All of Me: Tune of the Month, June '06

Jack

Yeah-though Ando's comments about overplaying rhythm guitarists are dead on! For clarity's sake, here's part of Michael's free lesson on a minor line cliche:


The whole lesson can be found here:
http://www.djangobooks.com/archives/free_lessons.html

Hope that helps!

Best,
Jack.

Ando

capilano

Really? The "line" in "line cliche'" refers to the stepwise movement of an inner voice across different versions of the same chord, right? In some cases, the root of the chord can stay the same, e.g. Dm, Dm/maj7, Dm7, Dm6. There, the inner D drops down stepwise to the minor sixth.

In others, you can move the bass of the chord from say the chord's root to its major or minor third, e.g., D, A7/E, Fdim, D/F#. There's still a chromatic line there, but it's not in the bass: it's just in the soprano, and it's composed of scale degrees 3, 4, flat5, and 5.

Diminished chords are often used as passing chords in these things, but not always. In those passing cases, I think of them as inversions of VII -- maybe I shouldn't!

I'm definitely guilty of using "voice leading" loosely. To me, everything is voice leading. But you're right: there's a difference between the smoothest voice leading and other kinds. You're talking about common-tone voice leading, for example. Another good guideline in producing smooth voice leading is contrary-motion-nearest. Etc., &c.

I'd like to sit down one day and plot out advanced chord progressions with good voice leading on the fretboard more systematically. Ouf! One of these days...

capilano-gypsy

Ando wrote:

capilano

Really? The "line" in "line cliche'" refers to the stepwise movement of an inner voice across different versions of the same chord, right? In some cases, the root of the chord can stay the same, e.g. Dm, Dm/maj7, Dm7, Dm6. There, the inner D drops down stepwise to the minor sixth.

In others, you can move the bass of the chord from say the chord's root to its major or minor third, e.g., D, A7/E, Fdim, D/F#. There's still a chromatic line there, but it's not in the bass: it's just in the soprano, and it's composed of scale degrees 3, 4, flat5, and 5.

Diminished chords are often used as passing chords in these things, but not always. In those passing cases, I think of them as inversions of VII -- maybe I shouldn't!

I'm definitely guilty of using "voice leading" loosely. To me, everything is voice leading. But you're right: there's a difference between the smoothest voice leading and other kinds. You're talking about common-tone voice leading, for example. Another good guideline in producing smooth voice leading is contrary-motion-nearest. Etc., &c.

I'd like to sit down one day and plot out advanced chord progressions with good voice leading on the fretboard more systematically. Ouf! One of these days...

Okay, I don't like to argue so I'll just say this: what you're talking about is not what is commonly accepted as a line cliche. Dm, Dmmaj7, Dm7, Dm6 is a line cliche. The latter you described is not. Line cliche is on a "static" harmony. There is a chromatic line in what you're talking about but the harmony doesn't stay on a D. You can call it what you want to, it's your theory and whatever works for you is fine. Just beware of miscommunication.[/b]

Jack

[quote="Ando"]
I'd like to sit down one day and plot out advanced chord progressions with good voice leading on the fretboard more systematically. Ouf! One of these days...[/quote]

That's such a fun thing to do, and well worth it...[i]How High the Moon[/i] is a pretty basic but fun one to start with:

A couple of quick ideas for the first four bars:
G6/9 | % | Gm7 |Gm7/D C13/C# | F6/9 |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--10-----11---11----10----8------------------------------------------------
---9-----10---10----9------7-----------------------------------------------
---9------8----8-----8------7-----------------------------------------------
--10-----10-----------------8------------------------------------------------
----------------10----9------------------------------------------------------

or:
G6/9 | % | Gm9 |F#9 | F6/9 |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--10-----10---9----8--------------------------------------------------
---9-----10---9----7-----------------------------------------------------
---9------8----8---7-----------------------------------------------------------
--10-----10---9---8------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[quote="capilano-gypsy"]
what is commonly accepted as a line cliche. Dm, Dmmaj7, Dm7, Dm6 is a line cliche. [/quote]

I think that's fair to say, especially around here, where the phrase pops up so often in Michael's books. However, Ando's example is [i]at least[/i] as much a cliche, just of a different sort! If anything I probably use that one more than the descending minor one. I usually hear it described as a chord walk or chord run...

Best,
Jack.

Ando

OK, capilano. I'll reserve "line cliche'" for static harmony. Thanks. Thanks, Jack, for all the posts you put up here. I've learned a lot from all of you.

capilano-gypsy

I'll throw in a few examples of line cliches just for fun. Taken from my college textbook:

Line cliche on the 5th to the 6th and back down:

Cm, Ab/C, Adim/C, Ab/C, Cm

C, C+, Am/C, C+, C
(chord names might indicate otherwise, but they are in fact on a static C chord)

Chromatically ascending from the 5th to b7 to form a dominant, or minor triad to minor7th:

C, C+, Am/C, C7

Dm, Bb/D, Bdim/D, Dm7...

Ando

capilano

Thanks, I look forward to trying those.

Can you or Jack or anyone else recommend some good versions of this tune? It's been done to death, and it's kind of a groaner -- every mediocre singer wants to get up and belt out her maudlin, boozy version -- so I'm looking either for unusually good readings or really innovative or unusual ones.

There used to be a CD store called "cheap-cds.com" that indexed all its clips (30 sec mp3's!) by composer, title, etc. So you could instantly pull, say, thirty versions of "Bye Bye Blackbird" and easily listen to a number of versions. Wow, was that ever useful. Now, cheap-cds is no more. Maybe they were too cheap.

Cheers,

Jack

Ando wrote:

Can you or Jack or anyone else recommend some good versions of this tune? It's been done to death, and it's kind of a groaner -- every mediocre singer wants to get up and belt out her maudlin, boozy version -- so I'm looking either for unusually good readings or really innovative or unusual ones.

Hi Ando,

Are you looking specifically for vocal versions? One that always sticks with me (and is probably the progenitor of the maudlin & boozy versions so prevalent) is Billie Holiday's from 22 April 46 at the Embassy Theatre. Somewhat boozy, but all Billie. Even if you're not crazy about her version, it's a great collection well worth owning.

Listen here:


I don't have my collection handy, but I'm sure there are more than a few great gypsy jazz versions out there...I'll get back to you on those.

Best,
Jack.

Jack

I thought I'd add another easy intro I've been using a bit (if I'm counting it right, the first six bars are hits on the 1 and 3. The last two bars are an even four beats; sorry for the spacing issues). Basically it's just the last eight bars of the tune including the turnaround, but the close voicings make it a bit more interesting, I think:


----------------------|------------------------|
-2-3-----------------|-4-4-------------------|
-2-2-----------------|-2-2-------------------|
-3-3-----------------|-4-4-------------------|
-2-2-----------------|-3-3-------------------|
----------------------|------------------------|

----------------------|------------------------|
-3-3-----------------|-5-5-------------------|
-2-2-----------------|-3-3-------------------|
-2-2-----------------|-5-5-------------------|
-3-3-----------------|-4-4-------------------|
----------------------|------------------------|

----------------------|------------------------|
-5-5-----------------|-4-4-------------------|
-5-5-----------------|-4-4-------------------|
-4-4-----------------|-3-3-------------------|
-5-5-----------------|-4-4-------------------|
----------------------|------------------------|

----------------------|------------------------|
-3-3------6-6-------|-5-5------4-4----------|
-2-2------6-6-------|-5-5------4-4----------|
-2-2------5-5-------|-4-4------3-3----------|
-3-3------6-6-------|-5-5------4-4----------|
----------------------|------------------------|

Best,
Jack.

vince

Great thread, great song. I was curious if anyone could possibly export Dennis' transcription somehow? Powertab doesn't exit for Mac yet, only TefView.


V