Mad World by Tears For Fears

[TGNeil]

Hey Gang,

Nesh has put together a great lesson on Mad World. Check it out when you can.

Mad World is a 1982 song by British band Tears for Fears, and became their first international success. 

It was successfully covered in 2001 by Gary Jules for the soundtrack of the film Donnie Darko. The members of Tears for Fears later commented that they thought this version fitted the lyrics better than their own version.

The arrangement taught in this lesson is inspired by and based on a performance with vocalist/bassist Curt Smith and his daughter Diva on guitar, who recorded the song in an acoustic setting at home during the Covid-19 pandemic. This video went viral. 

The lesson breaks down the melodic intro, which re-appears several times through out the arrangement.. We take a look at the chords (in two different keys), a fingerstyle pattern as well as how to strum it. 

[guitardude7]

Great version! Was very tricky for me to get the intro/outro down, but once I got that it fell into place nicely. Love the different variations on the chords you showed us!

[TGNesh]

Awesome, great to hear that!

Great version! Was very tricky for me to get the intro/outro down, but once I got that it fell into place nicely. Love the different variations on the chords you showed us!