the fretboard! The term “dim.” in the final measure of the Bridge is an abbreviation for diminuendo, which means to “get softer.”

Want more? Check out these cool links at guitaredge.com

•    Get more Daughtry guitar tabs at guitarinstructor.com
•    Get a complete transcription book of Daughtry’s self-titled album at musicdispatch.com
•    Download “No Surprise” on iTunes
•    Visit Daughtry online at www.daughtryofficial.com

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