Working With You Is Killing Me

Learning to Play "Working With You Is Killing Me" on Guitar

The Ween track from The Mollusk is one of those songs people always ask me about at open mics. The intro is deceptively simple, the strumming pattern trips people up, and the bridge demands accuracy most beginners don't have yet. I've taught this song to about two dozen students over the years, and the ones who actually get through it without giving up tend to do it in a specific order. The song sits in D major at roughly 128 BPM. The main riff uses a Gadd9 to D/Fmovement that looks easy on paper but requires clean palm muting and consistent downstroke economy. The real problem isn't the chord changes — anyone can muscle through G to D in four beats. The problem is maintaining dynamic control while switching between the muted picking pattern and the open strummed sections. Most players either strain through too loud or lose momentum trying to play quiet. I ran into a specific issue last year with a student who kept timing drifts during the verse-to-chorus transition. The G major chord shape here is unusual — it's played with the index finger barring the second fret across strings one through three, not the full bar common in rock guitar. She was inadvertently muting string five with her thumb wrapping too far over the neck, which killed the ring finger's reach on the third fret of string one. The fix was adjusting her thumb position to the back of the neck, almost like a classical grip, and lifting the index finger just enough between changes to reset without losing contact entirely. That cut her practice time on that section from about forty minutes of frustration down to twelve minutes of actual improvement.

Breaking Down the Structure

Here's the actual progression for the main body of the song: Intro and verses cycle through: Gadd9 / D/F/ Em7 / Cadd9, then resolving to D. The bridge shifts to Bm7 to G/D with a descending bass line that moves B - A - G - F#. This is where most people lose the pocket because they're focused on the chord voicings and forgetting the tempo. I always tell my students to lock their picking hand to a metronome at 80 BPM first, then incrementally add speed. Trying to learn at full tempo from the start builds bad muscle memory that you'll spend weeks correcting later. The outro repeats the main riff but adds a higher-register double-stop melody on strings two and three. This is optional for live performance but it's the part everyone wants to nail because it's the most memorable section. The fingering is a sliding figure: 7th fret to 9th fret on string two, while holding the 7th fret on string three throughout. It sounds impressive but takes about three days of daily practice to feel natural.

Common Pitfalls and How to Fix Them

The biggest mistake I see is people using a flatpick with too much grip pressure. Ween's production on this track features a fairly compressed, mid-forward tone that masks a lot of sloppy fretting. If you're playing with a light touch and letting the pickups do some of the work, the song sounds clean. Pressing hard and squeezing the neck wastes energy and causes fatigue during the later chorus repetitions. Another issue is the strumming hand. The charted version shows straightforward down-up alternation, but the recorded part actually uses a more syncopated pattern with ghost strokes. For learning purposes, stick to even downstrokes on the verse and alternating pickstroke on the chorus. Mixing in the syncopation too early creates confusion about where the beat lands. The song also has a tempo bend in the final chorus where the band pushes slightly ahead of the beat. This is an artistic choice, not a notation requirement. If you're playing with others, follow the lead singer's phrasing. If you're practicing alone, keep it straight at the marked tempo. Trying to artificially rush the final section on your own just trains bad timing habits.

A Word on Difficulty

This song is easier than it sounds for intermediate players, but it's honestly not beginner material. The chord voicings require clean finger placement and the tempo is fast enough that any hesitation becomes obvious. If you're just starting out, spend a month building calluses and getting comfortable with basic open chords before attempting this. You'll save yourself about six weeks of frustration and actually enjoy the process more once you're ready. The tab for this is widely available on various guitar sites. I don't have a single preferred source since the standard transcriptions are all roughly equivalent, though some mislabel the bridge chord progression. If a tab shows C major where the actual recording clearly has an Fin the bass, it's wrong. Trust your ears against poorly transcribed sheets every time.