Witmer Posted December 4, 2009 Share Posted December 4, 2009 I'm playing with a four-piece in a medium-sized barber shop, to kick off our small town's "Christmas Open House". We've only practiced once, and those old Christmas songs have some weird freakin' chords. Wish me luck - or point and laugh! Either will be appropriate, but I still plan on enjoying the heck out of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Bill Posted December 4, 2009 Share Posted December 4, 2009 Good luck and I hope you don't have to wear and elf costume. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Witmer Posted December 4, 2009 Author Share Posted December 4, 2009 Thanks! And no, no costumes... I don't think I could bring myself to do a gig like that.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevef Posted December 4, 2009 Share Posted December 4, 2009 C'mon it'd look great.... Have fun... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riverside Posted December 4, 2009 Share Posted December 4, 2009 ... and those old Christmas songs have some weird freakin' chords. As I found out when my sister the Kindergarten teacher asked me to whomp up some backing tracks for the Holiday assembly... Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surfpup Posted December 4, 2009 Share Posted December 4, 2009 All "choral" arrangements have weird chords - key changes too - freakin' piano players! I do a couple gigs a year with the chorus from the school at which I teach. And while the kids are really good (we are an arts magnet) I hate seeing the arrangements the first time. It keeps me hopping. (I guess that's a good thing though). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riverside Posted December 4, 2009 Share Posted December 4, 2009 All "choral" arrangements have weird chords - key changes too - freakin' piano players! I do a couple gigs a year with the chorus from the school at which I teach. And while the kids are really good (we are an arts magnet) I hate seeing the arrangements the first time. It keeps me hopping. (I guess that's a good thing though). That's because guitars are built upside down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Witmer Posted December 4, 2009 Author Share Posted December 4, 2009 All "choral" arrangements have weird chords - key changes too - freakin' piano players! I do a couple gigs a year with the chorus from the school at which I teach. And while the kids are really good (we are an arts magnet) I hate seeing the arrangements the first time. It keeps me hopping. (I guess that's a good thing though). Yeah' date=' there's a lot of that, but then just the chords they use... like, if you're in the key of G, most modern music will use chords built off the 1, 4th and 5th notes in the major G scale. Minor chords are usually based on the 6th or 2nd notes in that scale. So as if it wasn't unusual enough to use a chord based off the 3rd, this one song uses both the minor AND the major 3rd! What the heck?? It's just a lot more work to not be able to take any chord changes for granted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silverbursted Posted December 4, 2009 Share Posted December 4, 2009 Good luck highwaynine. It's all about having fun for the kids. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surfpup Posted December 4, 2009 Share Posted December 4, 2009 Yep - I never played so many 6th chords in my life. I usually do some simplification of the arrangements - especially if there is a piano player. They can hit so many more notes than we can. Like the chords that have different notes in the bass - you can often let the piano handle that and just play the chord. Also in some of the weirder parts I sometimes try a little melody lick instead - especially if the piano player has it covered. The bottom line is most of that stuff is not written with guitar in mind so you have to be wiling to experiment a bit. Have fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milod Posted December 4, 2009 Share Posted December 4, 2009 What pieces are you doing? How do you play them? My fingerstyle arrangements aren't all that odd chord-wise - and pretty well follow what I know has been done for church organs for that type of stuff. ??? m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Witmer Posted December 7, 2009 Author Share Posted December 7, 2009 What pieces are you doing? How do you play them? My fingerstyle arrangements aren't all that odd chord-wise - and pretty well follow what I know has been done for church organs for that type of stuff. ??? m Sorry I missed this... on the list of songs we did with odd-ball chords: "In the Bleak Midwinter", "What child is this," "O Come, Emmanuel"... I'm forgetting one or two... I'll bet your finger-style stuff is actually a lot saner than the music we used. My partner is pretty immersed in folk-guitar habits. Instead of say, picking the melody note over/under the same basic chord, they cram 3-4 chords into about a bar and a half. Sounds fine when the acoustic plays it that way, but I did a lot of holding a single chord for two or three bars, play a couple of individual accent notes, hold out another basic chord, lather, rinse, repeat. It worked well enough. As silverbursted said, it was fun for the kids. (The free Christmas cookies didn't hurt...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milod Posted December 7, 2009 Share Posted December 7, 2009 Never heard of "bleak midwinter" or whatever... Greensleeves is pretty easy basic fingerpicking. The heavy chord changes for piano are mostly, I'll wager, to produce passing "chords" rather than anything more realistically necessary. Been playing that one more or less the same way since '64. It's a very old piece with a history of centuries. If the third you mentioned is "Oh come, Oh come emanuel, and ransom captive Israel," that's another example of really old stuff that offers lots of potential for passing chords with major and minor and... basically it's Am, Dm with an Em tossed in, then a switch to major "C" in a "bridge" sorta thing, then... Bottom line is you may be better off doing chording you find pleasantly with the tune and harmony as you hear it, as opposed to trying to rip off piano music converted to "chords" on the top of the sheet music. Joy to the world, Angels we have heard on high, Silent night, it came upon a midnight clear - I figure if I figured basic fingerpicking stuff for 'em "back when," they're pretty easy to sorta clawhammer out for most people to accompany vocals. m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Witmer Posted December 7, 2009 Author Share Posted December 7, 2009 Yeah... I was all ready to clawhammer (great verb, by the way) them, when he started playing most of the passing chords. He's nuts. =) So I mostly just let him do it, while I stuck to simpler, more pleasant progressions. I feel compelled to confess here that my fingerpicking is pretty weak. I felt pretty dumb last time I tried to jam with some older style guys, and I was the only dude with a pick... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milod Posted December 7, 2009 Share Posted December 7, 2009 highwaynine... Hey, I know what you're saying but from the other side. Imagine the looks I get when I do an occasional jam with the young (under 40) guys and they do a blues thing and I take a little bit of a solo fingerstyle. <grin> Hey, it's all fun. I'm not all that good a flatpicker by today's rock standards - or normal jazz criteria, either. But I keep remembering this: True story. A girl my Dad walked a cupla miles to country school with, or gave a ride on his horse, ended up a violinist with the St. Louis and Minnesota symphonies at various times. I took her out to dinner one night when she was on tour and played in my area. She said she actually kinda envied me. I said, "Me??????? Why, for heaven's sake?" "Because you really only play for the love of it." m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Witmer Posted December 8, 2009 Author Share Posted December 8, 2009 Very cool story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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