Thursday 25 January 2018

Major Light, Minor Shadows: Changing a Song from Comedy to Tragedy, Part Two

I did my transposition from comedy (major) to tragedy (minor), as discussed in my January post.

Here is my original "Walk on By."

My playing is yikes!, I know. 

Below is my transposition from the original G major key to the G natural minor key. The transposition to a natural minor lowers the third, sixth and seventh degrees one half-tone.

That is, where once there was  E, B and F# is now Eb, Bb, and F.

The A section

G A B   A B   A B   G C C B  B    B   A G A  G A G A F# C C B becomes

G A Bb A Bb A Bb G C C Bb Bb Bb A G A  G A G A F   C  C Bb

And the B section

E  E   D E    D B   B   B   A A A A G B   D E   E  E    F# D B   B   B   A A A B  A D  becomes

Eb Eb D Eb D Bb Bb Bb A A A A G Bb D Eb Eb Eb F   D Bb Bb Bb A A A Bb A D

The accordion playing me does not do left hand chords well.  On accordions, chords are built into single buttons.

Writing everything down helps me.


D  D  C                                              G  D   D
B  A  G                                              E   B  A
G  F# E for Major Key A section      C  G  F# for Major Key B section    leads to

D    D  C                                              G    D     D
Bb  A  G                                              Eb   Bb   A
G    F  Eb  for Minor Key A section   C     G     F    for Minor Key B section

Below is my playing of the tragic version of "Walk on By"

No comments:

Post a Comment