Question on a Guthrie song's

[Quidam]

You probably know this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yPEewaalik

After this post you will find a partial tab (thanks Ethan Bott). My question is:

According you, in what key is this piece?
What happen with the bar 7-8-9 and 10? Change of key? Chromatic passing tone?

Thanks for all yours comments.

http://dl.free.fr/ptU0cdaQ/guthriegovanfives.ptb



(http://www.casimages.com)

[JonR]

Basically it's A minor - or A aeolian (natural minor) if you prefer.
The opening chord is Am11 (A-G-C-D-G, 1-b7-b3-4-b7).
The arpeggios in bars 3-6 are Am7, with a passing b6 (F) - indicating aeolian mode. (Although with the absence of either B or Bb, it could be phrygian.)
Bars 7-8. The notation here is enharmonically incorrect, but the chord arpeggios in each bar are Fm7, Gm7, Abmaj7 (roots, 3rds and 7ths only, no 5ths).
Bars 9-10. This is a string of sus2 chords. Again, the notation is enharmonically confused. The chords amount to Dbsus2-Absus2-Fsus2 in each bar.
The notes all the way through bars 7-10 come from the Ab major/F minor scale - but there is no firm tonal centre, no clear keynote. (Which is no big deal. The idea seems to be merely to outline another set of notes by sketching various arpeggios, rather than establish a clear new tonality.)
At bar 11 it's back to the Am tonality.

To improvise over this sequence, I would choose the A natural minor scale on the main part, moving to F natural minor on bars 7-10.
Or you could choose A phrygian on the Am section, which is a slightly closer scale to F minor. Depends how much you want the sections to sound different.

[Quidam]

To improvise over this sequence, I would choose the A natural minor scale on the main part, moving to F natural minor on bars 7-10.
Or you could choose A phrygian on the Am section, which is a slightly closer scale to F minor. Depends how much you want the sections to sound different.

Thank you for this nice answer.

When you say "F natural minor", do you mean F aeolian? I know Am harmonic minor (A-B-C-D-E-F-G#), Am melodic minor (A-B-C-D-E-F#-G#) and A aeolian or minor (A-B-C-D-E-F-G) but what is "Am natural minor" or "F natural minor".
Thanks.

[Crossroads]

I can't answer for Jon, but I think his answer will be "yes" ... Natural Minor is so-called simply to distinguish it from other minor scales such as Melodic minor or Dorian or Phrygian etc... it's the same as the Aeolian mode.

Fantastic answer by the way Jon...I must try playing that (I rather like Guthries stuff).:)

Ian.

[Quidam]

Update. The tab is in PTB in the 1rst post.