Magic Tab

Magic by Coldplay
 
Tuning: Standard
 
This is a great song with a lot of textural additions. Below I have tabbed what the guitar plays asexactly as 
possible.
Since many of us will not have the other textures that this song has, guitar players may want to deviate from 
what is actually played in favor of a more full sound.
I have attempted to put a few examples of what one could do with the song to achieve that, but of course many 
options exist.
I encourage you to try different forms of the chords below, and if you find anything you think is really 
interesting, feel free to share!
 
Listen to the song for the rhythm. The notes of this phrase are played off beat so it helps to
just play this with the song.
    D                       A
e|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
B|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
G|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
D|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
A|--9--9--9--9--9--9--9--9--4--4-----------------------------------|
E|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
    E                                         D
e|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
B|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
G|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
D|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
A|--11--11--11--11--11--11--11--11--11--7--7--9---repeat from top--|
E|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
 
The reason I tabbed it this way is because The very beginning of the song starts on beat one, but at the end 
of the phrase, the guitar moves back to the D chord (the 9 on the tab) right before beat one of the repeat of 
the phrase.
This will make sense when you play it along with the song.
 
If you want to add more flavor when you're playing by yourself, another good thing
to do is to add another note of the chord. You could play it like this, for example:
 
Intro/Verse:
   D                A   E
e|---------------------------------------------------------|
B|---------------------------------------------------------|
G|--------------------------------------------------====---|
D|--7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7----2-2---9--9--9--9--9--9--9--9---=-6-6|
A|-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-9/-4-4--11-11-11-11-11-11-11-11-11/-7-7-|
E|--------------------------------------------------=====--|
 
 
The chords:
 
Dmaj  Amaj Emaj
 
Mostly they go straight in that order.
 
On acoustic I like to play the 3rds of the chord in the bass, because this goes along
with the first guitar line.
An example of one phrase:
       D           A           E                     E
e|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
B|-----7-----------2-----------9---------------------9-------------|
G|-----7-----------2-----------9---------------------9-------------|
D|-----7-----------2-----------9---------------------9-------------|
A|-----9-----------4----------11---------------------7-------------|
E|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
 
Of course you can experiment with ways to play the chords.
You could play it first the top way and then the bottom way, changing the bass note a little.
       D           A           E                     E
e|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
B|-----7-----------10----------9---------------------9-------------|
G|-----7-----------9-----------9---------------------9-------------|
D|-----7-----------11----------9---------------------9-------------|
A|-----9-----------12----------11--------------------7-------------|
E|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
 
 
 
We he goes "ooh ooh ooh ooh oooh" at 1:26
 
e|---------------5--7--9--5--7-------------------------------------|
B|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
G|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
D|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
A|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
E|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
 
When the acoustic guitar comes in at 3:13, the guitar player plays some variation of:
         A      Amaj7 D
e|---------------------------------------------------------------|
B|--------------------3------------------------------------------|
G|-------6------6-----2------------------------------------------|
D|-------7------7-----0------------------------------------------|
A|-------7------7-----0------------------------------------------|
E|-------5------4-----2------------------------------------------|
         A      Amaj7 E
e|---------------------------------------------------------------|
B|--------------------0------------------------------------------|
G|-------6------6-----1------------------------------------------|
D|-------7------7-----2------------------------------------------|
A|-------7------7-----2------------------------------------------|
E|-------5------4-----0------------------------------------------|
 
He may be tuned differently in order to get the voicings that are present on the song, but
the chords are some form of
Amaj, Amaj7, Dmaj
 
Amaj, Amaj7, Emaj
 
 
Let me know if there is any specific textural part that you want me to tab out, just
give me a
description and the time it happens in the song.
X