Shovel Knight La Danse Macabre - Tabs, Backing Track, and MIDI! (Patreon)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZndtmLmx6QaSAb0qcTgfUqpL5hTGsWIG/view?usp=sharing

Hey guys! Here are the tabs, backing track and MIDI file for my metal cover of Shovel Knight's La Danse Macabre theme! Shovel Knight arrangements are some of the most fun pieces of music to play but they can be SUPER challenging for newer players. But don't be discouraged if you're a newer player, just take it super slow and enjoy the amazing melodies!

Rhythms:

Style - string skipping, power chords

Difficulty - 4/5

The difficulty of our rhythms is on a very part-by-part basis. So let's break down each section.

Our intro riff is super straight forward, we're playing a thrashy / punky kind of riff that's all about whaling on some power chords with some pinch harmonics at the end there for style points. Nothing TOO crazy here. It gets way nuttier as we progress.

Our verse riff is another relatively straight forward riff that's one of the most fun riffs to play in the arrangement. It's all about alternating between palm muted and non-palm muted and it's honestly such a great kind of technique to get solidified if you're a newer player trying to get your palm muting technique solidified. I'd definitely give this riff a shot!

Our pre-chorus is where it starts getting on that Shovel Knight-level of nutty difficulty. Although I can't blame shovel knight for it because it's a riff that I really wanted to come up with for this arrangement on my own haha. It's honestly SO fun though. It's a metal-core style riff that involves string skipping and SUPER precise picking to get down. Definitely take this super slow and don't get discouraged if it seems super hard, It's objectively such a hard riff to play. But damn if it isn't so fun to play once you get it. I love stuff like this!

Our bridge section is an interesting part that we're playing some open chords and jumping all across the neck from the 6-8th fret all the way down to 3-4. This part about it makes it a bit challenging but it's really nothing compared to the pre-chorus. It's a really cool melodic part!

Our chorus we're peddling on some thrashy / power metally pedal notes and stuff like this is so fun for the right hand. It's all about locking with the double bass and getting insanely tight. Take this slow if your right hand feels overly challenged at this 200bpm speed! It's totally understandable given how fast it is haha.

That's about it! Let's move on to leads.

Leads:

Style - funky melodies, chord melodies, insane tapping

Difficulty - 5/5

Our leads are SO insanely fun but darn if they aren't some of the hardest VGM melodies out there. Shovel Knight is notoriously shreddy and can really challenge a guitarist. I know for sure that I spent a ton of time trying to get some of these tapping licks clean. Let's get into it!

We open up with some ringing out notes that will stretch out your fretting hand quite a bit to make it ring properly. If you have smaller hands you might want to either move the whole thing down the neck and strings, or you can also play it note by note.

Moving on to our main melody, this is one of the most fun melodies ever and everyone should give it a shot! It's not terribly hard although it's just such a wacky and creative melody. The trick here is getting the funkiness down with the proper muting and right hand technique. Check out how I pick it in my video for reference if needed!

Our pre-chorus melody is SO DANG FUN. Agh. It's definitely not easy. But darn if it isn't one of the funnest things to play. There's a ton of slidey action here which is pretty gnarly but it makes it sound super cool. Just take it slow and you'll see how fun it is!

Our verse 2 is where it starts to get to be a tapping nightmare haha. Our center lead is putting in some serious tapping work and this honestly was so difficult for me to track. Don't take this part TOO seriously as it's just so unrealistically hard. If you're feeling brave, go for it! >:) Just know that it took me a zillion tries to get a lucky clean one out of it haha.

Our second pre-chorus melody is another amazingly fun melody that takes our earlier harmony melody and instead plays it with chords thrown in that makes it sound so insanely epic.

Our bridge section next is another section of melodies that sound awesome. Nothing here really stands out in difficulty especially compared to the insane tapping earlier.

That's about it for leads! If you guys have any questions, definitely hit me up in a private message either on here on my discord server.

I hope you guys have fun learning some of these riffs and licks!! Remember to have fun and jam out! \m/

~ Jack / ToxicxEternity