“Chop Suey!” System of a Down

 Alt-metal rockers System of a Down had Gold-record success with their debut record, but their second record (Toxicity) made them multi-platinum heroes. “Chop Suey!” was the leadoff single on this record, and it earned a Grammy nomination for Best Metal Performance. Despite mainstream radio’s attempts to censor the track, they couldn’t keep it from climbing the airwaves and helping propel Toxicity to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart.

 THE TUNING
“Chop Suey!” is in Drop D tuning, down a whole step (C–G–C–F–A–D), so you’ll need to tune down to match the recording. As in other songs appearing in Guitar Edge, the notation is written relative to the de-tuned guitar, so it will sound a whole step lower than written when played on a concert-tuned instrument.

SLIDING 3RDS
Guitarist Daron Malakian crafts the lion’s share of his guitar parts in “Chop Suey!” by using sliding 3rds along the 3rd and 4th strings over an occasional open A string pedal. Fig. 1 shows these 3rd shapes, which Malakian gets from the harmonized A minor scale. Notice how he uses these shapes with his acoustic accompaniment by strumming the 3rd shapes in the opening measures. When the electric guitar enters in measure 5, he uses these same shapes, but mixes the sound up by picking the notes individually.

Don’t let the chord symbols above the notation confuse you—these really make the chords look a lot more complicated than 5th they are! Those symbols represent the overall harmony—not just the guitar part. Now, the theory wonks among you might notice that they seem a little off in the first few measures, but these symbols are correct when you take the bass notes into account. The bass enters in the fifth measure playing a sustained A note that ring for four measures. When the bass plays the root notes to the chords, beginning in the ninth measure, the initial Intro chords symbols begin to make sense. You can accompany the song by simplifying these chord symbols. Standard Am, F6, Cmaj7, and F chord shapes should do the trick, and Fig. 2 shows root-position versions of these chords that will work fine.

Gtr. 3 enters in measure 8 with some overdubbed dyads played via tremolo picking (indicated by the three diagonal lines cutting across each note stem and underneath each set of tab numbers). To tremolo pick, move your arm (or wrist) up and down as quickly as possible so that you’re constantly picking the strings.

 ONE-FINGERED POWER CHORDS
At the tail end of the Intro, the band shifts into overdrive, and Malakian hammers out a heavy power-chord line on the bottom two strings. Check out how the Drop D tuning allows you to play these chords with just one finger! Simply barre across those bottom two strings with your index, ring, or middle finger and you’ve got the chord. You’ll probably need to play them this way to keep up with the manic tempo, as well—switching between fingers to grab the power chords more quickly. Try using your middle and index fingers for power chord pairs one fret apart (the first 1 1/2 measures of the riff) and your ring and index fingers for the power chord pairs two frets apart (the last half measure).

You might find the Verse lyrics a mouthful up to speed! If so, slow things down to a pace in which you can actually sing and play everything together, then gradually speed it up to the backbreaking tempo of the recording.

At the Chorus, a 12-string acoustic guitar enters. Since 12-strings are tuned in octave pairs on the lower four courses of strings, what you hear on the recording will have more of a sparkling quality, since every note in Riff C falls on those bottom four strings (making them all doubled by another note an octave higher). The higher octave notes aren’t included on the staff for ease of reading.

The last two measures of page 125 feature Gtrs. 2 & 3 in divisi notation along the same staff (“divisi” indicates that two parts share one staff). If you’re only looking at the tablature, this might look crazy, since you’ll see notes spanning from the 3rd fret all the way up to the 13th fret! But take a look up at the notation to see that the bottom two strings are the continuation of Gtr. 2’s part from the previous measures. Gtr. 3, having cycled through Riff A 1 3/4 times (see the riff recall label in the second ending, which is two lines up), finishes with this dyad on the top two strings.

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

• Get more System of a Down guitar tab at guitarinstructor.com
• Get “The Best of System of a Down” guitar tab book at musicdispatch.com
• Download “Chop Suey!” on iTunes
• Visit System of a Down online at systemofadown.com
• Check out Daron Malakian’s Gear at DaronMalakianRocks.com
• Get cool System of a Down 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.