Hearing the right chord changes for this Candy Dulfer Christmas Song

[rhysonsax]

"Merry Christmas, Baby" is a nice blues song covereed by many artists from Chuck Berry, BB King, Otis Redding through to Hanson. I've found a really nice version featuring great sax from Candy Dulfer.

http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=Cu7iKVLeiM8

http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=lQohQW4qz78

Her versions are in A major, modulating to B for the sax solo and outro, but I am having difficulty hearing the changes.

It seems like each bar (except for bars 9 & 10) rocks between A and D etc, so the changes (in concert pitch) go something like:

|A/D/|A/D/|A/D/|A/D/|
|D/G/|D/G/|A/D/|A/D/|
|E/E/|D/D/|A/D/|A/D/|

Or am I reading too much into it, and is it just a normal 12 bar with one chord per bar ?

Can anyone help ?

Thanks in advance

Rhys

PS I've got Candy's solo transcribed off the record and there is some great stuff in there.

 

[spike]

I only listened to the first one but that's a straight 12 bar for my money. Nice playing by candy. Thanks for the links. gruss - spike

 

[rhysonsax]

Hi Simon,

I've already got Transcribe! and have just updated it from Version 6 to 7.4. It is really good and I would recommend it to anyone.

The new version will now suggest what chords it thinks are the most likely ones for a sample of music. Sometimes it seems good and sometimes not good.

The harmony of this particular tune is just so simple that it is frustrating me that I can't be certain about it.

Rhys

PS Band In A Box (BIAB) now has an "Auto Chord Wizard" that does something similar but will also have a good guess at where the bar lines and beats fall in a recording and also will present a guess at all the notes against time slices of the recording. Again, it's helpful but hasn't answered this one for me.

 

[spike]

Rhys - a cheap keyboard may be more use to you.
Transcribe is great but just hammering along with it on the keys is better for your ears. I'm not a keys player but my keyboard is indispensible for working stuff out. gruss - spike

 

[Pete Thomas]

I had a very quick listen and it sounds like the keyboard player is using a sus4 and 6 on the second part of the I and IV chords. If this is what's happening then essentially you are correct, except I don't think the bass is going with it. I would think of it as a straight 12 bar though as that's what piano players sometimes do on a blues anyway. At times in the solo the keyboard is definitley doing a "Mercy Mercy" type riff.

A/D/|A7/D/| with top voicing going E F# G F#

(ie same as Louie Louie riff also)

 

[rhysonsax]

Pete Thomas wrote:
I had a very quick listen and it sounds like the keyboard player is using a sus4 and 6 on the second part of the I and IV chords. If this is what's happening then essentially you are correct, except I don't think the bass is going with it. I would think of it as a straight 12 bar though as that's what piano players sometimes do on a blues anyway. At times in the solo the keyboard is definitley doing a "Mercy Mercy" type riff.

A/D/|A7/D/| with top voicing going E F# G F#

(ie same as Louie Louie riff also)

Thanks for this Pete. I followed the bit about the top line of the voicing and the fact that the bass has a different feel to the keyboard.

When you say the keyboard player is "using a sus4 and 6 on the second part" is that (on the I chord) sometimes Asus4 and sometimes A6 or is there some single chord that is A6sus4 ? If so, has it got A, D, E and F#, in which case isn't it a D chord with an E floating around ?

I am trying to write it out for the band I am in. They are all good players, but the keyboard player needs stuff written out. Would you do the lead sheet (for bass, guitar etc) as a straight 12 bar with the basic chords, but maybe write out some example voicings for the keyboard player that emphasise the Asus4, the A6 or even the D chords in the second part of the bars on the I chord ?

Thanks

Rhys

PS What is "Louie Louie" ?

 

[philthd]

PS What is "Louie Louie" ?

thats either a joke or some form of musical sacrilege

 

[spike]

My take:
The bass is playing 6,5,3,1 from beat 3 to landing on the root at beat one, piano is playing a couple of quick sus4 + 6 + root at and from beat three and landing on the root triad at beat one. Keys is probably using a third inversion for his root chord which keeps that 4 and 6 from being too dominant. It's a laid back thing but they're playing tight on 3 and 1.
gruss - spike

 

[rhysonsax]

spike wrote:
My take:
The bass is playing 6,5,3,1 from beat 3 to landing on the root at beat one, piano is playing a couple of quick sus4 + 6 + root at and from beat three and landing on the root triad at beat one. Keys is probably using a third inversion for his root chord which keeps that 4 and 6 from being too dominant. It's a laid back thing but they're playing tight on 3 and 1.
gruss - spike

Thanks Spike. This is the meaty stuff that I need.

Can I spell it out for the I chord in A to make sure that I understand ?

Bass is going something like: A on beat 1 and then F#, E, C# to land on the A for the next bar of I.

Keyboard is going something like: (A/C#/E) on beat 1 and then (A/D/E) to (A/C#/E/F#) to (C#/E/A) from beat 3 and back to (A/C#/E) for beat 1 of the next bar.

Are you saying that the keyboard player is doing only one of the Asus4, A6 or A (3rd inversion) for beat 3, or some stabs of each ?

Or if your "couple of quick sus4 + 6 = root" means a single chord, then that would be D/F#/A wouldn't it, and that is a plain D chord. Now you can see that I need help !

Rhys

 

[Simon]

Rhys - you sure you tried using the EQ function and chord identifier on Transcribe! Zoom in on the part of the wave to get one chord, eq up the piano... ?
Simon

 

[spike]

Let's see if I've still got it in my head,

Bass is doing as you say F#,E,C#,A - sometimes he holds the C# a bit before going to the A and sometimes plays C#, E before the A, it's a feel thing and it's a lead to the beat 1. (He does improvise throughout, this is just the basic groove)

Keyboards is doing two stabs starting at and from beat three - I would guess D, F# with A on top, then plays 2nd inversion (did I say third) C#, E with A on top for the root at beat 1. (This is what I would do but I'm not a keyboarder !!! Keeping that A on top keeps it more dominating.)

They're playing similar things with the modualtion at bar 5/6 and changes at 9/10. Just think of it as a lead in to the first beat of each bar, it's where the groove is at for the whole number.

For the piano groove just loop the first part of candy's solo and you'll hear the piano coming through quite clearly.

gruss - spike

 

[Pete Thomas]

PS What is "Louie Louie" ?

This is a great song written by Richard Berry and made a hit by the Kningsmen I think.

You'll know the riff:

Play and A triad on with your RH on the keyboard A C# E

then keeping the A there with your thumb move the two finger up to D & F# then E & G and down to D & F#

A C# E
A D F#
A E G
A D F#

The second chord (A D & F#) is A with sus 4 and 6 or D/A (second inversion)

EDIT:

Piano players do this very often and is really just a variation on the A (A7) in a blues tune.

 

[Simon]

My take on it the first chorus:

Keys sound 'mercy mercy' to me (as Pete said)

Simon

 

[rhysonsax]

Simon that is absolutely great and exactly what I need to get me going.

So as Pete said in an earlier post, the keyboard is doing chordal movement on beat 3 while the bass is sticking to the basic major chord.

No wonder my poor brain is getting overloaded !

Now I'm off to try those lines on my piano and then write them out into the arrangement.

Many thanks

Rhys

PS I don't think I'll be wearing Candy's outfit and a blonde wig if our band does try this number out.

 

[Simon]

No problem. All the slash chords are OTT - I guess most pianists would just choose voicings etc without this sort of notation.
Anyway, Candy is great on this - shame about the vocalist (prob be a lot easier to figure out without her screeching eh?)
Simon

rhysonsax wrote:
Simon that is absolutely great and exactly what I need to get me going.

So as Pete said in an earlier post, the keyboard is doing chordal movement on beat 3 while the bass is sticking to the basic major chord.

No wonder my poor brain is getting overloaded !

Now I'm off to try those lines on my piano and then write them out into the arrangement.

Many thanks

Rhys

PS I don't think I'll be wearing Candy's outfit and a blonde wig if our band does try this number out.

 

[rhysonsax]

simon wrote:
No problem. All the slash chords are OTT - I guess most pianists would just choose voicings etc without this sort of notation.
Anyway, Candy is great on this - shame about the vocalist (prob be a lot easier to figure out without her screeching eh?)
Simon

I mainly listened to the record version with the decorative video and the singing's not bad on that. The singing on the live version isn't really to my taste, so maybe the studio version has been worked on.

Transcribe! has that trick for eliminating the vocal (if it's in the centre of the stereo mix) by mixing together the left and right channels out of phase. It works well on the released CD version of this - you lose both the vocals and Candy's sax, so have a ready-made playalong track, although quite muddy sounding.

Thanks again

Rhys

 

[philthd]

Pete Thomas wrote:

PS What is "Louie Louie" ?

This is a great song written by Richard Berry and made a hit by the Kningsmen I think.

You'll know the riff:

A C# E
A D F#
A E G
A D F#

The second chord (A D & F#) is A with sus 4 and 6 or D/A (second inversion)

but you try telling a garage rock guitarist that the third chord is an A7 and not an Em and they look at you like youre mental