Working out the chords is easy, if you know what I mean

Want to find out how to play those new Oasis songs on your guitar? Don't worry - you don't need to know a chord, writes Charles Arthur. Far better if you can type. Simply get on to one of the Internet's many search engines, type "Oasis" and you'll find hundreds of sites - and a growing number where eager guitar-pluckers have dissected the three songs on the band's new single and rendered the chords in forms that anyone can play.

Anyone who just wants to sing along will find the new album's lyrics have spread far and wide among Internet sites, despite warnings in April by the band's management, Ignition, that it would take legal action against anyone who broke the band's copyright.

Though the chords and lyrics are arguably copyright, under music publishing agreements, that hasn't put the fans off. Already, they have worked out that "D'You Know What I Mean?", the band's current single, relies heavily on the same chord shapes, progressions and techniques as "Wonderwall", their hit from the previous album.

"This song is very close to being 'Wonderwall'. In fact the intro is 'Wonderwall'," writes Jeff Lieberson, a student at New York University, who has worked out the chords for DYKWIM (as surfing Oasisers call the song) even though he admits: "I've only been playing guitar for six months, and haven't taken lessons." What makes it easy, he says, is that he's had all the examples from other Oasis fans' Internet sites, showing all the chords for every previous Oasis song. That, plus rigorous studying of the video of the new song. And, of course, the fact that Noel Gallagher is well-known for sticking with the chords he likes.

Web buffs are sure to find that every twitch of the Gallagher fingers on the fretboard will be faithfully reproduced somewhere in cyberspace soon after Thursday's release. One potential source is the Ring Oasis page, run by fans, at http://www.cardiffcybercafe. co.uk/tomos/ringoasis/index.html, which offers listings including "best web sites for Oasis guitar chords".