Chords for Rococo, Bela Fleck

[ernzzz]

Hi there, I was tryin to figure out this little song by Bela Fleck, and I kinda get confused on the bridge part..

http://youtu.be/1Eyg2I6To_E


The first part goes like this:

Intro: C7b5 (lydian dominant)

Main theme: Bm7, Bbº7, Am7, Abº7, G7, Gbm7#5, Fº7...

and then the little ascending wink: Gb, Ab, A, A#.. doing basically thirds

(i know it is not the right nomenclature, but i dont want to make it more confusing :P..)


Problem is when it gets to 0:33, the bass does this crazy chromatic line, and the banjo plays some diads or triads, but i cannot hear it really well..

The bass goes chromatic from G to Db, then Eb, and chromatic from D to G then C..

But what is the banjo doing?

the volume is quite low (in respect with the bass) and also the notes are in the low register, so i cannot identify it well..

Maybe i will just need to know what are those diads/triads, and i will try to work out the bassline over them with some inversions (i intend to play it on guitar..)

[ernzzz]

Haven't had the time to try to figure it out again.. but I have been thinkin about it during the day, and I have a couple of ideas..

Maybe the general main progression is so chromatic, because in fact it is implying a by 4th's descending progression, only doing the tritone sub of every single 4rth!


This could also be applyed on the 0:33 change, but this time only in the bass..

The descending line of the bass implyies this by 4ths descent using the tritone sub..

Yet at the same time, i percieve the tone change as two big chords/tonailityes.. while the banjo stays more or less in the same place for each chord, the bass does all possible things on that tonality, so its some kind of undefined potpurry of each tonality/chord..

should i change my dealer, or i'm on path?

[JonR]

I have the chords for the main theme as:

|Bm - - - |F#7+/A# - - - |D9/A - - - |E7/G# - - - |
|G6 - - - |Dmaj7/F# - - - |E#dim7 - - - |(F#7) - - - |

That's basically the same as yours, just the occasional note difference in each case.
I'm also being pedantic about the enharmonics! So you can have A#dim7 as a simplified version of the 2nd chord, but not Bbdim7 . A#dim7 is the vii chord of B harmonic minor (the scale has an A#, not a Bb).
(And in fact I think it's a little more complicated, with the D in the melody and an F# note somewhere... but A#dim7 works fine.)
Likewise, keeping a D in the 3rd chord sounds better (IMO) than Am (and of course the melody has an F#, making it even more like D9; I don't hear a G anywhere).
In bar 4, again, G#dim7 is fine, but IMO E7/G# sounds better.
I definitely hear the G6 as having an E in it (Em7/G basically) not an F.
"Gbm7#5" should be called (in this key) F#m7#5, and is in any case better written as Dmaj7/F#.
I've been seriously pedantic with E#dim7 - because it's the vii chord of the next chord, F#7 (a sub for C#7b9). "Fdim7" is OK, in fact, and you're right about the walk up in the 8th bar. There's not really a chord there, but the implication is F#7. (It's a clear chord on the repeat, before the bridge.)

OK, the bridge. Here's what I get for the chords. I'm not quite sure how many notes the banjo plays in each chord - sometimes 3, sometimes 4, I think.

|G - D/F# - |G7/F - C/E - |Ebmaj7 - Dsus4(?) - |A/E* - Eb* - |
|D5 - D/C#(?) - |D7/C - Bm - |F#7+/A# - D/A - |E7/G# - |C7/E* - - - |_____ |

* arpeggios (upward):
A/E = E-A-C#E
Eb = Eb-G-Bb-Eb (this is weird one, because the flute plays a wholetone phrase, Bb C D E natural!, sounding really off to my ears; the banjo might be playing an E natural as last note, hard to tell, but something definitely sounds wrong; Eb7 would be a normal tritone sub there, but that would have a Db, not D.)
C7/E = E-Bb-C-G

Not totally positive about the (?) ones. The "Dsus4" seems to be D-G-A (upwards); the "D/C#" could be a fuller Dmaj7, or might work as a C#dim7, or A/C#. The flute melody notes are E-D-F#.
As before, the "F#7+/A#" could be simplified to A#dim7. (The melody is A-G-F#.)
The E7/G# is a 2/4 bar, leading to the C7 arp and the break before the repeat. So the bridge is actually 10 bars, with bar 8 in 2/4.

[ernzzz]

Hey!

Thanks for the amazing answer as always

I like the way you made the chords of the first part... Specially the F#7+/A# (wich i prefeer with a natural 5th), and E7/G#..

The one i dont really hear is the Dmaj7/F, it could be the digitation i'm using, or simply the physics of intonation of my intrument, but i hear something clash with this digitation
Dmaj7/F: 2x0222

And with this other digitation it sounds a bit dull
Dmaj7/F: x9767x


BTW I been tinkering with the Bridge today and transcribed the entire banjo from 3:24... (at least thats whay i hear)

E-----7--|--------|---------|-----------|--------|--------|----------3--|-----------
B-----8--|-----7--|-----8---|--------8--|-----8--|-----8--|--------3----|--------3--
G-----7--|-----7--|-----10--|------5----|-----7--|-----7--|------0------|----3------
D--5-----|-----7--|-----7---|----5------|-----8--|-----5--|----2--------|------5----
A--------|--9-----|--8------|--7--------|--6-----|--5-----|--(4)--------|--6--------
E--------|--------|---------|-----------|--------|--------|-------------|-----------


E--------|--------|-----5--|-----5--|--------|--------|--------|
B--------|-----7--|-----7--|-----7--|--------|--------|--------|
G--7--7--|--6-----|--5-----|--4-----|--3-----|--2-----|--1-----|
D--------|--------|--------|--------|-----5--|-----4--|--------|
A--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|
E--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|

Curious thing is, the first time the bridge comes in the begginin of the song the banjo is playing the melody, not the chords.. And the bass is playing the descending chormatic lines we knew.. ("chromatic from G to Db, then Eb, and chromatic from D to G then C..")

But this time on the ending of the song, the Banjo plays the chords (following the original bass line), but on the second part of it, the bass is playing an ascending line, not a descending one!

Now this is not too improtant for the song, but i cant really transcribe that bass line! It seems it was played on a fretless bass and beyond the 4rth note i hear it clash with any of the notes on my fretboard..