Have you ever tried to learn a song from the record only to find that that some other organist or keyboardist plays it better or maybe just differently
and maybe you walked away thinking wow I have to grow in my musicianship.
well be encouraged because
no matter how you learn a song there are several ways that song can be interpreted,
I recently did a search for chords to the last years favorite its not about us.
I thought I learned it well
I even did an interesting horn arrangement which allowed each voice to move without having any parallel fifths
I thought I was doing my thing.
then When I began to listen to the record closely I realized I had a few bass notes wrong.
Its not like me to miss a bass note so I began to doubt myself
so I did a google for this song and chords
I found three or four variations to this song
all of them good some of them very good
the first Guy I saw play the song I thought well that is a ltttle on the tame side
he was doing what I thought was going on (the Bass and the melody doubling)
this is probably because this is what the horn section is doing
so if you are playing just horns this would be an acceptable arrangement.
the second guy was doing a tutorial
and he had the bass start from the B not the Eb like I was doing
his chords were totally different
because he was playing a piano sound this was a much more appropriate setting.
there was a second guy playing a motif
I could hardly hear him
but what he was playing sounded decent
but guess what he was using a totally different set of chords and bass notes
ok
I check out sax mans chords and discovered he was using another set of chords and on the bridge he had and entirely different set of changes
finally there was choir doing a rehearsal on youtube and the piano player wasnt even trying to follow the main hook of the song he had a totally different take on the groove.
and it was really working using basically two chords instead of the 7 or 8 normally heard on the recording
in fact it was very very funky indeed'
this made me go back to the song and create a completely different take on the song with new chords and voicing structures
what I learned from this experience is that
although I am a big believer on getting the song like the record
It is not the be all and end all of learning music.
sometimes interpretation is even more important.
arrangement taste instruments your skill level all play a part in how you need to arrange the song.
primarily the song needs to minister the chords should be full and melodic
they shouldnt be too thin unless this is what you purposely want.
but most of all realize there are several ways to interpret the song
maybe you need to get outside your comfort zone.
and listen to other people play the song,
if you are an intermediate player like myself
then it may be time to open up your mind to new ways of doing things
if you are always reading music then
learn some of the ear players renditions of songs and begin to emulate them
if you play just by ear
start listening to players who read,
because I have found that there are things to be learned on both sides of the fence,.
I dont have a huge variety of phat chords and I dont read all that well some would say different
but i say you read well you when you can play an advanced mozart piece with no mistakes
and I consider you having a lot of phat chords if you have twenty chords for every melody and bass note on the keyboard
that you can play at will
creating 500 variations to a song at will
but when I play a piece I learned from sheets such as total praise or some other song
I usually can stand very strong with a player who may be technically more proficient than myself.
but doesent really read,
because my chords are the chords from the recording as the artist played them
complete with fills etc. stuff that may not have been heard but were played and therefore notated.
This happened with sanctuary there was a section of the song whenre I played some voicings that tripped these two dudes out and they were known as two of the better players in the Bronx.
The voicings came right out of the kurt karr book
since Kurt karr reads you know he made sure his chords were notated properly..
On the other side of the fence
I was sitting in on a pipe organ workshop and all the players were extremely proficient readers
I got up there and played the hymn book version of Perfect praise (how excellent)
and i ended with some crazy tag ending I developed
and I sprinkled in some two foot pedal runs
nothing extremely spectacular
but joyce jones who is the country's top female pipe organist
walked up to me and asked where did you learn those chords.
they were beautiful
so you see
it doesent matter if you read well
or play by ear well there are still many many ways to learn a song
and play it effectively
and if you want to to be your best
you need to discover some of the many many ways to get your learning.
so if you are a beginner and you hear someone play a song better dont feel that you are on the wrong track
you are just on a different track
and it may just lead to a better place
just keep exploring listening and learning.
