This is about as close as you can get to having the bass play the bassline to so what by Miles Davis.
So What Bassline by Miles Davis
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This is about as close as you can get to having the bass play the bassline to so what by Miles Davis.
So What Bassline by Miles Davis
There's no syncopation of the bass line :(
It's not perfect but it can be amusing.
anyone has this tune by Miles Davis
I enjoy trying to stretch the limits of iReal Pro, too. Yours, here, is very interesting!
Hi. Interesting chart.
Remember to set the correct key in the "info" section, so transpositions and key display will be consistent.
Happy playing.
A chart for bassists to use to play Paul Chambers' opening solo in Miles' "So What" against an answering backing track. It's just the meat part of PC's solo played twice to a coda. I had to stretch it out over double the measures in order to get a dotted-quarter-&-eighth-note effect in the chord player's response on Playback, so the chart looks bigger than on paper. Functionally, I guess it would be in "4/8" time, although it reads in 4/4 on this chart. Each beat here would be an eighth note on a regular chart, and every two measures here would be one measure. If you're having trouble with the timing, try using the drummer to add a drumstick click track for a while. PC's opening DABCDECD starts on the 2nd beat in measure 7 of the Intro since the sheet music I have scores the first seven bass notes as pick-ups. So the final D lands on beat one of the first measure of the A section. Play it through, you'll hear it.
So What (for bassists) - Miles Davis
HAHAHAHa this is too funny!!! Good try though.
Try this with Long Notes Style, 360 bpm, Piano & Strings set halfway up, Acoustic Bass set full up, Drums set full down, and Reverb maybe a quarter .
So What Bassline - jhc - Miles Davis
This is the opposite approach: It's for bassists to play bass against the chords. I already posted this chart last month,
with additional discussion:
http://www.irealb.com/forums/showthr...7021#post27021
Song reposted below for this discussion:
So What (for bassists) - Miles Davis
Thanks, Bob.☺️
Well, I can only tell you that I have examined six different printed sheet music charts of "So What." All six have no sharps or flats in their key signatures. And all six showed the bassist's first-line to be DABCDECD. Three of them claim the originally published key was C major. The other three claim it was A minor.
I haven't found any sheet music for "So What" written in one flat, which is what D minor would be. Just because the Dm chord dominates, does not make it written in the key of D minor.
I once asked a 40+-year pro jazz group leader how he knew whether to call a certain tune in E flat or C minor. He said he wouldn't call either one. He said he would call the piece in "3 flats" and then indicate what chord it started on.
Hello Nimbleswitch.
The accidentals on a chart (for certain songs) are for reference. Often I find they're plain wrong, or for "comfort" purposes (as in, simply a reference for referring to a song's key when talking about it, or calling it in a gig).
The *real* indication of a song's key is that song's harmonic progression itself, or - as in "SW"'s case, which has no real progression - its tonal center.
"SW" is "in" Dm, since that is the main chord throughout (whatever mode that would/could be), and our brain feels that as a resting point. That is what we mean/indicate by saying a song is *in* a certain key.
The B-section is a tension-creating episode, perceived as such by our brain because A) the primary acoustical reference is both the (starting and persistent) Dm chord, and the bass line defining the note D as a central rest-point, and B) the chord a half-step above Dm creates tension because when we return to Dm we feel rest - so we call D the tonal center, or Tonic.
Our ears tell us this *before* the chart's existence, which is just convenience.
Ergo, a "SW" chart with no key signature is not indicating the song is in C, or Am - it "indicates" nothing in regard to key; it's an absent sign, not a sign (even though dflat's reasoning is also valid).
Further, I would regard a Bb in key as valid in indicating Dm, but obviously I'd see - by reading the bass line - that a Dm dorian would be more appropriate to improvise with than a Dm natural (but of course I'm free to do many other things as a soloist, in my creative freedom... ;-) )
Saying "SW" is in Am would indicate the note A is its tonal center - but nothing in the original song recording (or the music written in common charts) pushes my ears and eyes in perceiving A as an important note...
That is why I say "it's in Dm", and set it as such in the iReal Pro chart info. Otherwise, if one were to say "play SW in Am", I'd play "A-E-F#-G-A-B-G-A" (note A as tonal center).
I hope the reasoning is clear. I posted here instead of PMing you, though lengthy, because perhaps others can benefit from the analysis :)
P.S.: short, incomplete answer :) -
you say, but that is *exactly* why our perception makes us say the song is in Dm...Quote:
Just because the Dm chord dominates, does not make it written in the key of D minor
Wow, I had no idea! This is all extremely interesting, and now I understand why my friend doesn't refer to a key name when calling a tune at a gig. For "So What" he would call "No sharps, no flats, starts with a D minor," or some such. So in future, when I see a chart with no sharps or flats, I won't know whether to consider it as being in C major, A minor, D Dorian, F Lydian, G Mixolydian, E Phrygian, or whatever. So my inclination will be to say nothing at all. Since iRP makes me choose something in Info, I might as well choose C major for everything and let each individual choose what to change it to. I mean, if musicnotes.com can't decide between C major and A minor for "So What," and they're both wrong, well, what basis would I, a mere amateur, have to guess at all. Whew! This all has me beat.
Thanks for your comments, you two. Quite an eye opener!
Nimbleswitch, the sarcasm is out of place.
I went to look at musicnotes.com's charts, and from what I can surmise, the key indication in the chart info is automatically compiled. I believe no serious musician would (could) say that "SW" is in Am (and even less so, in C major!).
What probably happened is that whoever made the chart in Finale, or other scoring program, didn't like the Bb in key. Fine, a legit choice. The program doesn't have "Dm Dorian" in scale choices when there are no accidentals, so person making score chose either C or Am TO DISPLAY NO FLATS (scoring choice), and file info from which metadata is extracted showed either C major or A minor (program limited in key signature naming).
None of these actions and consequences have anything to do with the song's perceived key, as I tried to explain to you in my preceding post.
i could even write the chart in Finale with non-tonal key signature, insert no accidentals, and send it to musicnotes.com - the chart info would then say "no key". Not very realistic, for a normal song.
I tried to go beyond program and website shortcomings, going out of my way to explain something to you about musicality, perception, and musical theory. Difficult to do in a forum, but I tried.
I'm sorry you took it personally instead of learning something...
If you'd like, PM me and I'll clarify better in another medium.
Best regards.
David
No, no, I assure you I was not being sarcastic. I do find this considerably exasperating, however! I see that what I had thought was a fairly easy, almost mathematical determination requires much more feel for music theory than I have or am likely to acquire. I truly believe that I do not have the training and experience necessary to consider the factors you guys point out here. Although I really do feel like doing it, I won't actually write everything in C major -- I'll contnue to take my best shot at the correct key, but I won't be at all surprised or offended if you guys correct it for me. I'll edit my posts then, like I've edited my "So What" charts now. Again, thanks to you both!
How did you manage to get your /E and /F bass notes to sound in the second (upper) register during Playback? My /E and /F notes sound in the lowest register, which is an octave lower than they really need to be for this. (I tried using Dm/E like you did, but that didn't make any difference. Neither did copying your Dm/E and Dm/F and pasting them into my chart.)
I'm running the latest iRP version on an iPhone 5C with the latest iOS version. What all are you running? And do you compose iRP charts on any other devices?
Any ideas regarding this, you guys? (or anyone?) Does it have to do with my choice of Long Notes Style, perhaps?
Jack
It is currently not possible to specify a particular octave a voicing nor bass note will reside in. The player engine is slightly random, taking into account (to a limited extent) voice leading, previous note(s) (and which octave they are in).
I would have expected if you played it a few times it might have changed octaves.
But the Long notes style might be more restricted because it was originally designed for practice, might not have as many variations, and does not need to play as much rhythmically (different voicings of the same chord) so it is slower to evolve before having to figure out the next chord symbol.
Thanks, dflat. Makes sense. Be great to be able to designate the bass notes as, e.g., /E1 or /E2. And for those who enjoy bass guitar (not myself) you might start with /B0 and go up to /E3, which would give 2 full octaves to even the double bass players. That'd be something bassists here would really dig.
You're very welcome!
Hey, when I was young it seemed like a magical feat to write music with no instrument (some friends could do it)!! I just practiced, and now can.
Same with musical theory and analysis - can be learned, so keep at it!
Regarding corrections, I think we're all here to help. Keep dishing out the charts, and some kind soul will furnish you with indications on how to make them better or more correct, if need be.
Happy playing!
A few further comments:
- The key signature itself is really related to how a musician reads the notation. (Not useful to anyone hearing it. A melody could be set in any key signature and still sound the same with the appropriate accidentals.) It gets complicated with music theory or no music theory—and depending on the theory you are looking at (modes go back a very long way historically).
- Some refer to the tonal center of a piece, based on what you are actually hearing and the chord of where it rests naturally, its ‘home key’. (This could include many modal tunes.) This may not be related to the key indicated by its key signature.
- Modal, we have commented on this.
- Slightly related, but probably not really :)
Bartok’s Mikrokosmos I remember had odd key signatures, like a piece with just a single C# or each of the two (piano) staves having entirely different key signatures. (They were simple pieces so were easy to play. Determining the key from the key signature was not possible—but it did not matter).
- A jazz song might be called up in a certain way to define the key where it could be confused depending on the experience of the band members (songs like Stella by Starlight or even My Funny Valentine) …
Eb, starts Cm
but if someone calls out 3 flats you have to still think what key it was set in iReal Pro
- Setting the key for a song in iReal Pro needs thought then; making sure it plays in concert key for your backing or the bands you are in; also that global transpose works for horn players and everyone is in agreement for concert key as you all know it (especially if they have their own charts/keys, not reading from your song files from iReal Pro). A song needs to be set in some kind of key :)
- A few songs like Ligia are difficult to determine. Some songs might just as well be called out with the first chord—you can always write some text in the song file as a reminder.
——
Where all these ‘keys’ are congruent for a song and you all get through playing the piece correctly—it’s a happy day :)
Personal anecdote:
a few years ago I was at an art gallery attending an informal playing of some of Bach’s Preludes and Fugues (piano). I was sitting beside my music teacher from my old school days and as we were listening to one of them he said, “you know, this one is either written in C# or Db depending on the publisher.” “So which key is she playing in?” I asked with a grin … He listened and finally said “C#” with a smile. I had already settled on Db. When she had finished we asked …
“C# …!” she said very emphatically (as if it would ever be done otherwise).