Argent's Hold Your Head Up - main verse, chorus

First off, I think I need to say something about the music I have been describing here on this blog. When I am showing how I hear a riff or solo is being played, I am presupposing that you can read or understand chord charts and names, play barre chords, can play basic scales and simple solos. I think this blog would be one where an intermediate player could get something out of it. Maybe once in a while a "more than intermediate" player might be able to get something out of this site. At least, I hope I can offer something to these types of players. When I am going to describe a lick, riff or solo, I will probably be pretty familiar with it before I try laying out the tab or chord charts. I might check out some videos or some tab sites just to see about positioning, but basically, I will have an idea of how I hear the song being played.

One thing that I know about rock and roll guitar is that usually, the guitar riffs and solos are not quite as complicated as they seem. You probably won't have to stretch and twist your fingers to make an impossible-seeming chord for the riff in a typical rock song, or move over every inch of the fretboard to do that solo. Of course, there are the guitar players like Satriani, Malmsteen, and others players like them that I wouldn't even try to do here. Their solo runs are much too complicated for me to play or describe.

With the Argent song, Hold Your Head Up, Russ Ballard's guitar playing might sound a little complicated at first, but it's really not all that bad. This is a song that can be played a number of ways. First, you can play this song by plucking with your fingers-or with a pick. I like the way this song sounds when I use the fingerpicking style! You can use the open chords that were probably originally played on the song-(according to the videos of the band playing the song) or barre chords, or a variation of the two.

I have transcribed another way to play this song using a combination of barre and open chords that might make for less hand movement (but maybe a bit more stretching for the barre chords). This version may make the chord changes a little smoother as the changes are mostly in the 5th string root "A" barre chord shape, and its just a matter of moving your playing hand between 5th string root barre chords and some variants of those chords. For the chorus section of this song ("Hold your head up...oh! And hold your head up...oh!" part) which is noted also as version one and can be played with the other version one part.

In videos I have seen of the band playing this song "live," the version two chord patterns are used (as far as I can see). For this version, I go from an open D form-sus 4 to D, to the C-I hold this chord like the "bottom end" of the barre G chord, with my index barring the D and G notes at the 3rd fret and my ring holding the C at the 5th fret 4th string, and my pinky holding the E at the 5th fret, string. I just pull off with my pinky to get the Cmaj9 chord. After going back to the open Dsus4, D, Dsus4, I just slide my index on those same last 3 strings, taking my ring and pinky off the strings, while barring the last 3 strings, up to the 5th fret. That makes a smooth transition to the Cmaj9/C6 riff in this version.

I noticed after checking, that some of the chords between the two versions are a little different. Oh well-they are similar enough to sound good! To me, I like both versions, and I like to play both versions fingerstyle or with a pick-it gives a different flavor each way you play it. You may have another way to play this song. Variety is the spice of life. I think that it is great to know several ways of playing a particular song-variations of the chords, different positions, etc-and this song is an excellent way to go about discovering those different variations!

Related Tags: Argent Hold+Your+Head+Up classic+rock Russ+Ballard