Last week (on the 28th), I learned the organ solo in "Catch a Wave" (or at least I'm pretty close). Here's just that section, with the incidental organ part (which - along with the chords - I learned two years ago) before and after it.
I don't know what type of organ was used on the recording, but I used the Farfisa sound on my keyboard (my drawbar settings sound a bit brighter than the original, but for the record, here's what I used: bass 16, oboe 8, trumpet 8, flute 4, 2 2/3).
After learning the organ solo, I was still thinking about the song, and I realized that "long" in the line "Not just a fad, 'cause it's been goin' on so long" is held for at least five beats (more than a whole measure), illustrating duration. While recording my example, I discovered that the "long" in the backing "They said it wouldn't last too long" is sung with a melisma (F# A G F# A), also illustrating duration.
I haven't been very active on this blog recently, but I have been learning parts. Earlier this week, I learned the rhythm guitar for "I Get Around," and then - in order to have enough to make it worth recording so I could write a new post here - I also learned almost all of the lead guitar (I'm missing just the solo) and the organ phrases.
The rhythm guitar is panned slightly left, and the lead guitar is panned slightly right. Along with the organ phrases that are actually in the song, I also played some of the lead vocal phrases on organ, just to make my recording a little more interesting.
Until learning the chords, I'd never realized that there's a key change in the song. At the end of the guitar solo, it raises a half step from G major to Ab major (although the specific chords there are E major to F major). Musically, this helps give the impression of "get[ting] around." Similarly, there are some accidentals that portray the wanderings. The first half of the song is in G major, but the chord progression contains an E major (with a G# accidental) and an F major (with an F natural accidental).
In an opposite sort of musical picture, the guitar part is simple (only four pitches) and repetitive to represent the mundane sameness of "I'm gettin' bored drivin' up and down the same old strip."
Specifically, this is "Heroes and Villains: Part 1 Tag" (disc 2, track 11 of The SMiLE Sessions [Deluxe Edition Box Set]). I learned the clavinet part back in May, and yester-day I learned one of the two piano parts. Here's the notation, with - as always - the disclaimer that I might have something wrong.
Clavinet (notated an octave higher than it's played):
Piano (the last half note is held longer; I just didn't want to have to include any more measures):
I recently found some notation I wrote out a couple years ago of the first half of the bass part for "God Only Knows." This reminded me that I'd learned the chords and French horn for the introduction back in October. I don't know why I didn't record it then; maybe I intended to look for the bass part but then forgot about it.
I've been listening to The SMiLE Sessions box set again, and when I listened to disc four a couple days ago, the clarinet and saxophone parts in "Wind Chimes (Version 1)" (track 4) sounded (and were) easy to figure out. When I referenced the recording on disc 1 (track 16), I discovered that the clarinet and saxophone parts are present there too, although the marimba in the first half of the track isn't present in disc 4, track 4. Like I mentioned last time I recorded "Wind Chimes," I think there's an edit there. It seems that disc 1, track 16 is comprised of disc 4, track 5 (first half) and disc 4, track 4 (second half) and maybe even some others. In any case, I followed disc 1, track 16 for my recording.
Since I recorded this last time, I got a new keyboard, and the marimba voice on it sounds a lot better. I also used keyboard voices for clarinet and saxophone because I don't (yet!) know how to play those. Like last time, I used electric bass in place of upright bass (because I don't have one).
After I learned the organ part for "Here Comes the Night," I remembered that (back in October) I'd learned the organ part and (I think) marimba for one section of "Little Pad." So here's that. It doesn't last very long.
Last week, I learned the organ part for "Here Comes the Night" (it's only three notes and two chords). I learned the bass part last August, and since I now have two parts, I thought it worth it to make a recording (although there's quite a bit of unaccompanied bass and the bottom register of the organ part simply doubles what the bass is playing [just with a different rhythm], so I'm not sure this is very interesting to listen to). While I was recording this, I also discovered that the piano part at the beginning is the same as one section of the organ part, so I included that too. I think I have the right notes for the bass riff, but something about it still sounds off to me, so I think I might have the wrong articulation.
A few months ago, I tried figuring out the organ phrase in "Heroes and Villains" with no success, but since 1967: Sunshine tomorrow has the backing track in stereo, I thought I'd try it again. This time, I think I got it. I also figured out the chords (it's just a simple I IV V I progression, although in C# major) and the bass part. I had to tune the lowest two bass strings down a half-step to get the low D# (then I just played it as if the song were in D major and as if those strings were still in standard tuning). It doesn't sound very clear, but I think that's just because of my novice audio engineering rather than my having the part wrong.
I listened to Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) yester-day, and I thought the little organ part in "Then I Kissed Her" sounded easy to figure out. I'd figured out the chords last October, so I already knew the key (C# major!). I tried figuring out the running guitar phrase, but I wasn't very certain of some sections. The song starts with that guitar phrase unaccompanied, but since I don't know the whole thing, I left it out entirely and my recording starts two measures after the real beginning of the song. I did get most of the bass (the bridge is the only part I'm missing), and I'm suspicious that the bass and guitar play the same thing.
I double-tracked acoustic guitar playing chords; I'm not sure if that instrumentation is accurate (it probably isn't), but I'm pretty sure I have the right chords.
For what it's worth, the original version by the Crystals ("Then He Kissed Me") is in E major.
Last week I listened to the fourth disc of The SMiLE Sessions, and over the next few days, I learned the bass part and some of the marimba for "Wind Chimes." (A couple years ago, I thought "Wind Chimes" had xylophone, but it's marimba.)
Here's the first section. The original track has upright bass, but since I have only electric bass, I used that instead:
I also wrote out the notation for the parts I learned (as always, there's the disclaimer that I might have something wrong). Here's the marimba:
When I lookt at the sessionography later, I learned that there are four marimba tracks, all played by Van Dyke Parks. I inadvertently combined two parts in my notation. In track 5 of disc 4 of The SMiLE Sessions, Brian Wilson tells Parks to "hit 'em both at the same time" and later mentions "D and F#." There are half as many notes for the first two thirds of the track, so it seems that Parks played two notes simultaneously (on beats one and three) on one pass, and played single notes (beats two and four) as an overdub, aside from the few measures where there are two notes on each beat (the beginning of line five in my notation). I haven't figured out the other two marimba tracks yet.
I figured out the bass part for the entire track (as it appears on disc 1), but I played only the section for which I also know marimba. It seems that there's an edit at the end of that section anyway.
I referenced the 2004 SMiLE too and noted a few differences in the bass parts. Mostly, I was pretty impressed by how closely the 2004 SMiLE matches the track from 1966, but the difference in line 6 bothers me a bit. In track 5 of disc 4 of The SMiLE Sessions - at about 3:17 - Brian Wilson tells the bassist (Chuck Berghofer), "the pick-up is da da da da da," giving him the pitches for that part. I'm assuming that the musicians who put together the 2004 SMiLE had access to these tapes, so I can't understand why that's different if Wilson draws specific attention to it on the tape.
Yester-day I listened to the second disc of The SMiLE Sessions [Deluxe Edition Box Set], and I noticed that in "Barnyard," there's a piano phrase that nearly doubles the vocal melody (I think it leaves out a few notes). It sounded easy, so I figured it out. I also noticed that the bass has double stops, where in my previous recording, I'd played just single notes. While I was correcting that, I discovered that the bass part changes about halfway through the song. First, it's just quarter notes:
But then about halfway through, it changes to a dotted rhythm:
I referenced the version on the 2004 SMiLE, and it doesn't have that dotted section; it maintains the quarter notes throughout the song.
When I recorded my new version, I tried the guitar part on electric twelve-string, which sounds a bit closer to what the original recording has. I referenced The SMiLE Sessions booklet for details about the instrumentation on the track, and it seemed equally confused about whether it's an electric or acoustic guitar.
Last night I figured out the mandolin tremolos in "Wouldn't It Be Nice." I'm not sure how many mandolins are on the original track (although I suppose I could look it up), but I have four: two for each part. I put some reverb on my recording, which I don't normally do, because - despite having played mandolin for six years - I'm not very good at tremolos.
I knew it had been a long time since I workt on this project, but I was surprised (and a bit embarrassed) to find that the last time I recorded anything was in March.
A couple days ago, I figured out the bass register of the piano for the verses of "Vega-Tables." I think I have the chords too, but I don't know the rhythm they're played in yet (and even if I did know that, I don't think I'd be able to play both hands together, at least not without a lot of practice). I'm not sure of the specific phrasing either.
At the end of my recording, I added an extra E note (which isn't in the original) just to resolve it.
Last night I remembered that the vibraphone part in "Let's Go Away for Awhile" was an-other part that sounded like it would be pretty easy to figure out. The pairs of notes are either sixths or augmented fifths. I also included the four-note guitar phrase that I figured out last year.
I listened to Pet Sounds yester-day, and then I learned the electric bass part for "Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)." It starts about halfway through the first verse, so the beginning sounds a bit weird. I have to specify that this is the electric bass part because I'm pretty sure there's also an acoustic bass part con arco.
There's a repeated glissando from a G# to a C#. Or at least there's something of a glissando. The G# slides down, but not all the way to C#. I played the G# on the D string (6th fret) so it can't go all the way to C#. I think it's that way on the recording too. It's like an interrupted glissando. In any case, that part comes after the line "Don't talk; put your head on my shoulder," so it could be interpreted as that movement - placing a head on a shoulder.
The same time I learned the opening for "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times," I also figured out the bass part for a section of "Cabin Essence." It should have been obvious just from listening to it because it's only two notes and a common interval (a fourth). I think this is the first time I've used fuzz bass.
Since I last recorded this, I haven't acquired any of the actual instruments used in the first section, so that still has substitutions for banjo, clarinet, and harmonica.
I haven't done much work on this project lately, so last night I tried learning a part. I got a little bit of the opening of "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times." It's not a lot of progress, but it's still some progress.
On Wednesday I listened to Today!, and I became really interested in the guitar part in "Good to My Baby," particularly the glissando. So I figured that out, and then I got the chords too.
I waited until now to record and post an example because Pet Sounds and SMiLE still take precedence. This is just a rare divergence.
There's an interesting feature at the very end of the verses. The chords go from D major to G major to E major, within which there's a chromatic phrase (D, F#, A; G, B, D; E, G#, B). They're half-step increments, the smallest interval. The lyrics there are "And when I give her my love, it's between her and me" in the first verse and "And we stay together while other couples come and go" in the second verse. That chromatic phrase seems to portray the lyrics both times. Because it's the smallest interval, nothing can get between the notes, just like the singer/speaker's love is "between her and me." Similarly, they're adjacent, in the same way that the singer/speaker and his girlfriend "stay together."
I've been focused on Pet Sounds lately, so last night I thought I'd try figuring out something from SMiLE. I figured out three parts from "Cabin Essence," but I don't own any of the instruments that they're actually played on. Instead of banjo, I used guitar, and instead of clarinet and Eb harmonica, I used melodica (with the clarinet part panned left and the harmonica part panned right). Eventually, I plan on acquiring the correct instruments and learning how to play the parts on them, but currently I don't have the money to do that.
It sounds a bit weird because I couldn't use the correct instruments, but I'm pretty sure that the parts themselves are correct.
