Dynamite Walls Guitar Tab

Song: Dynamite Walls
Artist: Hayden
Tabbed by: Tom Benner
There are a few other tabs of this song floating around, but it seemed
like some had some holes in them, so here's my shot at it.  You don't
really need to tune down a step to get this stuff to sound good--standard
tuning'll do you just fine.
Start off with an A:
----------------|
----------------|
----------------|
----------------|
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-|
----------------|
Then there's this part, which you can fret a couple of different ways:
-0--0--0------------------------|
---------------2--2--2----------|
-1--2--4-------2--1-------------|
---------------------2----------|
--------------------------------|
--------------------------------|
or
--------------------------------|
-5--5--5------------------------|
-------4-------6--6--6----------|
-6--7----------7--6-------------|
---------------------7----------|
--------------------------------|
Then mess around with something like this for a while:
--------------------------------|
--------------------------------|
-4-----6-6-----4-2-4-6-6--------|
--------------------------------|
--------------------------------|
--------------------------------|
Right before the drums come in, there's an E note which you can play on
the B string, fifth fret, or just on the high E string, open.
And just before the vocals start, there's a little fill that goes like
this:
------------------------0-4-5---|
--------------------------------|
--------------------------------|
--------------------------------|
--------------------------------|
--------------------------------|
And then the verse is mostly just an A chord with a 9th added on and off:
--------------------------------|
2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-|
2-2-4-2-4-2-2-2-2-2-4-2-4-2-2-2-|
2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-|
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-|
--------------------------------|
Over that there's a high part that goes something like this:
5------4-------4-------0--------|
--------------------------------|
6------4-------4-------2--------|
--------------------------------|
--------------------------------|
--------------------------------|
(each of those is on the upbeat of beat 4)
The chorus is just these chords (held for 4 beats each):
D E A    ("Miles away...it doesn't")
D E A A  ("matter what...We'll never"--hold the A for eight beats
from "us is looking for" through "We'll never")
D E A    ("find it...even there")
On the first A of the chorus, you can also add the bass note in and
do this instead of just an open A:
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-|
2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-|
2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-|
2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-|
4-4-2-2-0-0-0-0-|
----------------|
And you can also play an A/C# (x42220) instead of the third A ("We'll
never").
For that whole crazy part near the end, the most important thing is to
keep chuggin on that A chord and somehow add in a descending line that
goes A G# G# E, each note starting on the upbeat of beat 4.  This should
probably do it, but you can mess around with other voicings if you like:
5-5-5-5-5-5-5-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-5-|
2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-|
2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-|
2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-|
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-|
----------------------------------------------------------------|
The crazy distorted notes are mostly all in the A major scale if you're
insane and want to do that solo verbatim.  I wouldn't though--making a
whole bunch of noise and weird feedback is way cooler.
Alright, that's basically it.  Have fun with it.

Source: http://www.guitarmasta.net/h/hayden/351409.html

Tab Discussion, Comments, and Critiques


No Picture JOHN PAUL Lead Player	#1 by JOHN PAUL JONES at Feb 5, 2000 at 12:05 PM EST
	I didn't know that (I don't live in Toronto), but I love the chorus.. Everyone feels like that. Maybe he's leaving Toronto looking for something, but he won't find it because it's not even there. It sounds like he's trapped. This song is perfect!

No Picture Ivar Average	#2 by Ivar Roban at Sep 30, 2007 at 2:24 AM EST
	This strikes me as a very Canadian song. It's kind of like the 21st Century counterpart of "Canadian Railroad Trilogy" by Gordon Lightfoot, which is a flippin' amazing song. My wife took me to a Hayden show for my birthday a couple of years ago, and watching them play this song was amazing. The crescendo in the middle of the song was this awesome, powerfully emotional experience. It's hard to describe it, but the chemistry was just perfect. It's one of those experiences I wish I could go back and relive over and over again. 1

No Picture shane Wanna Be	#3 by shane kendry at Oct 5, 2007 at 4:35 AM EST
	I'm pretty sure it's about leaving toronto on the 400 highway. I've done it on many a cold night. Once you're out of barrie ontario, all of a sudden it's just all trees and then you soon reach the rocky areas of the canadian sheild. They blast the rock away, leaving walls up on the sides of the road. (hence dynamite walls)

No Picture AJ Rhythm Player	#4 by AJ Frank at Oct 6, 2007 at 5:37 PM EST
	I live in Toronto and work up north in the summer. I go back-and-forth a few times each season so I, too, am familiar with the area, with it's dynamite walls and it's lack of street lighting. An interesting fact about these dynamite walls: every year people keep building small Inukshuk statues on top of them across large stretches of the highway. I have no idea why though (perhaps marking traveled territory). If any one knows why poeple keep doing this I'd really like to know. Anyways, back to the song. I think the songs about about how we're all so focussed on our jobs and getting places in life (both, figuratively and literally) that we don't really take the time to look at nature. The driver in the song is in the presence of mountains but all (s)he's concerned with is driving on the road. Hayden suggests the closest we ever get to visiting National Parks is looking at their road signs. I think he's saying that these days so much emphasis is but on our jobs/progress in defining who we are that anything which distracts us from this task (e.g. smelling the flowers) is a wast of time. In reality this isn't really true, but many of us will cling to the idea just so it feels like we're making real progress ("it doesn't matter what any of us is looking for, we'll never find it because it's not even there"). It reminds me a lot of the Grandaddy song, "The Group Who Couldn't Say" which is about a group of white-collars who take a trip to the forest and find themselves.