The Sky in Shadow: bass and chords

I am in the process of writing a series of articles about the songs on my sixth Jamendo album, In Unexpected Places.  This is about the seventh track, “The Sky in Shadow.”

Wow — I’m at track 7.  I still feel a bit guilty about not finishing my previous series of articles for “Martian Winter.”  And yet here I’ve reached the halfway point!  Still, if I’ve learned one thing . . . it’s not to take the future for granted.

In this article, I’m going to focus on the tremolo bass and the chord voicings.  As before, the diagrams that appear in this article were prepared using GNU Lilypond 2.12.2.

Overall Structure

“The Sky in Shadow” is actually based on two of my original “Rhythm Method” prototypes.  You can listen to these early musical sketches on SoundClick (I’ll give a link to the exact tracks below).

The first part of the song is based on P25.  There are two parts, which alternate:

• Part A: 8 bars of Bm7.
• Part B: 4 bars of Dm7.

The “chorus” of the song — that smooth keyboard part — is based on P06.  Here the components do not alternate — they occur as the series C, C, D, then return to the main thread of the song.

• Part C: 4 bars of Dø, then 4 bars of G9#11.
• Part D: 4 bars of Cm9, then 4 bars of Am9.

Tips

Part of the key to tremolo picking on bass is effective palm muting.  Open strings sound great.  Playing far back on the neck — down at the nut, or on open strings — sounds great.  However, the strings have to be muted at least a little bit using the picking hand.  It’s especially important to mute the strings that shouldn’t be sounding.  Under a furious tremolo bombardment, they’re going to start sounding (one way or another) unless they’re muted.

Also, to follow the discussion, it wouldn’t hurt to read my standard chord abbreviations if you’re new to jazz-type harmony.

Part A

This is a straightforward Bm7 riff in the key of A major (making this B dorian).  I’ve shown a clave staff on the diagram below to draw your attention to a subtle feature: even though the bass isn’t explicitly stating the son clave (here written against a 16th note rhythm), it’s there, pushing the music along.  Notice the note changes occur on the “3 side” of the clave.

The "A" bass part for "The Sky in Shadow." Click to enlarge.

There is one addition, however: that final note, which leads in to the next bar.  It’s effectively an eighth note push, and it also helps to propel the music along.

Part B

Here, the Dm7 riff (key C major, so D dorian) occupies only half the bar.  It’s the space that’s important for the feel.  The final note is highly syncopated, almost a “silence push” of an eighth note.  (That is, it’s like the rest in the second half of the bar has bled over past the invisible half-bar line and shoved the notes back by an eighth note).  Again, the note changes line up with the 3-side of the clave.

The "B" bass part for "The Sky in Shadow." Click to enlarge.

Part C

Here the chord voicings and the bass become very important.  The voicing I’ve shown here is a simplified representation of the way the song is played — for clarity, I’ve completely omitted the rhythm.

The chord for the first part of the C section is Dø.  It can be played two ways.  Here I’ve shown it as being in the key of Eb major (and therefore D locrian).  However, it’s also fair to say it could be from the sixth mode of Fμ (F melodic minor, or F jazz minor).

The voicing I’ve shown is, in fact, an inverted F minor triad over a quartal D-G.  That’s the basis for a lot of good chord voicings — a triad or other familiar unit on the right hand, and a simple 4th, tritone, or 5th on the left hand.

The bass and chords for part C of "The Sky in Shadow" (first section). Click to enlarge

Again, above the bass changes line up with the 16th note son clave — with the addition of a final note.  The same idea follows in the complementary piece of the C section, the chord G9#11.  (I tried to get Lilypond to render this as “G9#11″, but it seems to like calling it “G7#11″ instead.)  This chord is in the famous jazz “Lydian Dominant” mode, or the fourth mode of Dμ.

Below, notice the G9#11 voicing might be — to some — a bit bizarre.  There’s no third!  In fact this is an idea I got from listening to Thelonious Monk, and from Mark Levine’s Jazz Piano Book.  The voicing is actually an augmented triad — F+ — over a quartal D-G.  Notice how this fits in with the previous section.

The bass and chords for part C of "The Sky in Shadow" (second section). Click to enlarge.

Another idea to notice is the range of the notes I’ve played so far on the bass.  I went from predominantly the 4th string all the way to this section, which uses mostly the first string.  Playing the full range of the instrument in a song can be an effective way to differentiate the sections.

Part D

The “turnaround” from the chorus is a series of two chords.  The first part of the D section is a particularly tense voicing for Cm9.  (Shown here as C dorian, or the key of Bb major).  The right hand part is an actual “Thelonious Monk” voicing for minor chords.

If you’re a strict piano theorist, you always hear to watch for notes that are a minor second apart.  Well, this voicing luxuriates in the chaos of D-Eb colliding mid-chord.  The trick here is, you have to choose your instrument very carefully.  This voicing is good for electric piano, most large acoustic pianos, and a few synths.  It’s not too great for instruments with a lot of octave and 5th overtones (eg a Hammond organ on a drawbar setting like 888800000).

The bass and chords for part D of "The Sky in Shadow" (first section). Click to enlarge.

Finally, the last chord of the chorus is a variation of the original idea that got us here.  The chord Am9 (A dorian, or key of G major) is voiced as a D major chord on the right hand and an interval of a fifth (C-G, the guide tones for the chord) on the left hand.

The bass and chords for part D of "The Sky in Shadow" (second section). Click to enlarge.