Freteleven Listening Notes
Black Horse and the Cherry Tree - KT Tunstall
Getting better as a guitarist and musician starts with how you listen. Recorded music is one of the best teachers we have: it holds the ideas,choices, and techniques built by countless musicians across generations. That’s where we begin to connect theory to the fretboard and hear how great parts actually work in context. Listening Notes is a practice built around that idea. Instead of passively hearing a song, you listen deeply and intentionally, studying what works, what doesn’t, and why. Over time, this habit of focused listening builds musical understanding that you can actually use when you play.
Artist: KT Tunstall
Album: Eye to the Telescope
Year: 2004
Tempo: 105bpm
Key: Emin
Listen: Spotify | YouTube | Apple Music
If you want to learn what a triplet feel actually sounds like when it’s played loose and laid back, this is one of the best examples I know. KT Tunstall built this entire track around an acoustic guitar shuffle and a loop pedal. The upstrokes on the offbeat shuffled eighth notes sit really close to the downbeat, which makes the whole thing feel relaxed but alive. That’s technically harder than it sounds. Most players rush the upstroke or land it too far from the downbeat, and the feel falls apart.
The thing that gets me about this track is how the feel stays the same from start to finish, but the song never sounds static. Every section adds or removes something that changes the energy. The groove is the constant. Everything else moves around it.
Feel
Laid-back shuffle with a triplet feel. The offbeat upstrokes sit close to the downbeat, creating a relaxed groove that drives the whole track.
Why This Matters
The slower tempo gives the shuffle room to breathe. If this were faster, the laid-back placement of those upstrokes would feel different. The tempo and feel are inseparable here.
Acoustic Guitar Feel
This is where it starts and where it lives. The acoustic guitar sets the shuffle feel right at the top, and everything else locks into that groove. Listen to how the upstrokes on the offbeat eighth notes are placed. They sit close to the following downbeat, or more “shuffled”. That closeness is what makes it feel laid back without dragging. If you’re working on triplet feels, this is a reference track. Playing it this relaxed takes control.
Percussion Layers
Pay attention to how the drums / percussion enters and builds through the verse. It doesn’t arrive all at once. Different layers come in and lock with the acoustic guitar, and each addition thickens the groove without changing the feel. The kick drum sits on quarter notes in the verse, and everything else plays around that anchor.
Vocal Melody and Rhythm
Listen to how the vocal rhythm is locked into the groove. The melody doesn’t float over the top of the feel. It sits inside it. Everybody is feeling the shuffle the same way, and it starts from the very first bar. That kind of alignment between guitar, percussion, and vocal doesn’t happen by accident. Being familiar with how this “feels” in body is one of the keys of locking in with everyone in the band on beat 1 of the song.
Verse to Chorus Contrast
This is the part that rewards repeat listens. The chorus opens up. In the verse, the acoustic guitar plays short, muted strums. In the chorus, those strums get longer. The bass notes ring out. The drums play a more consistent pattern and let the guitar handle the rhythmic detail. Because everything gets longer and more open, it sounds like the song expands. Falling back into verse 2 has contrast, which is very effective. It’s all about note length and muting, not a tempo change or a key change.
Subtle Second Verse Changes
I love listening for differences between first and second verses. When they’re done well, there are small changes that make the second verse feel like it has moved forward. This song does it, and the changes are subtle. Listen for slight variations in the acoustic guitar part and how the percussion sits a little differently the second time through.
Breakdown and Bridge
Before the bridge, the snare gets sparse. When it comes back in, it lands harder because of the space that came before it. In the bridge itself, listen to how the hi-hat drives the feel and adds forward motion. There’s a muted acoustic single note guitar riff in this section that keeps the groove going but adds interest because it’s a different texture than the full strum. There’s also an ethereal guitar sound in the background that changes the color of the section without pulling you out of the feel.
The Ending
This isn’t a common song form. The track ends on the bridge energy, which is a high-momentum section with a lot of drive. I’ve played this one live before, and it’s a great section to end on because the energy keeps building instead of resolving.
Main Takeaways
A laid-back shuffle feel lives in where you place the upstroke.
Contrast between sections can come from note length and muting alone, no key or tempo change required.
Small, subtle changes between first and second verses can add build without the listener consciously noticing.
Suggested Listening Focus
First listen, park your attention on the acoustic guitar and the shuffle feel. Second listen, focus on what changes between the verse and chorus. Third listen, pay attention to the breakdown and bridge and how the hi-hat and driving guitar rhythm drive that section.
Liner Notes
Players:
Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Loop Pedal: KT Tunstall
Producer: Steve Osborne
Engineers: Mike Hedges (mixing), Graham Smith (recording)
Recorded: The Strongroom, London, England, 2004
Written By: KT Tunstall
KT Tunstall wrote and performed this song around a loop pedal, an Akai Headrush she called her ‘Wee Bastard.’ She layers guitar and vocals in real time to build the arrangement from scratch. The performance that broke the song was a last-minute slot on Later... with Jools Holland in 2004, where she performed it completely solo. The demand was so immediate that the Jools Holland performance was included on the first 10,000 copies of Eye to the Telescope because the studio version wasn’t finished yet. The song was inspired by a loose black stallion she saw in an olive grove in Greece. The image stayed with her and became the central metaphor.
Production Notes
The live version of this song is one guitar and one voice building the arrangement in real time with a loop pedal. The studio version on Eye to the Telescope was produced by Steve Osborne, so the recording has production beyond the pedal. But the core of the song is still one player creating layers from the ground up, and that cohesion comes through in both versions.
Super Live Show! Never miss her set when she plays anywhere near us.