“(If You’re Wondering if I Want You To) I Want You To” Weezer

 Back in the ancient mid-20th century, rock bands like the Beatles used to release records at an astonishing clip, stocking record- store shelves with a new vinyl package at least once a year. With the extended tours, crazy digital recording technology (that takes hours and hours of time), and a new benchmark of absolute glossy perfection, bands in the later 20th century were lucky to get more than a handful of records out each decade—and some got so lost in the process, that it took decades to complete one record! Weezer, however, took a retro approach not only to their music by feeding off of power pop sounds of the ’70s, but also kept their record- release schedule “old school” as well—churning a record out nearly every other year. Raditude, their seventh record, came right on the heels of The Red Album, with only a year between their respective releases. Released in the fall of 2009, the record pumped up the charts behind the catchy single “(If You’re Wondering if I Want You To) I Want You To.”

 THE INTRO, VERSES, AND CHORUSES
There are a bevy of catchy hooks in this bouncy tune, and things kick off with a snappy D major riff in measures 1 and 2. While there’s nothing peculiar about the fretted notes in this riff, including the open G and B strings as a backdrop which is a little odd—those notes imply the root and 3rd of a G chord, and you’d likely hear them backing up a riff like this in the key of G, but not in the key of D! Whether guitarists Rivers Cuomo and Brian Bell are just being sloppy or whether they’re intentionally hitting those open strings, the effect is pretty cool, creating the D6sus4 sound shown in the chord symbols (those G and B notes are the sus4 and 6th notes, respectively, of a D chord). Of course, if you want to strum along, there’s no need to try and build a D6 sus4 chord—a standard D chord will work fine. The reality is that you really only hear the fretted notes once the other instruments enter.

For the riff, use your index finger to grab the 5th fret D note, rolling it slightly downward to dampen the D string; then do the same thing with your ring finger on the 7th fret of the 6th string. This riff carries the first 16 measures of the Verse, and in measure 17 the song builds when Gtr. 2 enters in the left channel playing chord stabs on beat 1 and the “and” of beat 2.This part reappears in the 17th measure of Verse 2, and this time another guitar (Gtr. 4) enters in the right channel, punching beats 2 and 4—creating a cool composite hook between the two parts. If you barre your index finger across strings 1–3, you can easily access all the chords in Gtr. 4’s part with the two-finger shapes shown in Fig. 1, which also utilize the middle finger added to the barred index finger to create every chord.

Check out how Rivers sings a B in the 27th measure of the Verse against the backing B♭ chord, creating a hip ♭9 sound, which is brief enough that you almost don’t catch it unless you’re listening for it. In measures 9 and 10 of the Chorus,theG5chordsymbolpertainstotheGtr. 1’s rhythm slash chord, but the overall harmony here is actually Gmaj7, when you factor in the other guitars. If you’re strumming and singing the song, you could employ the Gmaj7 shape in Fig. 2 instead of the G5 chord to get closer to the overall sound. You can substitute this on any of the subsequent recalls of Rhy. Fig. 3, as well, whenever you hit that same point in the chord progression.

 In the Pre-Choruses, the band backs off to build into the catchy Chorus, contrasting the sing-song nature of the rest of the song by spoken vocals and rhythmic, percussive strums (notated by the Xes in notation and tablature). This guitar technique is often called scratch rhythm and requires you to dampen the strings enough with your fretting hand so that they don’t sound. When you strum through, you should hear a dampened “chukka chukka” sound without any notes.

Notice how the second Chorus is twice as long as the first one. The band also pulls a nifty move by substituting the relative minor chord (Bm) in for D before the Chorus repeats. Without the resolve to D, it keeps things moving forward towards the Chorus’s second repetition (which reverts back to the original progression and resolution to D).

THE BRIDGE
The vocal melody, background harmony, and chord progression all come together to give a Beatle-esque flavor to this section. In the chords, the movement from A through A#”7 to Bm is part of the reason for this. Diminished 7th chords work well for joining two chords a step apart like this. They’re built by stacking three minor 3rds on top of each other, which divides a scale up into four notes that are all the same distance from each other. What this means is that any note in a diminished 7th chord could be its root. Since a minor 3rd is three frets apart, that also means that these chords repeat themselves every three frets. Try out the most popular movable diminished 7th chord shapes in Fig. 3, then slide them each up in three-fret increments and you’ll hear how this works (you might also have flashbacks to Looney Tunes cartoons, where this motion was often used for climactic moments!). You may also recognize this motion from the Beatles song “Michelle.”

Another retro move is switching between major and minor chords of the same letter name, found here in the G–Gm chord change. You’ll hear this through a huge portion of the Beatles repertoire in songs like “Norwegian Wood,”“I’ll Be Back,” and “If I Fell.”

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

• Get more Weezer guitar tab at guitarinstructor.com

• Get Weezer’s The Green Album guitar tab book at musicdispatch.com

• Download “(If You’re Wondering if I Want To) I Want You To” from iTunes

• Check out Weezer online at Weezer.com

• Get cool Weezer gear at oldglory.com

Add Comment

Name

Email (will not be published)

Personal Web site/Blog URL

Subject

Comment

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Enter the letters you see in the image.

Click to get a new image.