Recently, I learned a good deal of the bridges in "Shine a Little Love." Here's a recording of bass, electric piano, and violin, along with the notation of what I played:
I used the Wurlitzer sound on my Nord Electro 5, along with a phasing effect, which the original recording seems to have. For the violin part, I used the Mellotron sound.
Recently, I learned the arpeggiated synthesizer part in "Prologue." To this, I could add the synth bass part that I learned a couple years ago.
The liner notes for the CD re-issue of Time aren't very detailed in terms of the specific synthesizers used for the album. I used my Moog Subsequent 37 for the bass part and Nord's sample of the Hohner String Melody II for the arpeggiated part. I'm pretty sure that neither of these is accurate, but they're the best I could do.
I did the notation to put in my file, and I figured that I might as well put it in the video too. Note that the synth bass part actually starts before this; I just started it where the arpeggiations begin (at ~0:39 in the original recording).
I recently learned a section of the Clavinet part in "Waterfall." This is the verse starting at ~2:18. I included the bass part too, although the rhythm for the last measure or so isn't right.
From what I can tell, Richard Tandy had a Clavinet D6. In this picture dated August 1978, it's visible at the very bottom:
(For the record: I think the other keyboards here are a Yamaha grand piano [the liner notes for A New World Record specifically list "Yamaha C7 grand piano"], a Yamaha CS-80, a Mellotron M-400, and - easier to see from an-other angle - a Moog Polymoog and a Wurlitzer 200).
From the Clavinet user manual (available here): "The register tabs on the left-hand panel are marked AB, CD and are connected to the sound pick-up for a wide variety of settings. As required, they switch both pick-ups either singly or parallel, whereby the polarity of one of the pick-ups is reversed to cancel overtones or to add them. Thus the AB and CD registers produce tone colours in every position...."
I have a Nord Electro 5, which - as far as I can tell - separates out these AB and CD tabs into four distinct sounds. To try to replicate an authentic sound, I recorded B and then overdubbed D. I'm not sure if that's what Tandy used, but I thought it sounded the closest.
Last night I learned (at least some of) the string parts at the beginning of
"Sweet Talkin' Woman." Some of the notes in the violin part either have
a trill or a lot of vibrato, and since I recorded my example using the
mellotron sounds on my keyboard, I couldn't replicate that aspect.
This ends a bit abruptly, but I think that's accurate. The original
recording seems to have a hard edit between this string section and the guitar
and bass.
Lately, I've been really into the synth part at the beginning of "Tightrope." I recently figured out about half of the violin part in the introduction, so I had enough to make it worth recording.
I had to make some instrumental substitutions. I don't really have access to a good synth sound (a Moog is near the top of my instrument wish list), so I used the B3 bass pedals setting on my keyboard. The string parts are both mellotron sounds (violin and cello). Some of the violin part is triplets, which are a bit difficult to play; I did my best.
I recorded this more from memory than anything else. I vaguely remembered this post from a couple years ago in which I mentioned that - while they're similar - the lower string part isn't exactly the same as the synth part. Had I lookt at that before I recorded my audio example, maybe I would have thought to reference the instrumental mix (a bonus track on the CD re-issue) for greater accuracy. I'm pretty confident of the synth part and what I have of the violin part though.
In December 2017, I learned the bass part and the rest of the chords for "Latitude 88 North." I think it was sometime in early summer when I finished writing out the notation for the bass part, and I intended to make a recording of it, but I kept forgetting or not having time. At least now it's winter, which is seasonally appropriate for the theme of the song.
Here's the notation of the bass part, with the guitar chords written in above the staff (as always, there's the disclaimer that I might have something wrong):
The electric guitar in my recording isn't meant to be entirely accurate. I'm pretty sure I have the solo right though; here it is in tablature (tildes [~] indicate glissandi):
I recorded the electric guitar part in one take, switching between pick-ups for the solo section, which I usually never do, and because of that, my timing is off a little bit.
Also, a bit of commentary: I don't remember when I noticed this, but coinciding with the line "Thirty-five below and fallin'" in the chorus, the bass line descends, musically giving a sense of the (metaphorically) "fallin'" temperature.
On the 1st, I learned some parts for "Blue," a bonus track on the deluxe edition of Alone in the Universe. There are still a few chords that I'm missing, but I have most of them, along with the slide guitar/piano instrumental section, which is what my recording focuses on:
There's an almost incredible amount of sustain in the slide guitar part in the original. I triple-tracked mine, but it still falls short.
While I was learning the parts, I also noticed something to write about: "shore" in the line "A million miles from the shore" has an echo effect applied to it. Musically, this gives a sense of space, those "million miles" specifically.
Last week I learned some parts for "Turn to Stone." Here are the guitar phrases and some string parts for two iterations of the chorus (starting ~2:32). I'm not sure of the accuracy of the very end of the last guitar phrase.
I've been playing clavinet recently (the clavinet voice on my keyboard, at least). I wanted to figure out a clavinet part in an ELO song, and the first one I thought of was "Showdown." I didn't actually make any progress on that, but I did figure out almost all of the chords (I'm missing only the end of the chorus). Since I'd figured out the cello part for the first two verses last August, I had enough to warrant a recording. This is just the first two verses, without the introduction.
I had to use two different keyboard settings to get the cello part: one for the bowed parts and an-other for the pizzicati notes. Compared to the original recording, I think I may have some notes in the wrong octave, and I think there might be a second cello part playing different notes. In any case, what I have is a start. This is also the first recording I've made of a song from On the Third Day.
A couple days ago, I was looking at what parts I've learned for No Answer (as of yester-day, I know at least a little bit of each song), and I discovered that I know two parts for "Look at Me Now." Last August, I learned some of the oboe phrases, and last month, I learned the first two verses of cello (the left-panned cello specifically). In order to make a recording worth it, my requirements are two simultaneous parts that last more than just a few seconds, so this qualified. I don't (yet!) play (or even own) cello or oboe, so I used electric bass in place of cello and an oboe voice on my keyboard.
I listened to Face the Music yester-day, and the piano and bass parts in "Fire on High" sounded easy to figure out. Both are just one measure repeated over and over. Rather than repeat these measures for the entirety of the track, I just played eight measures: four of piano alone and then four of piano and bass:
Perhaps I should note that my primary referent for figuring out the parts was the "early alternative mix" included as a bonus track on the CD re-issue. The piano and bass are easier to hear in that mix.
I recently learned the slide guitar parts in "Boy Blue." Since I learned a pizzicato part back in August (although I think there might be more than the one part I have), I now know enough to make a recording worth it. This is the first song from Eldorado I've recorded, although I did just a section of it:
I had to use the "pizzicato" setting on my keyboard, which isn't great but which turned out better than I thought it would, and I probably could have done the right channel slide guitar track better.
A couple months ago, I learned the piano and organ parts for the first section of "Baby I Apologize," a session outtake included as a bonus track on the CD re-issue of ELO II. I didn't really know how I would write down the parts in order to have some record of them if I forget, so I decided to film them.
I'm pretty sure I'm missing a few notes at the end of the piano part, and I don't know if I have the right chord voicings.
All month, I've been learning some parts for "Waterfall." This is only the first two minutes or so, but I know the bass part for the whole song (I'm in the midst of writing it down so I'll have some record if I forget it). I also have the piano at the beginning (which I'll admit I had to record on two separate tracks because I can't play the chords and the bass register in the right rhythm at the same time) and almost all of the slide guitar parts (although I don't play them that well). I'm still missing the slide guitar part during the middle, but my recording doesn't get that far.
I listened to All over the World: The Very Best of Electric Light Orchestra last week, and the guitar parts at the end of "Xanadu" sounded easy to figure out, so I did that this morning.
I've been going back to write down some things I recorded earlier. Yester-day, when I wrote down the chords for "The Way Life's Meant to Be," I noticed the electric guitar part, which I'm surprised I didn't figure out when I first got the chords last October. They're double-stops, but they're based on the same notes as the chords they're played above.
I also discovered that I had a couple notes in the bass part in the wrong octave.
Like last time, I double-tracked my acoustic six-string to get something of the feeling of an acoustic twelve-string (which I think is used on the track). I didn't start my two tracks at precisely the same time though, so the very beginning (just the first second or two) sounds a bit off-kilter.
I feel I'd be remiss if I didn't also mention that to-day's Jeff Lynne's birthday.
A couple days ago, I figured out the chords for "Summer and Lightning" (up until about 2:42, when things change). This morning I figured out the bass part, too, which makes listening to this a bit more interesting.
This is just the first section. I'm almost certain I don't have the guitar strumming rhythm right, but that's not a priority right now. I think it's twelve-string acoustic guitar on the record, but since the only twelve-string I have is electric, I just doubled-tracked my six-string acoustic guitar to get something of the same effect.
Last night I learned the bass part to "The Diary of Horace Wimp." There are really only two different sections: one for the verses and one for the chorus. Rather than play just the bass part for the whole song (which would be boring), I played the verse for Sunday (so I could also include the tubular bell part I learned back in April) and the chorus right after it.
While notating the chorus (I've been on a notating spree recently; plus, it just makes it easier to record since I don't have to keep everything in my head), I noticed that (starting at what the "voice from above" says) the note values become progressively shorter:
"You can do it" is in the backing vocals, and between that and the increasing frequency of the notes, there's a sense that Horace Wimp is gaining confidence in himself.
Yester-day I listened to Secret Messages for my Collection Audit project. The bass part for "Loser Gone Wild" sounded like it would be pretty easy to figure out, and I have almost all of it now. There's a faster section at the end that I haven't attempted figuring out yet. Unfortunately, the qualities that made this easy to learn also make it sort of boring to listen to by itself. The first minute or so just alternates between A and D notes. I'm not sure I have the rhythm right for the "But in the evening…" section. Here, sometimes I have a quarter rest and sometimes I hold the note. I neglected to listen carefully enough to the original recording to see what it does.
