{"id":920,"date":"2010-05-13T23:56:16","date_gmt":"2010-05-14T04:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/soupgreens.com\/?p=920"},"modified":"2010-05-13T23:56:16","modified_gmt":"2010-05-14T04:56:16","slug":"relax-your-mind-transcription","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thejoydrops.com\/blog\/?p=920","title":{"rendered":"Relax Your Mind transcription"},"content":{"rendered":"

Update 3 days later: see Corrections<\/a> for a version of the notation which ordinary mortals can read.<\/ins><\/p>\n

I put some time this morning into figuring out the guitar riffs on a
\ntune called “Relax Your Mind” by Leadbelly<\/a>, aka Huddie Ledbetter. It
\ntook some sweat so I figured I’d share the result for other people
\nto use.<\/p>\n

Here’s an MP3 of the riff: MP3 of the riff<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is how to play the part:<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

Notice that the part is in the very unusual key of C#. I think
\nLeadbelly tuned the guitar down a minor third, so that the E string
\nwas C#, the A string was
\nF#, etc. Since I don’t tune like that I modified the lowest note in
\nthe piece from low C# to C# an octave above that, on the 4th fret of
\nthe A string. If you feel like tuning down, the note I changed is the first
\none in bar 4.<\/p>\n

The chords for the song are the same throughout: C#, C#7, F#, C#, C#, G#7,
\nC#. It’s an eight-bar pattern rather a 12-bar pattern like bar bands
\nusually do.<\/p>\n

If you want to tweak the sheet music and have Sibelius (the
\nsoftware I use for notation), here is the source Sibelius file: Sibelius
\nsource file<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you use a digital instrument instead of the analog kind, here’s a MIDI
\nversion of my transcription: MIDI
\nversion of my transcription<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A cool thing about this song is that it’s about road rage, even
\nthough it was written way back in the 1930s. He’s saying that when
\nyou’re getting pissed off about driving you need to take a deep
\nbreath. Given that he was a full bore murderer, I think he knew about
\nroad rage.<\/p>\n

His musical ideas here are strongly influenced by ragtime and early
\njazz. He leans on chromatic runs that are close cousins of boogie
\nwoogie. The phrasing is so intricate that in one cadence he touches
\nalmost every pitch in an octave without doing more than three
\nadjacent semitones.<\/p>\n

I probably muffed a couple notes in my transcription, so please
\nshare any corrections you come up with.<\/p>\n

I found the original recording on MOG<\/a> and on YouTube<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/param><\/param><\/param><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Update 3 days later: see Corrections for a version of the notation which ordinary mortals can read. I put some time this morning into figuring out the guitar riffs on a tune called “Relax Your Mind” by Leadbelly, aka Huddie Ledbetter. It took some sweat so I figured I’d share the result for other people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thejoydrops.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thejoydrops.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thejoydrops.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thejoydrops.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thejoydrops.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/thejoydrops.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thejoydrops.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thejoydrops.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thejoydrops.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}