Smashing Pumpkins – Aeroplane Flies High

(I tabbed this from the ‘rotten apples’ greatest hits album)

Note: I’ve tabbed this in standard drop-d tuning but feel free to drop all the strings a half-step if you want (for those of you who don’t know, Billy Corgan does this in roughly half his songs).

First scrape your pick slowly up and down the bottom string (listen to the song and you’ll know what I mean).  Then play this (clean, light palm muting).

e|------------------------------------------------------------------
B|------------------------------------------------------------------
G|------------------------------------------------------------------
D|3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-1-1-1-1-1-0-0-0-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-10-10-5-5-0-
A|3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-1-1-1-1-1-0-0-0-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-10-10-5-5-0-
D|3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-1-1-1-1-1-0-0-0-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-10-10-5-5-0-

This is the main riff.  It is used throughout the song.  Play it 4 times clean with light palm muting, then ease off the palm and turn on your distortion pedal.  The verses are the same as the intro (i.e. no distortion and palm muting).

Then at about 4:40 you change so that you play what’s below.  This sounds awesome.

e|------------------------------------------------------------------
B|------------------------------------------------------------------
G|------------------------------------------------------------------
D|3---------------1---------0-----7---------------------10-10-5-5-0-
A|3---------------1---------0-----7---------------------10-10-5-5-0-
D|3---------------1---------0-----7---------------------10-10-5-5-0-

This is where the solo comes in.  The solo is pretty much impossible to work out, and I’m guessing even harder to play.  After the solo (when Billy’s singing “wishing you were real to me”) you do this several times.  I usually pick the strings with my thumb and first finger, because with the huge distortion you should be using for this song that string in the middle can make it sound screwy.  Don’t use the riffs above to get the timing, ’cause it’s not right, but listen to the song at about 7:00 and you should get it.

e|--------------------------------
B|--------------------------------
G|--------------------------------
D|7b8r7---7b8r7---7b8r7---7-------
A|x-------x-------x-------x-------
D|7b8r7---7b8r7---7b8r7---7-------

And that’s it.  Thanks to Billy Corgan for writing this great song.  This is my first tab so go easy.