Chart Reading Tips

Check out this video I did for those of you who struggle with reading charts.

Demystifying Chord Symbols

Here I, hopefully not too feebly, explain how the chords got their names.

To create dominant chords I used a two octave C Mixolydian scale...

CDEFGABbCDEFGABbC

C - CEG
C7 - CEGBb
C9 - CEGBbD
C11 - CEGBbDF
C13 - CEGBbDFA

To create Major versions I used a two octave C Major scale...

CDEFGABCDEFGABC

C - CEG
Cmaj7 - CEGB
Cmaj9 - CEGBD
Cmaj11 - CEGBDF
Cmaj13 - CEGBDFA

To create Minor versions I used a two octave C Dorian scale...

CDEbFGABbCDEbFGABbC

Cm - CEbG
Cm7 - CEbGBb
Cm9 - CEbGBbD
Cm11 - CEbGBbDF
Cm13 - CEbGBbDFA

If you want to go insane get Chord Chemistry by Ted Greene.

Is This Right?

Having a skill set in some form of chart preparation software like Finale or Sibelius can come in handy for many things but I learned this week it can be a help when trying to replicate a sampled guitar track.

I use finale every week to create hymn lead sheets from hymnals for the hymn service at my church, so my chops are fairly tight and ready to go. Recently I was working for a client who had sent me a track to play on. He sent me an mp3 of the track sans guitar plus a sample guitar mock up of what he wanted the guitar track to do.  The problem was that his samples had some strumming effect on them that made it pretty unclear as to what pattern he wanted me to play.

I didn't know how unclear it was until I sent him what I thought was a finished track and he informed me that it wasn't what he wanted. Usually we don't have a problem with my interpretation of his guitar parts, but in this case he was really married to the sample he sent me. Upon a closer I was even more confused. But I figured out the pattern. Or what I thought was the pattern. Opened up Finale. Created a mini chart. Took a screen shot of the chart (command-shift-4). And sent him the jpg through iChat. With the question, "Is this right?".

"Yes" he shot back immediately. I was tracking within seconds and had the files sent to him within the hour. Here's the chart I created on the fly...

Reading in the Studio

Here's a quick one...

Looks easy right?

Here were the instructions...

"I'd love (on steel string) a few different tempos, from moderately slow to moderately fast (ie, not crazy slow, nor crazy fast) of each. And ideally in the octave written and octave below. The tune (#2) can't be transposed an octave down because the D is outta range. Rather than de-tune, substitute the D for B (major 3rd above starting pitch). So that way it's G>A>B(down 4th)>F#, etc"


Got it? OK, here we go... 1, 2, 3, 4...


Reading Studies for Guitar

Reading in the Studio

The following chart was from a recent session. The producer wanted me to just play "footballs" or whole note or in this case half note chord stacks. A video of how I played through it is posted below.

Ted Greene's Chord Chemistry is a classic lexicon of chord shapes. Be warned, it's intense.

Reading in the Studio

This was a session for a film. 

"Fender sound, finger picked, gentle, ambient" I kind of approached the way Mark Knoffler might.

The composer wanted as many of these notes to ring out as possible. The chords were just guides, what he wanted was just the notes. Notice my note, a natural sign, in bar 378, probably there because I had played an Ab running through it thinking the A natural and the F7 were typos. They weren't.

The reason the bar numbers were so high is because when composers get a film it's usually a single mpg file and they drop it into ProTools or Logic or Digital Performer and then they write to that one long file. By the end of the film you could be tracking on bar 1000 or higher.

Notice the slides in bars 379 and 380. It would be difficult without a capo to let those notes ring. So I probably reached for my capo and punched in. Or I could've played the whole take with the capo on the first fret.

Reading in the Studio

Here's an interesting one.

Note the tempo, 82.9077.  Tempos like these are not uncommon when scoring to picture.

The composer is wanting me to play the first 6 notes randomly throughout the cue, where the slashes are, except for a few different spots where he wanted specific notes. Given the meters (6/4, 4/4, 5/4, 2/4, 3/4, 7/4), it would've have been a difficult chart to track had not the composer very thoughtfully added four rims shots (where the x's are) before every specific note he wanted.  Counting odd meters and being random with a given set of notes can be very difficult as you are using two different sides of your brain.  The rim shots allowed me to concentrate on the randomness.

Pretty sure I just voiced on the top four strings... E on the D-string, Bb on the G-string, open B-string, and the E and F# on the E-string.

This was tracked with massive doses of reverb on my end so it had to be done in one pass.  After a couple of run-throughs it was.