Sit down with me and take a little ride as I knock out a cover of Justin Timberlake’s “Not A Bad Thing” with my Taylor Guitar. Like many people I found out about the song last week when it popped up at #10 on the iTunes chart – when I looked at the chart. It’s actually the first time I had glanced at the chart in a while and I was surprised to see some of the songs in the list. Because of this surprise, I’ve decided that I need to check out the chart each Tuesday so I can stay on top of the changing landscape of the music world. Seeing Justin’s name pop up made me think “Hey, I need to hear that.” I took an instant liking to it. So much so that I grabbed my guitar and started working out the chords.
Later that night I video chatted with my buddy Chris Hellstrom to provide a little sounding board as to how I should approach arranging the song (which is a complex pop arrangement with lots of little parts mind you). Chris made the suggestion that I ought to work it out in an alternate tuning. Thus if your wondering why I don’t look like I’m playing the changes of Gmaj, Emin, Dmaj/F# you now know why. The tuning is an open G tuning (D G D G B D) which actually allows for playing the right inversion voicing of the song’s chords and gives the guitar riff a neat, easy way to play it in the bass register.
I recorded the vocals with a Telefunken C12 and ran the Taylor Guitar 615ce direct into Logic X. I used the Izotope Nectar 2 plugin on the vocal to give it a nice shine. Then blended the direct guitar in with the sound of the acoustic as it leaked into the vocal mic.
If you’d like the Tabs of what I’m playing. Contact me on twitter and I’ll tell ya how you can get it.
Not A Bad Thing
Justin Timberlake
Said all I want from you
Is to see you tomorrow
And every tomorrow
Maybe you’ll let me borrow, your heart
And is it too much to ask for every Sunday?
An while we’re at it throw in every other day to start
I know people make promises all the time
Then they turn right around and break them
When someone cuts your heart open with a knife and you’re bleeding
But I could be that guy to heal it over time
And I won’t stop until you believe it
‘Cause baby you’re worth it
So don’t act like it’s a bad thing to fall in love with me
Cause you might fuck around and find your dreams come true with me
Spend all your time and your money just to find out that my love was free
So don’t act like it’s a bad thing to fall in love with me, me
It’s not a bad thing to fall in love with me, me
Now how about I be the last voice you hear tonight?
And every other night for the rest of the nights that there are
And every morning I just wanna see you staring back at me
‘Cause I know that’s a good place to start
I know people make promises all the time
Then they turn right around and break them
Then someone cuts your heart open with a knife
Now you’re bleeding
Don’t you know that I could be that guy to heal it over time
And I won’t stop until you believe it
Cause baby you’re worth it
So don’t act like it’s a bad thing to fall in love with me
Cause you might fuck around and find your dreams come true with me
Spend all your time and your money just find out my love was free
So don’t act like it’s a bad thing to fall in love with me, me
It’s not a bad thing to fall in love with me, me
Not such a bad thing to fall in love with me
No I won’t fill your mind with broken promises
And wasted time
And if you fall
You’ll always land right in these arms
These arms of mine
Don’t act like it’s a bad thing to fall in love with me
Cause you might fuck around and find your dreams come true with me
Spend all your time and your money just to find out that my love was free
So don’t act like it’s a bad thing to fall in love with me, me
It’s not a bad thing to fall in love with me, me
Not such a bad thing to fall in love with me
Enjoy and please share it around!