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Melodic Chromaticism

 
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alexkhan



Joined: 10 Sep 2004
Posts: 2783
Location: Chino, CA

PostPosted: Sat Jul 08, 2006 1:55 am    Post subject: Melodic Chromaticism Reply with quote

Can anyone analyze this solo from 'Lucky Seven' by Guthrie?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ErrWacVEks

There's a lot of chromatic runs (the really fast parts) being tied together in a way that makes the whole sound melodic even if the bits and pieces would probably not sound melodic at all.
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thelordofcheesecake



Joined: 30 Aug 2005
Posts: 95

PostPosted: Sat Jul 08, 2006 1:43 pm    Post subject: Re: Melodic Chromaticism Reply with quote

alexkhan wrote:
Can anyone analyze this solo from 'Lucky Seven' by Guthrie?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ErrWacVEks

There's a lot of chromatic runs (the really fast parts) being tied together in a way that makes the whole sound melodic even if the bits and pieces would probably not sound melodic at all.


I'd offer to have a go, but it's going to take a few lifetimes to transcribe the whole thing perfectly though Shocked .

My guess is that he's using the old trick of playing the outside notes off the beat, so that you get the really fusiony sound, but then playing chord tones on the beat to hold it together. Sorry, Ed, I'm sure someone else is better for the job - perhaps Bakerman (or does he not hang around these parts)?
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jordan



Joined: 28 Sep 2004
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 08, 2006 5:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It sounded like a harmonic minor lick at the beginning, then there was a great chromatic pedal-tone lick in the middle, and the rest was kind of a blur Smile

Great video though, what a player.
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alexkhan



Joined: 10 Sep 2004
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Location: Chino, CA

PostPosted: Sat Jul 08, 2006 11:32 pm    Post subject: Re: Melodic Chromaticism Reply with quote

thelordofcheesecake wrote:


My guess is that he's using the old trick of playing the outside notes off the beat, so that you get the really fusiony sound, but then playing chord tones on the beat to hold it together.



Interesting. I didn't know about this trick. It's that typical Guthrie solo: it sounds advanced but is easy and fun to listen to and watch. It still makes you go: "What the heck is he doing? But man, does it sound good!"
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alexkhan



Joined: 10 Sep 2004
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 08, 2006 11:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

jordan wrote:
It sounded like a harmonic minor lick at the beginning, then there was a great chromatic pedal-tone lick in the middle, and the rest was kind of a blur Smile

Great video though, what a player.


I'm interested in what he's doing through the blur. Laughing
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carnflab



Joined: 26 Dec 2004
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 10, 2006 3:10 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I started to tab this whole bit from about the 1 min. mark and gave up after 2 bars when he goes across all the strings - so its quite safe to say I have no idea what is going on. I'd kill for an accurate tab.
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markrobinson



Joined: 04 Jul 2006
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 11:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well......I don't have time to tab it out at the moment, lots going on. Maybe when I get some free time though. In terms of what's going on, a very quick (and therefore like to be rough) analysis of the blur would tell me the following:

1. He's using sixtuplets a lot.

2. The first three notes of the sixtuplet comes from a scale, the second three notes are generally chromatic on the string bellow. So....lets say we choose to play over an A minor chord. You could go Dorian by playing D, E, F# on the G string. Reverse this if you want to stay in keeping with Guthrie's style on the video. So that would be frets 12, 11, 9. Then drop to the D string and play 11, 10, 9 for example (12, 11, 10 if you prefer). What's interesting to note about this is that No matter which one you choose, two out of the three notes will actually be in as well. It's the middle one that's throwing your ear. That's five out of six notes in, one out. Hence the "Melodic Chromaticism" vibe.

3. He repeats this idea around the neck. Getting around by a mixture of octave displacement. (ie take the above idea and repeat it on frets 15, 14, 12 on the high e string) and simply moving up and down through the positions. He works using string pairs (the g/d and the e/b) using the lower for the chromaticism the upper for the in scale pattern.

4. He picks it all. Very strict alternate style but you probably realised that already!

So there you have it. Despite it's beweildering appearance it actually seems fairly pattern based to me. What makes it so good is that it's an interesting pattern. Like a lot of people are picking up on, Guthrie always sounds in even when he's out and in this case it's because around 83 percent of the notes are in. It's that one out note that makes it interesting and keeps it from sounding too familiar.

Mark
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alexkhan



Joined: 10 Sep 2004
Posts: 2783
Location: Chino, CA

PostPosted: Sat Jul 15, 2006 2:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi Mark, thanks for your insight. That's a lot of interesting info there. What's cool is that it fits in nicely with the rest of the solo which has that patented GG development and compositional structure. So, it's really not as "out" as it may seem. Very Happy
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