OMD - Souvenir - Guitar Tab

The Best Of Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark

1988 3:38

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About Souvenir

Picking up "Souvenir" on guitar means working within a song that is built around synthesizer textures, so your job is to find where a guitar voice fits rather than fight the arrangement. The chord movement in F major is gentle and deliberate at 120 BPM, which gives you room to focus on clean voicings and a smooth, even touch. Arpeggiated open or barre chords in E Standard tuning suit the dreamy, floating quality of the track far better than strummed rhythm work. The real challenge is matching the song's restraint: every note needs to ring cleanly and decay naturally, so any fret buzz or muted string will stand out against the sparse backdrop. If you are learning the chord transitions, use the Practice Toolbar to loop a section slowed down until the position changes feel effortless. OMD made their name in Synthpop, and honouring that polished, unhurried atmosphere is as much a part of playing this song as getting the notes right.

• The song sits in F major in E Standard tuning, making clean barre chord voicings at the fifth and eighth positions a natural fit for its gentle feel.
• At 120 BPM the tempo is moderate, but the sparse arrangement means any hesitation between chord changes is immediately audible, so smooth transitions are the main technical goal.
• Arpeggiating chords rather than strumming them helps replicate the delicate, sustained texture of the original synth parts when playing this on guitar.