Another tricky little measure in Stairway to Heaven that can be easy to miss (for reasons of muscle memory but also because it can elude the ear) is the beginning of measure 5 after the sliding pickup of the previous measure (that we all love playing).
Here’s Measure 1 to refresh your memory.
Ex. 1 Showing first two bars. Note how the walk up starts on the bass note of the arpeggio.
And here’s the sliding pickup in measure 4.
Ex.2 The 4th Bar of Stairway to Heaven and that little slide figure we all love playing. Note that it begins on open string A.
And then here’s measure 5 where our lesson is focused.
Ex.3 Measure 5 in Stairway to Heaven. Note the walkup actually begins on the open A – but our brain wants us to play it like the first measure of the song (see Ex.1 above), then it’s followed by another A an octave above.
You’ll note in the sheet music that you are given the directive to “let ring—-“; they are specifically talking about that open string A bass note, but also the A,C,& E that follow it. Not everyone that listens to Stairway “hears” that double A figure – their brain only hears the second A and thus they think the walk-up is like Measure 1 (see Ex.1 above & You’ve Been Playing It Wrong #2) so they play the figure like that.
If you listen to how Jimmy plays it knowing it’s coming, you’ll hear it correctly every time. Don’t worry if you didn’t up to this point as you are not alone. We could get into quite technical explanations about how the brain “hears” things through anticipation and in many ways creates the event they are hearing without actually hearing it. When we look at the backwards masking obsessed firebrand preachers from the 80’s and their unwavering belief that Stairway to Heaven contained Satanic Messages & Commands that could be heard if played backwards we’ll discuss this more
As Always we’ll embed the audio here as well as upload it to our Soundcloud page and embed that here as well.
Measure 5, full speed & pitch corrected to concert.
Measure 5, half speed & pitch corrected to concert.
Feature Image Credit:5.366: Wrong notes.by Kit by CC BY-NC 2.0
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