Here’s a new series purely for the benefit of those people who read Kpopalypse blog who are musicians and have been asking me for the chords to various k-pop songs!  For the rest of you, this post and in fact this entire series will probably be completely useless!  Yay!

Note that prior music theory knowledge of basic melody/rhythm/harmony will be presumed, but I’ll explain anything that I think is relevant which is beyond the basics.

LaBoum – Imagine More

Structure and timestamps

Riff x 2 – 0:04
Verse x 2 – 0:21
Pre-chorus – 0:38
Chorus pt. 1 – 0:58
Chorus pt. 2 – 1:14
Riff x 1 – 1:27
Verse x 2 – 1:35
Pre-chorus – 1:52
Chorus pt. 1 – 2:13
Chorus pt. 2 – 2:29
Bridge – 2:42
Chorus pt. 1 (quiet) – 3:00
Chorus pt. 1 – 3:17
Chorus pt. 2 – 3:33
Riff x 2 – 3:46

Key and time signatures

F Major – 4/4

---

The following is oversimplified both in terms of harmony and rhythm.  I’ve left out all the fiddly keyboard riffs and string layers in the song.  I’ve also “quantised” everything so it’s on the beat just for ease of readability, I figure I don’t need to get too specific with that as you can hear the song so you should know where everything goes rhythmically anyway.  The below is just to give you the bare bones of the harmony and from here you can play around with it and adapt to suit your preferences and playing style etc.

Riff

Six notes, with octaves on a synthesiser:

| F – A – | Bb – – – | D – C – | Bb – – –

If you want to do full chords instead of single notes, it’s:

| F – Am – | Bb – – – | Dm – C – | Bb – – –

Verse

| F – – – | Am – – – | Bb – – – | Bbm – – –

Pre-chorus

| Am – – – | Dm – – -| Bb – – – | Bbm – – –
| Am – – – | A – – – | Dm – C – | G – – –
| Bb – – – | C – – –

Half-time rhythm here but the chords happen at the same frequency except for the seventh bar.  I’m actually not entirely sure if the A major chord in the sixth bar is the correct chord but it sounds okay in context to my ear, maybe you can find a better chord.

Chorus pt. 1

| F – – – | C/E – – – | Dm – – – | Bb – – – | Am – – – | Dm – – – | Bb – – – | C – – –

C/E is my way of writing “C but with E as the bassnote”, or “C 1st inversion” for piano/keyboard players.  This is so there’s a smooth F > E > D bassline from the first bar to the third bar instead of F > C > D which is a lot jumpier and doesn’t sound as nice.

Chorus pt. 2

| F – – – | C/E – C#° – | Dm – – – | Bb – – – | G – Am – | Bb – C –

C#° is a C# diminished chord, which is C#-E-G, effectively it’s just C major with a C# instead of C as the bassnote, so you get that nice C > C# > D chromatic ascending sound from the second bar to the third bar.

Bridge

| Dm – – – | C – – – | Bb – – – | Am – – – | G – – – | Am – – – | Bb – – – | C – – –

 

That’s all for this post!  These “tabs” series of posts will be short bonus posts i.e they’re extra to the post schedule, as it’s a very quick process for me to make posts like this.  So don’t worry, non-musicians, these posts aren’t taking the place of other posts that you might be more interested in, it’s just another little extra bit of content for you to enjoy (or not).  More posts soon, and if you have a request for me to work out a specific song, drop it here or on my Twitter or ask.fm!  Have fun, everyone!