Transcribing Notes From John Neil (Head Transcriber)
Chop Suey! – System of a Down – Song Breakdown
Keyboard
There is a lot of stuff going on with strings and piano, which is mostly covered in this part.
Download the Keyboard Sheet Music Here
Lead Guitar
This part covers the beginning acoustic guitar part as well as the mandolin type part. It also doubles the rhythm guitar in the fast chromatic parts and more sustaining parts from the bridge to the end.
Download the Lead Guitar Tab Here
Rhythm Guitar
This part covers the more palm muted guitar parts, and the fast chromatic parts & more sustaining parts from the bridge to the end, along with the lead guitar.
Download the Rhythm Guitar Tab Here
Strum Guitar
There isn’t a lot of strum guitar in this song except for the first section, which is covered by lead guitar, and some in the choruses, so this is a made-up part. Because of the nature of this song, this part consists of barre chords and power chords, and some sections of only 1 note played.
Download the Strum Tab Here
Bass Guitar
A nice bass part with lots of fast chromatic passages that follow the guitars. It sounds like every note is played with a pic, but you could also do pull-offs in the chromatic parts.
Download the Bass Tab Here
Drums
A pretty wild drum part with a bunch of different beats and feels. It has a tom heavy beat to start, then a normal beat, a kind of crazy beat for the verses, a half-time beat for the choruses etc, and a double-time beat for part of the bridge intro.
Download the Drum Music Here
