Is this a line cliche?

periclimenes

Here's a tab of 12th year with the line in question. I happens at measures 13 and 14... If anyone can explain the line, it would be great. All I can come up with is the line follows the E7 chord and even when it changes to A7, it still is an E7 lick. Can you do that? Anyhow, it's a powertab file and any help you can give would be appreciated.

BluesBop Harry

Can anyone post it as a pdf?

djangology

hey periclimenes, can you print out the powertab file to a PDF using the free program CutePDF? thanks.

also, to partially answer the question, sometimes you dont play "certain" matching chords over a certain chord. for example, if you had a song that just played Dm and the entire song was just Dm, then you could play Dm(I), Gm(IV), Em(ii), or A7(V) over that Dm (following the standard rules of the natural minor chord scale) , OR you can play notes from a tension chord, such as Am(fifth of Dm), E7 or Bm(sub for the VI), or a secondary dominant like Ab7 or Gb7/F#7(tri-tone of Gm), and then resolve it back to Dm(or one of its chord scale members).

anyways, all im trying to say is that any attempt to figure out what the player was thinking when they played something (and I find this especially the case trying to understand Birelis playing) is impossible. any guess is just a guess or a different way of looking at something that someone else would view differently.

its an impossible game sorta, but im sure if you post a PDF then one of us will try.

periclimenes

Here is the .pdf. Thanks for your all of your thoughtful responses. It's not that I am trying to learn what a person was thinking when they played a certain line (although, that would be nice, too). Rather, I am just trying to understand how the line actually works, since my background is classical music and western harmony.

Thanks!

djangology

looks to me like he is just playing (in the 14th measure) triplet chromatics which seem to be outlining a D major. Since he plays this over the A7, I think he is just playing notes of the Dmaj chord that A7 is trying to resolve to, and then on the 15th measure, when the rhythm section resolves to the Dmaj, it all comes together, and he sits on a Dmaj string trill . i dont have my guitar in front of me but i bet there is a feeling of tension occuring there that re-appears in the second half of the 16th measure?

BluesBop Harry

Looking at your transcription it seems to me that bar 13 is a melodic continuation of the previous measure. Then as Djangology pointed out he anticipates the D chord on measure 14.

Remember, the notes don't necessarily have to match the underlying harmony if the melody is strong enough.

I'm curious if there's a recording of this that you could post?

periclimenes

Here is a recording of the passage in question. It starts at around 22 seconds.

BluesBop Harry

One thing is that the notes on the transcription don't match the recording.

That line over A7 should read like this:

----9 (bend 1/2) -----7----------------7-----------------
------------------------------9-8-7-6----------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------

But anyway that bend is sort of a "djangoism", for example he did a similar (and IMHO much cooler) thing in "I'se a Muggin'" followed by a cool Gm arp...
your line seems to be built on a B diminished 7 arpeggio with chromatic passing notes (G, F#) and then a tritone jump from the b13 (F) to the 9 (B) of A7.
In other words the player's probably thinking B diminished over that whole A7
(maybe he's still thinking E7 up until the B note... like a delay).

You could vary it using Bbdim instead:

----9 (bend 1/2) -----7--------------[b]-6[/b]---------5----5-7-5-7-5-7, etc-
------------------------------[b]8-7-6-5[/b]---------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------

Or you could create a sequence by using the first line, B diminished over the E7 and then move everything down a fret for the A7.

Have fun!

periclimenes

Dear Harry,

Thanks for the tips there! I had already stolen that lick and, I was tabbing it at work without a guitar, so I guess I slipped "my" version in there. How does Bdim over A7 work? Is that because it's enharmonic with g#dim, so it's a vii/A7?

BluesBop Harry

B dim is a little weird to me, you have B D F Ab so that's 9 11 b13 maj7 over A7, you can see it's not the best match, but can work.

I'd rather play Bbdim= b9 3 5 7 or Adim= Root #9 +11 13

Why don't you try transcribing some Django phrases over those changes, that will give you a better idea of some idiomatic choices for superimposed arps over dominant chords.