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'Arrangement' required

06 May 02 - 11:56 AM (#705259)
Subject: 'Arrangement' required
From: allanwill

My little group has decided that the next song we want to learn is Wade in the Water, a la Eva Cassidy, but we have never tried to do a "jazzy" type song before.

My scant knowledge of jazz arrangements is that there a lots of 6ths and 9ths, but any suggestions?

Allan


06 May 02 - 12:15 PM (#705268)
Subject: RE: 'Arrangement' required
From: Sorcha

Ivan B (IvanB?) can do arrangements, I think. Send him a PM........


06 May 02 - 12:15 PM (#705269)
Subject: RE: 'Arrangement' required
From: wysiwyg

Just have FUN with it, you can figure this out!

~S~


06 May 02 - 12:30 PM (#705277)
Subject: RE: 'Arrangement' required
From: IvanB

Sorcha, thanks for the vote of confidence, but, although I love jazz, I've never tried to perform it or arrange for it. I think Susan's advice is probably the best. I think if you try to play in the idiom, you'll find yourself instinctively knowing what works and what doesn't.


06 May 02 - 12:39 PM (#705283)
Subject: RE: 'Arrangement' required
From: Allan C.

WYSIWYG is right about this, but if you need to get a "feel" for it, try listening to the Young Holt Trio : Wack Wack/On Stage version. You can find a sample on the CDNow pages.


06 May 02 - 01:05 PM (#705291)
Subject: RE: 'Arrangement' required
From: wysiwyg

Maybe it would help top say how I arrived at that post. The "how-to" part of the encouragement.

What I was remembering when I posted was this-- we have a piece we have been playing for YEARS, "Little by Little." It's really pretty boring but people like it. One night we were rehearsing in a space we'd never played in before, for an ecumenical service the following night. I stepped away for a break and when I came back, the gang had left their places and were lounging about in the pews. No good place to set down guitars, so they had taken them along in their laps. Someone had started strumming idly, on that song, and someone else, not recognizing it, had started adding some very interesting sevenths and riffs. Then someone else started singing it, in the new mode so to speak, and now it was sounding all jazzy, soft, really cool.

They were just noodling around, and out popped this unique thing. Now we do it that way sometimes.

Doing that, accidentally, led us to the realization that it's easy to let the mind barriers slip sideways a bit and turn the brain cells loose on anything. We do it whenever we get bored with a piece. So now we have that one and several others we can fool around on, and one is a slow, sauntering blues wail of "Down to the Valley to Pray." Who'd expect THAT? We didn't!

They just COME. It's like a stream of music, from deep underground in your head, suddenly breaks loose from underground and runs through your repertoire. Try it! You will at least get some good laughs out of it!

~Susan


06 May 02 - 02:00 PM (#705332)
Subject: RE: 'Arrangement' required
From: allanwill

Yeah, your right, of course, WYSIWYG. We do our own interpretations of most of the stuff we play. I think I just needed a bit of a push-start on this one cos', as I said, we've never tried anything jazzy before.

Thanks.

Allan


06 May 02 - 02:47 PM (#705363)
Subject: RE: 'Arrangement' required
From: wysiwyg

Love to hear it! *G*

~S~


06 May 02 - 11:46 PM (#705695)
Subject: RE: 'Arrangement' required
From: Amos

Well, I dunno the arrangement you're citing, but Wade in the Water goes fine with EM7, A7 and B7 -- that might not be jazzy enough for you though....

A.