Kate Bush - Army Dreamers guitar tab

Posted on Sun 30 August 2020 in Ramblings

Some friends and I have been working on our own version of Army Dreamers, by Kate Bush. The original version is replete with instruments, including a prominent Mandolin, some background violins, a synth of some sort, and even the sound of a rifle being racked. Since we're two guitarists, a bassist, and a singer, there's quite a bit of arranging to do to make it work.

Although there's plenty of tab around for the mandolin part, that's only a few notes, with the violin part kicking in immediately afterwards. I wanted to cover both.

There are four separate phases in it, which I've made up some unimaginative names for:

  • The slide phrase
  • The downwards walk
  • The upwards walk
  • The violin phrase

The bar structure runs like this:

  1. Slide phrase + violin phrase
  2. Downwards walk + violin phrase
  3. Slide phrase + violin phrase
  4. Upwards walk + violin phrase

That structure is then repeated for the entire song. As you can see, the violin phrase is actually dominant, being played at the end of every bar.

   The slide phrase        The violin phrase       Downwards walk phrase      Violin phrase again
e|--17/14-14----17/9-9-----9h10p9------------------10----9----10--------------9h10p9----------------|
B|----------------------------------10--------------------------------7----------------10-----------|
G|---------------------------------------9--------------------------------------------------9-------|
D|-------------------------------------------9--------------------------------------------------9---|
A|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
E|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|



   The slide phrase        The violin phrase       The upwards walk phrase    Violin phrase again    
e|--17/14-14----17/9-9-----9h10p9----------------------------7----9-----------9h10p9----------------|
B|----------------------------------10-------------7----8------------------------------10-----------|
G|---------------------------------------9--------------------------------------------------9-------|
D|-------------------------------------------9--------------------------------------------------9---|
A|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
E|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|