Lesson 50
Notes to Lesson 50
Mickey has an interesting approach to teaching Modern or Jazz Guitar. Generally, most books start with building around melodies and then end by improvisation of an entirely new melody. Mickey's last three lessons are about building around melodies. Mickey's "Grand Finale" of the last six lessons give us an opportunity to use all the treasure from previous lessons. For that reason, if for no other, they give us a since of accomplishment, not to mention, a great deal of fun.
Before we get into this lesson, we need to correct our Volume One book. There are a number of errors in this lesson, more in this lesson than all the others combined. First, Mickey asks us to transpose this lesson to the keys of C minor (a relative of Eb Major), Eb minor (a relative of Gb Major), and F minor (a relative of Ab Major). Throughout the course Mickey has used the same seven Major keys: Ab, Bb, C, Db, Eb, F, and G. The relative minors for these keys in that order are F minor, G minor, A minor, Bb minor, C minor, D minor, and E minor. What I believe has happened is that he has been so used to writing Eb (major) that it carried over to Eb minor. I believe he really wants us to use E minor, the relative to G Major.
Mickey also has errors in the melody and chords. The D minor that is over Measure 5 should be over Ms. 4. Measure 12 and 13 has "C" notes that should be "A" notes. Mickey also uses this tune as part of Lesson 51, and there he correctly places the chord symbol and that Ms. 12 is accurate.
I recommend using a correction fluid like "white out" that was quite common before computerized word processing. If you're reluctant to make corrections in your book, you can always photocopy those pages and make changes to the photocopies. No matter what way you may prefer to add the corrections, what's important is that you have an accurate lesson.
Interestingly, Dark Eyes was originally in 3/4 meter. Mickey has chosen to play it in 4/4, following a practice very common during the Big Band/Swing era of changing meter. Mickey says that there are only three chords: D minor (i Chord), G minor (iv Chord), and A7 (V7 Chord). Since we've substituted all through the course, why not continue? In the rhythm guitar part, I've substituted per Mickey's philosophy. Actually, I like it better than the plain vanilla chords. If you don't agree, write your own and send them to me and I'll include them.
In addition to transposing Dark Eyes to C minor, E minor, and F minor, Mickey asks us to take his first 16 bars, and then write three additional choruses. I've included what I did as an example. If you have some that you're willing to share, send them to me and I'll add them to the lesson.
I've included two bonus TEF's in this lesson. The first bonus tune is, surprise-surprise, Dark Eyes, Chet Atkins' version taken from a video from the mid 1950's I discovered in www.youtube.com. Chet Atkins never made any claims to being a Jazz guitarist, but was a master at playing around a melody. This version is a great work to analyze as it has many techniques that can be applied to almost any arrangement, especially for us fingerstyle players. Chet chose E minor. He plays the first chorus as a rubato intro with harp-like ascending arpeggios. Since Chet is taking so many liberties with the timing, it could have been transcribed as either 4/4 or 3/4, or 1/4 for that matter! For continuity, I chose 3/4 as that is the original meter, and also Chet's 2nd chorus is in 3/4. Chet plays the remaining choruses in 4/4, including a chorus of his signature stride piano-like phrasing. If you can possibly watch the video, do so. You'll notice that Chet uses his Bigsby Vibrato quite a bit. Although very common among rock guitarists, very few Jazz guitarists use this technique or even have one on their guitars. The bass and rhythm guitar parts weren't transcribed, but rather arranged by me. The original rhythm guitarist used triads, but since this is Mickey's course, I've used the same rhythm guitar part as I did in Mickey's lesson.
The second bonus tune was inspired by a recording by Chet Atkins as well. Chet recorded "Vilia", from the opera "The Merry Widow" by Franz Lehar, in the Key of D. I discovered that Chet's entire arrangement could be transposed and played in the Key of C with practically no or very little re-arranging. That was my starting point. Chet originally played two choruses, but I added a third that uses techniques I learned from this course. I changed some chords and chord voicings in the first chorus, rephrased the last chorus, and used some suggestions by my good friend, Paul Doty. Besides being a tune that is fun to play, it isn't heard very often these days, giving it an air of freshness.
Counting this lesson, we only have three more in the course, so don't slack off on your Standards portfolios. The last ten lessons have been very intensive and most of us understandably haven't concentrated on our Standards portfolio project. The more we do, the easier they become. Add it to your list of daily "must do" chores: make bed, brush teeth, wash dishes, arrange at least one Standard. By the way, if you send them to me, I'll add them to the collection. Nothing could be a better learning library than having 50 different versions of the same tune, except for maybe 51.
Just keep it FUN!