Don Wilson - Playing Technique

[jfine]

Bbm??? Good Lord. Johnny Smith may have written it in that key (actually, it's Db--five flats, yikes!) but the version I have of his is in Dm (F--one flat). A lot of transcriptions back then weren't written in the original keys, especially in rock 'n' roll, or often the song would have been transposed into a horn-friendly flat key if it had been written in a sharp key. I remember getting a Beatles songbook in about '64, trying to read and play the chord symbols (I couldn't read notation back then), and feeling betrayed because quite a few of the chords were wrong--I could hear that, butI wasn't always able to figure out the right ones. It was probably arranged by some nameless pianist who hated rock 'n' roll and figured that most guitar players couldn't read anyway, so why bother to get it right? Just collect the money and run...
A few years ago, I played in a jazz big band where everything was arranged for the benefit of the horn players (they did outnumber us rhythm-section guys four or five to one), flat keys all the way. Try playing "Peter Gunn" in F--my part consisted of that eighth-note riff played all the way through the song, except for four measures with stops, and after the third chorus or so, my left hand would start cramping up. I wound up tuning my low E string to F for that tune, just so I could play it without killing my left hand. Playing it in rock bands, I'd always done it in E like God intended, but the horn players couldn't play it there. And the first time I saw a Cb MA7 on a chord chart, I about died--I let it go by before I realized, "Hey, dummy, it's just a B MA7!" But the tune was written in Gb, so the IV chord had to be called a Cb, because the iii was already a Bb, and I knew that, but it threw me anyway. I can read notation, but I'm not particularly good at it...

[Dennisthe Menace]

Bbm??? Good Lord. Johnny Smith may have written it in that key (actually, it's Db--five flats, yikes!) but the version I have of his is in Dm (F--one flat). A lot of transcriptions back then weren't written in the original keys, especially in rock 'n' roll, or often the song would have been transposed into a horn-friendly flat key if it had been written in a sharp key. I remember getting a Beatles songbook in about '64, trying to read and play the chord symbols (I couldn't read notation back then), and feeling betrayed because quite a few of the chords were wrong--I could hear that, butI wasn't always able to figure out the right ones. It was probably arranged by some nameless pianist who hated rock 'n' roll and figured that most guitar players couldn't read anyway, so why bother to get it right? Just collect the money and run...
A few years ago, I played in a jazz big band where everything was arranged for the benefit of the horn players (they did outnumber us rhythm-section guys four or five to one), flat keys all the way. Try playing "Peter Gunn" in F--my part consisted of that eighth-note riff played all the way through the song, except for four measures with stops, and after the third chorus or so, my left hand would start cramping up. I wound up tuning my low E string to F for that tune, just so I could play it without killing my left hand. Playing it in rock bands, I'd always done it in E like God intended, but the horn players couldn't play it there. And the first time I saw a Cb MA7 on a chord chart, I about died--I let it go by before I realized, "Hey, dummy, it's just a B MA7!" But the tune was written in Gb, so the IV chord had to be called a Cb, because the iii was already a Bb, and I knew that, but it threw me anyway. I can read notation, but I'm not particularly good at it...

jfine, LMAO !! I think you pretty much covered it and it is SO TRUE about horn players, in which I could never figure out why they had to have 'special treatment.' You had mentioned that the horn players outnumbered the rhythm section guys 4 or 5 to 1......that's because they could only play one note at a time in which a guitar, mandolin, banjo, pianist, organ, etc could play MORE THAN 1 NOTE at a time....all those years during the 'Big Band Sound' (40s to early 50s), horn players were highly admired. Now days, you can have a Keyboardist hit a note on his 'sampling keyboard' and get the same sound as a sax or a flute. Now I know I'm probably going to hear from some of you that play brass or woodwinds, all I'm saying is, why should a club owner pay $200 a man for an 8 or 9 piece orchestra, when he can pay $200 a man for a trio, or worse yet, a single (keyboardist w/sequencers) ?? Anyhow, I'm done rantin......and now, back to Don Wilson

[ZacJM]

I could never figure out why they had to have 'special treatment.'

I wondered this a long time ago when I thought I might ask some kids in band in town to join my polka band and learned about the special tunings. Its all because the instruments themselves are tuned to specific keys and are not changeable like other instruments so they have to play in these obscure keys for songs.

[rog43win]

Zac....so true! In our band, I'd ask the keyboard player what key a particular song was in, and she would say, "Three flats" .......lol.........I said, what key in guitar language would that be? I think it was F, right?

[Veenture]

Speaking of 'special treatment', once I took part in a music school's workshop because a drummer I knew had prompted me to join in with him. The groep I was in had a lady singer whose voice made it neccessary for everyone to play their instrument in a different key, except for the drummer, lol.
At the time I still had to learn a lot about music and couldn't play that well yet, so I found it very frustrating and even annoying sometimes when I had to learn to play a tune in a different key just as I thought I could manage the original key. All this just because of someone's voice limitations. Of course the singer couldn't help it and a guitar player should be able to play any particular song in different key.

We once tried having a singer in our band ...again this constant switching to different keys plus the guy had difficulty in deciding which key he could manage He was a nice chap but sang off-key too and 'cut corners' musically speaking so things didn't take off. It was a great learning experience for everyone though.

I have nothing against singers but I'm glad our band stuck to being an instrumental group

[ZacJM]

Zac....so true! In our band, I'd ask the keyboard player what key a particular song was in, and she would say, "Three flats" .......lol.........I said, what key in guitar language would that be? I think it was F, right?

Actually I think F has one flat. Anywho we used to give our old drummer a hard time about what key we play in since he couldn't read or play music just play the drums. We'd always ask him to play in a Gm Neutral beat because it would compliment our Key of C playing. He would get very confused at times lol. He figured out after the second time we said something that it was probably a joke.

[dorkrockrecords]

Yep. F is one flat. Eb would be three flats. For anyone who cares, the order of flats is: BEADGCF.

[Sarah93003]

Zac....so true! In our band, I'd ask the keyboard player what key a particular song was in, and she would say, "Three flats" .......lol.........I said, what key in guitar language would that be? I think it was F, right?

Actually I think F has one flat. Anywho we used to give our old drummer a hard time about what key we play in since he couldn't read or play music just play the drums. We'd always ask him to play in a Gm Neutral beat because it would compliment our Key of C playing. He would get very confused at times lol. He figured out after the second time we said something that it was probably a joke.

Remind me to send you to the kitchen for some Omelette Fluff and a bacon stretcher.

[ZacJM]

O I'd be able to find those. Reminds me of Spongebob(guess thats a generation gap here?). He gets sent to buy a spatula that doesn't exist but he somehow comes up with one by the end of the episode after spending a whole day at a store looking for one. I hear bamboo bacon stretchers work the best.

[jfine]

rog--here's how it works. It's all based on making a major scale (good old do-re-mi) come out right. In C, that's CDEFGABC, no sharps or flats. The flat keys go up in fourths from C, adding a flat each time, so F has one flat (F G A Bb C D E F), Bb has two, Eb has three, Ab has four, Db has five, Gb has six, and if you were crazy enough to write something out in Cb, it would have seven flats--everything gets flatted! Sharp keys go up in fifths from C, so G has one sharp, (G A B C D E F# G), D has two, A has three, E has four, B has five, and F# has six. It's easy to figure out which sharp gets added each time--it's always the major seventh (one-half step below the octave). We guitar players have it pretty easy--we can transpose to different keys just by moving the same fingerings to different frets, and we almost don't have to know the names of the notes if we've got our scale or chord fingering in the right spot (although it's nice to know what you're doing)--practically any other instrument requires learning different fingerings for each key.