The Muppet Guitar Project

[jediX]

I've been playing guitar for a long time now and have been surprised at how little uniquely-Muppet music has been transcribed up for guitar as either tab or chord format. So, I've decided -- as a public service to fellow guitar-playing fans -- to start this thread to post up some Muppet tunes that I have transcribed to tab/chords. Hopefully others will post more songs in the future.

I plan to have the first song, a nice solo rhythm part for "I Don't Want to Live on the Moon" up within the next few days.

 

[MrsPepper]

Hey, great idea. I managed to decipher a passable version of "Bring back the wonder" from Fraggle Rock. If I find a spare moment and figure out how to write tabs, I could share that one.

 

[jediX]

I need to re-tool "Moon" a little bit, so why not start out with one I found online and cleaned up a bit?....


Gaah. Hold on. MC won't let me use my formatting so I'll have to redo it all. Just a bit...

 

[jediX]

Rainbow Connection

"Rainbow Connection"
Kermit the Frog, The Muppet Movie
(Paul Williams/Kenneth Ascher)

INTRO: A... D...

VERSE/CHORUS 1:
A ................ F#m........Bm.............E
Why are there so many songs about rainbows,
........A.................F#m....D
and what's on the other side?
A...................F#m..........Bm...E
Rainbows are visions, but only illusions,
.......A...................F#m........D
and rainbows have nothing to hide,
Dmaj7
So we've been told and some
Dmaj7
choose to believe it,
C#m7
I know they're wrong, wait and see,
Bm7...............E
Someday we'll find it,
.......C#m7.......F#
the rainbow connection,
.......Bm..............E...............A
The lovers, the dreamers and me,

RIFF: A... D...

VERSE 2/CHORUS:
A....................F#m
Who said that every wish,
Bm..........................E
would be heard and answered,
..........A..................F#m......D
when wished on the morning star?
A...............F#m
Somebody thought of that
........Bm.........E
and someone believed it
A.....................F#m...D
Look what it's done so far,
Dmaj7
What's so amazing,
Dmaj7
that keeps us star-gazing?
C#m7
And what do we think we might see?
Bm7...............E
Someday we'll find it,
C#m7.............F#
the rainbow connection,
Bm .....................E ...........A
The lovers, the dreamers and me


BRIDGE:
A/G#.........F#m.....E
All of us under its spell
........D.................D/C#....E..F..
We know that it's probably magic


CHORUS 3:
Bb..................Gm
Have you been half asleep?
Cm ........................F
and have you heard voices?
Bb ...................Gm..........Eb
I've heard them calling my name,
Bb................Gm
Is this the sweet sound?
..........Cm................F
that calls the young sailors?
.........Bb................Gm.............Eb
The voice might be one and the same,
Ebmaj7
I've heard it too many times to ignore it,
Dm7
It's something that I'm supposed to be,
Cm7.................F
Someday we'll find it,
Dm7................G
the rainbow connection,
.......Cm7 ..............F .........Bb
The lovers, the deamers and me


ENDING:
Bb/A.......Gm.........F
La da da de da da do
.....Eb..........F..........Bb
La da da da da de da do
-------------------------------------------------------------
Of course, like all online tabs, this transcription is purely for educational purposes; not commercial.

 

[BEAR]

I actually have two music books, The Muppet Songs book and a Joe Raposo song book. Both are vocal/piano/guitar. They are great books. Rainbow Connection is included in the Muppet book.

There are some songs that I have been looking for that weren't in those books "Don't Want to Live On the Moon" is one of them. I was also trying to find music piano or guitar for "The Friendship Song" from Fraggle Rock and "One Little Star" from Follow That Bird. Could you do those?

 

[jediX]

Thus far, the only non-mainstream songs I have figured out are "I Don't Want to Live on the Moon," "Sweet Vacation" from JHH, and "Follow Me" from FR, but I could probably work out most anything. I WOULD post my early draft version of "Moon" but I am unhappy with a few sections in it where I either cannot determine what the chord should be or if there should be a chord change at all. I was also trying to figure out a chord+melody "instrumental" version since the melody to the song is extremely easy to play, but I'll probably just post my deciphered chord progression rhyrhm version and then work on arranging an instrumental. Considering that I'm usually a rhythm player, it might take a while to get that out.

However, I do have the chords (as well as a midi and mp3 of the actual performance) readily available for the punk rock version of "Moon" that I recorded back in 2003 when I still had a band.

 

[jediX]

Alright, so here's what I think we should do. To save the time of having to reformat tabs [by adding ..... between chords since MC is html-based and cannot display more than one space consecutively without using alternate coding that I don't know how to enter in vbulletin], we should just post links to the current online ones here and if one day they become dead links, we could THEN post the tab itself. Now, for our OWN interpretations of songs, it would obviously be best just to post those as planned.

And now for yet another change of plans. I am still not satisfied with "Moon" so I will be posting "Follow Me" later tonight or tomorrow some time.

 

[jediX]

"Follow Me"

This is my interpretation of the "Music & Magic" album version of "Follow Me" from Fraggle Rock. It is not 100% correct to the recorded version but sounds very nice when played. I could not figure out what to use as the last chord of the progression, but G sounded the best. If you find one you like more, let me know what chords seem to work the best. There is also a variation of the F chord on the second lines of the verse, but I did not write this down. I'll see if I can find a good one and update the tab then.

As this is an acoustic song, play the chords in the 6-note fashion (I'm not sure what it is called) -- NOT power chords. They simply sound too empty.

Study the recording to figure out your own picking style. I like to play this with a medium pick and pick through the chords during the first verse and chorus and then strum them in the second.

You can capo this higher, but it sounds most like the recording when played without one. Obviously, its in EADGBe [standard] tuning. I posted the lyrics to the second verse and the ending of the song as well since they use the same chords of the first verse/chorus. Enjoy.

As usual, this is merely an interpretation intended purely for educational purposes. No harm is intended.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Follow Me"
​

Intro: [C]...[C9].... [4 times]

..............[C]..............................[F]
​

You see, every day the world begins again,
...................[Am]
sunny skies or rain,
......................[G]
come and follow me.

[C]------------------------------[F]
Every sunrise shows me more and more,
.................[Am]
So much to explore,
......................[G]
Come and follow me.


[C]...........[F]
Every morning,
[C]...........[F]
Every day,
[C]...........[F]
Every evening,
[Am].........[G]
Calling me away.


[riff....I didn't bother figuring this out]


While the sun goes round' I'll still be found,
Followin' the sound,
Something's calling me.

When the world goes drifting back to bed,
Memories in my head,
Wonders follow me.

Every morning,
Every day,
Every evening,
Calling me away.

Every morning,
Every day,
Every evening,
Calling me away.​

 

[Fiasco]

Wow, I wish I'd have found this thread before I spent the evening crouched over my guitar with the mp3 on loop. Nice work, jediX. I recently figured out Follow Me because I couldn't find anyone else's info on it, and got pretty much the same results that you did. The one thing I found to be a little different was the number and placement of chord changes in the verse. Here's what I got:

[C].....................................[F]
​

Every day the world begins again,
[C]................[F]
sunny skies or rain,
[Am]................[G]
come and follow me.

[C].........................................[F]
Every sunrise shows me more and more,
[C]................[F]
So much to explore,
[Am]................[G]
Come and follow me.

By the way, that last chord in the progression gave me a headache too, but it's definitely a G.

 

[Muppet Matt]

What do you all think would be a good begining song?