"French Guitar" Grille?

wim

I started a soundslice of it a while ago, but then got distracted ... maybe I'll pick it up again. I play the same A7 voicing as jonpowl, that's a no-brainer

http://www.soundslice.com/tabs/4402/french-guitar-romane-quintet-tab/

Bones

Here's an old thread. I posted a tab which I think is pretty close but I just did it quickly and never really checked it out so just take it as a starting point and do what your ears tell you to or whatever you like to make it your own.

viewtopic.php?f=22&t=11680&p=61884&hilit=french+guitar#p61884

wim

Oh yeah, now I remember why I lost interest, cos Bones tabbed it and his was fine

Bones

Yeah, again no guarantees but it's close enough to get started and put one's own style into it.

Actually, I had sort of forgotten about it as well. May need to resurrect it. Cool melody!

Bones

It really sounds to me like it is an Ab in the bass rather than G for the Ab chord. Can anyone say for sure? Also, not sure if the AbM7 or Ab7 is what they are playing. Either will work but I'd just like to know how it is written originally.

Maybe someone with better ears than I have.

Thanks

spatzo

I think that A7 is rather played [3 X 2 2 2 X ] (3rd inversion) and AbM7/G is easily played [3 3 5 5 4 3] like an Cm

Bones

Yeah, I don't have any trouble playing that chord, it's just that the melody in measure 6 outlines an Ab7 dominant chord (not a maj7) and I can't clearly hear what the bass and rhythm are doing so that's why I was hearing Ab7.

Maybe Romane will post a reply and straighten this whole thing out :-)

Thanks

Edit: actually, in measure 6 I think that the low and high harmony parts outline a D7b9 arp (I guess it could also be thought of as an Ab7b9b5 depending on what the bass is doing)

wim

I also was bothered by that chord. The double bass is clearly playing G in the recording. But I think it sounds better like Ab it seems to gives the changes a bit more movement or something. So I put that in my chart.

Definitely not Ab maj7! The melody is playing on D7 there, which would suggest a tritone substitution Ab7. But I prefer the sound of just a plain Ab voiced like [4665xx], which is identical to [3x111x] (the "right" chord I think) except with the bass note moved.

Bones

I checked it out a bit more on SS and tried to listen to the bass part and in measure 5 it definitely sounds like Ab in the bass and I think that G natural (going into measure 6) might just be an approach note before he hits the Ab.

wim

Oh yes I hear what you're saying now. There's a loud and clear Ab up the octave in the bass part the first time, in measure 5, but in other Ab bars in the solos etc he just hangs around G.