Dance On! middle-eight chords?

[Uncle Fiesta]

Just had a listen to the Shadows Greatest Hits CD (both mono and stereo vewrsions) and I too agree with Steve Gibbs on the Dance On middle 8 chords.

UB Hank backing track and the version on The Eagles Smash Hits (Dance On Me!) are the same also.

[JimTidmarsh]

Looking through some of my other music, I've also got Man of Mystery in Bflat (not A), Dance On! in G (not A), The Savage in Bflat (not A), Diamonds in Eflat (not G), and Kon-Tiki in G (not A).

Funnily enough, Atlantis was written and played in F - I wonder why The Shads never transposed that to E which would have allowed Bruce to play some nice open chords?

[donna plasky]

Hi! Thank you to the several people who replied to my comment about Peace Pipe. Everything you said is very helpful. Jim T - you're comment about Bb versus A is exactly what I encountered, but until just now, I didn't understand exactly what was wrong. When I look at my fretboard diagram, I see it now. The tabs from Goran's site start with an A-note on the 17th fret, 1st string. The transcription of the sheet music I was using had the song start out on a Bb note, on the 6th fret, 1st string.

Cockroach, thank you for the things you explained to me. I think I will revive my Peace Pipe project and try comparing the two transcriptions, note by note, to see if I can mirror what you're saying about moving the melody up on the fretboard. I do understand what you mean about the open notes. Now I realise that's what was going on with this book I bought called The Beatles EZ Guitar Tab. There were so many open E's (high E's) in Ticket To Ride that it just sounded stupid. Someday I should go back and try to play the same song in a different key, when I understand sheet music a little better.

Thank you again, all of you, for your help.

Kind regards,
Donna

[Martin Page]

Hi! Thank you to the several people who replied to my comment about Peace Pipe. Everything you said is very helpful. Jim T - you're comment about Bb versus A is exactly what I encountered, but until just now, I didn't understand exactly what was wrong. When I look at my fretboard diagram, I see it now. The tabs from Goran's site start with an A-note on the 17th fret, 1st string. The transcription of the sheet music I was using had the song start out on a Bb note, on the 6th fret, 1st string.

Cockroach, thank you for the things you explained to me. I think I will revive my Peace Pipe project and try comparing the two transcriptions, note by note, to see if I can mirror what you're saying about moving the melody up on the fretboard. I do understand what you mean about the open notes. Now I realise that's what was going on with this book I bought called The Beatles EZ Guitar Tab. There were so many open E's (high E's) in Ticket To Ride that it just sounded stupid. Someday I should go back and try to play the same song in a different key, when I understand sheet music a little better.

Thank you again, all of you, for your help.

Kind regards,
Donna

Donna,

If you see '8va' over the bar it means play the notes an octave higher, hence you trying to play at the sixth fret as opposed to the 18th fret, (in reality the 17th fret as the sheet music is incorrectly one semitone higher).

Martin.

[MMStingray54]

Hi Martin, JimN et al.

Just to let you know us bass players have similar problems when trying to interpret some of these matters - indeed it was my faulty memory of the middle 8 of Dance On which really started this debate and Martin's curiosity, following our band rehearsal recently.

I've listened to the original on headphones again and the first turn round of A A through bars 3 and 4 of the middle 8 is not quite played how I would have anticipated the bass part to be.

I have noticed that many of the bass parts of the early songs which are not straight rock and roll seem to have bass parts which lean towards the way you would expect a simplified big band or orchestra bass part arrangement to be - any ideas why? Norrie Paramour - Jet Harris infuence??

Clearly these songs were written back in the late 50s/early 60s. Younger players like me (if you can call 57 young!) grew up listening to the likes of Duck Dunn (Stax) and Jamerson (Motown) as well as all the Beatles and British blues and rock etc, so our 'motor skills' do not always slot into some of these pre mid 60s bass parts easily - I notice the jazz band influence from my interest in be-bop, and modern jazz (from the 50s onwards) and playing some of that music.

Fascinating to see this debate folks - and thanks for the clues on the chords.

Cheers, Don.

[Martin Page]

Good to see you on board Don, (Quiff & The Shades' bass player!)

Martin.

[MMStingray54]

Thanks, Martin. A pleasure to be here - I might pluck up some courage and go talk to some bass players!

[donna plasky]

Donna,

If you see '8va' over the bar it means play the notes an octave higher, hence you trying to play at the sixth fret as opposed to the 18th fret, (in reality the 17th fret as the sheet music is incorrectly one semitone higher).

Martin.

8va

Yes, it says 8va in exactly that spot, right underneath the Tempo. I had no idea what that meant, but I should have taken the time to look it up. Anything written on sheet music must be there for a reason. Thank you for explaining that to me, Martin.

Thanks again,
Donna

[Gatwick1946]

Hi Donna,

You have the knack of raising some interesting points, which many of us had forgotten (thats if we knew them in the first place).

The guitar has six strings and a fixed number of notes, but these notes can be put together in many combinations. But a chord will, mainly only consist of 4 to 6 notes, which means that a lot of chords share almost the same notes and hence, some chords sound alike to many peoples ears. If you can watch different musicians playing the same tune, you will see variations in the chords they play and where they play them on the fretboard. This can cause some confusion to folks trying to learn to play (and to old gits like me who should have learnt something by now!).

If it sounds right then usually it is right, but hey its music and meant to be fun. These tunes continue to evolve and are not set in stone.

Kindest regards

Christopher

[donna plasky]

Dear Christopher: Thanks for your kind words of encouragement...and for not calling me a dummy . I hadn't intended to ask/bother anyone about my Peace Pipe quandry, but I couldn't resist an opportunity to mention it when I first read this thread. I was just so puzzled at the time, because an 11-fret difference didn't seem to be a full octave, but I hadn't factored in the semitone from Bb to A, which then makes the math work. When I saw the 8va notation, I thought maybe it was either how fast or how loud (like mezzo forte) it's just that I didn't recognise that exact term. Now I know what it means. If they'd written the Peace Pipe intro in the true octave, the stems would have had four lines through them, or something like that. It's a lot easier to write it the way they did, and actually easier for me to read.

Thanks again,
Donna